“You’re speaking for me now?”
“I’m asking you to stop lying.”
“I’m not lying.”
I took a step closer before I could stop myself. “Bullshit.”
Her eyes flashed hot. “Dial down the begging, Wade. It’s not cute on you.”
There was the blade she always found when the room got too real.
My whole body went still, and Aura saw it. I knew she did. For the first time since we started this, something uncertain flickered across her face, small and fast and gone almost before it existed.
Too late.
I nodded slowly, like my body needed the movement to understand what my chest already did.
“Okay.”
Her brows pulled together. “Okay?”
“Yeah.” I bent, picked up her jeans from the floor, and tossed them onto the bed beside her. “Okay.”
Her eyes dropped to the jeans, then returned to me. “What are you doing?”
“I’m done.”
A short laugh left her, disbelieving and defensive. “Done with what?”
“This.” I gestured between us, and my hand felt too heavy. “The sneaking around. The pretending. The part where I let you act like I’m some guy you call when you’re bored and horny because it makes you feel safer than admitting you give a shit.”
Her face shut down. “Don’t psychoanalyze me.”
“I’m not. I’m telling you what you do.”
“You don’t know what I do.”
“I know exactly what you do,” I said, the words coming faster because if I stopped, I might not get them out. “Every time I try to show you something real, youmake a joke. Every time I try to take you somewhere that isn’t a bedroom, you’re busy. Every time I get too close to something that matters, you turn sharp and act like I’m pathetic for wanting more than your body.”
Her lips parted slightly, and I hated that it gave me hope. I hated myself more for wanting it.
“I tried, Aura. I tried to take you on a real date. You told me dinner sounded domestic and terrifying. I tried to take you home over break so you could see where I came from. Meet my mom. Meet Skylar and Vivi. See the part of my life that isn’t hockey, this house, or whatever version of me you can keep in the dark. You told me you didn’t do family field trips.”
My voice roughened before I could stop it, and I hated that too because she didn’t know what that offer had cost me.
“Do you understand what asking you to meet my family meant to me?”
Aura’s lips parted, but no answer came.
She didn’t know I didn’t bring people home to Crystal Falls. She didn’t know my mom would have cleaned the house twice after a double shift and pretended she wasn’t exhausted. Skylar would have acted bored while clocking every detail, and Vivi would have needed three warnings, her headphones, and the right kind of day just to handle someone new sitting at our kitchen table.
She didn’t know all of that mattered because she was worth bringing home to meet the most important people in my life.
“I tried to get you to stay the night without sneaking out at four in the morning. You said you had things to do, then spent the whole day at the ABC apartment watching true crime in my sweatshirt.”
Her throat moved, and she looked away. My chest ached so badly I almost laughed.
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “You knew.”
