Page 135 of Switched

“Okay, fine.” I unlock the apartment door and Gus steps into the hallway in front of me.

It’s dark out here, and completely silent. It must be after 1 a.m. by now.

It’s hard to believe Ben was out here a few hours back, acting like an asshole and crying like a baby.

He probably left a little while after his hissy fit. We don’t even come across the broken bits of his phone on the stairs so he must have gathered them up before he left the building.

Clearly, he didn’t bother calling the cops, so I’m glad we didn’t involve them, either.

We wouldn’t have had half as much fun if I’d had to spend the first couple hours of my heat waiting around for cops and having to make coherent statements while dealing with those weird stomach cramps.

I lock the apartment door behind us, and Gus insists on walking ahead of me, only letting me move forward when it comes to any doors that I need to open for him. I still think I could have helped carry the boxes, but I’m not going to argue with him about it. So, we end up taking four trips back and forth rather than two.

I don’t have any complaints about that, really.

It’s a nice night, and I’m in good company.

I’ll admit I’m glad when we’re finally getting into the car for the drive home though.

I doze off a little on the kind of long journey back, and we leave the boxes in the car once we’re parked in the driveway. I smile up at the house as we walk down the path toward the front door.

I guess from now on this is what I’ll be calling Home Sweet Home.

Chapter seventy-eight

Bishop

I’m already awake when I hear Rueben storming down the staircase, probably because I barely slept at all last night. At first, I was worried that Sapphire might never warm to us after … well, after we basically thought her twin sister was our mate for three years.

We pursued Scarlett without really stopping to consider that she wasn’t a good match. We never once questioned the connection we felt, and that was our biggest mistake.

We can say our situation was unprecedented, but we also didn’t try to look into what it might mean if a fated mate doesn’t feel like the right match. We might have realized there could be more than one answer if we had. We could have avoided hurting our true mate and making her reluctant to be around us.

That’s the realization that really stings.

Then, the later it got, the more I started to worry about Sapphire and Gus.

I knew the chances were good that Sapphire’s first heat would start while they were alone together, but I didn’t expect Gus to forget about calling or at least sending a text message.

Eventually, I heard the Jeep pulling in out front, and I went out to the hallway window to put my mind at rest. When I saw them exiting the car, I could rest easy knowing they were home safe.

I went back to bed and tried to clear my head after that, to finally get some sleep.

It didn’t happen, and I don’t even really know why.

All I could seem to do was lie there on my back staring at the ceiling.

Like I’m basically still doing now.

Sighing, I get up, and stretch.

I’m tired, but I’m not sleepy.

Coffee will probably fix that problem.

I get showered and dressed before I head downstairs for my first hit of caffeine.

Rueben’s still in his shirt and shorts from last night, and he’s having a casserole dish full of his favorite cereal, apparently.

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