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Chapter Sixteen

Addilyn

“Are you sure you have to go?” I complain as I watch Trey pull the t-shirt over his head. He shakes his head at me but it lacks any conviction, and his smile gives him away.

“I wish I didn’t but Moe needs me. I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, okay,” I say, throwing out a playful little pout. Truthfully, it’s probably best we get a little space after the things he said last night. I know that I shouldn’t like the way he laid it all on the line for me but I do, even if it still scares me. And I know I’m running out of time. I’ll have to tell him everything sooner rather than later but I just want to hold on a little longer, make as many memories as I can before he’s gone.

“I promise, I’ll be back soon,” he says again, leaning over me on the bed and pressing his lips to mine. I sigh and wrap my arms around his neck, unable to do anything other than pour everything I’m feeling into each kiss we share. When he pulls away, his eyes slowly rake down my body before coming back up, and he shakes his head.

“Damn. Sure wish I could stay, baby.”

I jump up and slap him in the chest to get him moving. “You keep looking at me like that and I’m not gonna let you leave.”

“Yeah?” he asks, his eyes lighting up, and I laugh as I start pushing him out of the room. “Will you chain me to the bed and do naughty things to me?”

“Oh my God, you’re impossible,” I laugh, and he grins at me. “But I actually need to get some work done, too, unless you want us to only be eating ramen from here on out.”

“Hey, don’t knock the ramen. It’s delicious.”

“Ew. Leave now.”

We reach the front door and he turns back to me, sliding his hand into my hair as he kisses me, damn near sweeping me off my feet. He pulls away but doesn’t release me. Instead, he leans in until his lips are right by my ear, his breath fanning over my skin, and I shiver.

“When I get home tonight, try and be naked,” he whispers, and I shudder again, nodding my head. I can think of a few fun ways to welcome him home. It hits me like a ton of bricks that we both just referred to here as his home, and I struggle to breathe as I force a smile and kiss him one last time before he leaves, shutting the door behind him.

The second it’s closed, I’m grasping at my chest like that will somehow allow air into my body. Holy fuck. How in the hell did I let this happen? I can’t even deny it. We’ve built a home here with the two of us, it’s become ours instead of just mine, and I have no idea how I let it get this far.

Maybe he didn’t mean it like that. I mean, it’s just something people say, right? Even as I think that though, I know I’m wrong. Everything Trey has done up until now has been deliberate, and I saw it all along. I knew what he was doing, and I let him do it. Jesus, what the hell am I going to do? I start pacing back and forth before forcing myself to take big deep breaths in an attempt to calm down.

Okay, so this wasn’t ideal but I’ve still got time. I can wait a few days to tell him everything, and I just hope to God that he’ll still want me afterward. Even with the certainty that he’ll lose me. As my breathing begins to slow down, I feel the calm rush through my body, and I go into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee.

As I wait for the coffee maker to finish, I think about what his reaction might be. I want to think that he’ll vow to remain by my side but who knows? Maybe I don’t even want him to. I remember one time, right after my mom was admitted to the nursing home, I went to visit her and I saw this man in the hallway. He had just finished seeing his wife, and she had no clue who he was. Even worse, she wanted nothing to do with him, she had been cruel and told him to leave and never come back. I saw the pain and regret in his eyes as he looked up at me from outside her door where he’d fallen to his knees. I don’t want that to be Trey someday. I don’t want him to ever regret me.

When the machine finishes spitting out coffee, I grab a mug and fill it up, wrapping my hands around the outside and letting the warmth sink into me, instantly feeling a little better. Just as I’m walking into the living room to sit down at my desk and get to work, someone knocks on the door. I set my coffee down and answer it. All I see when I open the door is flowers.

“Delivery for Miss Addilyn Burke,” a voice says from somewhere in the huge arrangement of roses.

“Uh, yeah. Thank you.” I take the vase from her and smile as she sighs and waves before taking off back down the steps. As I shut the door, I try to find a card but come up empty. I set the vase down on the table and just stare at the arrangement for a moment. Who in the hell would send me this many flowers? I finally spot a card off to the side and pull it out of the little stand shoved between clusters of roses and open it.

Addy,

Been thinking about you

Kyle

I toss the card back on the desk and just stare at the flowers, shaking my head. I don’t even like roses. My favorites are sunflowers. And what the hell does he mean ‘been thinking about you’? We broke up, for Christ’s sake. My phone rings and I look at it on the desk for a moment before letting out a huff and marching over to it. Between my little panic attack and the flowers showing up, I’m in a terrible fucking mood. Kyle’s name flashes on the screen, and I groan, squeezing my eyes shut for a second before slowly letting out a breath and answering.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Addilyn, it’s Kyle.”

“Oh, hey. What’s up?” I ask, trying to move this along as quickly as possible. Listening to his voice on the other end of the phone, I can’t help but wonder why I ever went out with him in the first place. There was never anything there – not like there is with Trey.

“Did you get my flowers?”

“Uh…yeah, they just got here.”