Page 21 of Stargazer

“Ahhh, so she knows about me then? I wonder what incredible things you’ve told her.”

She glared at me. “You’re unbelievable.”

“I know. It’s one of my many charms.” I folded my arms across my chest, looking down at her with giddy amusement from the bickering that I had missed, even if it had only been a few days.

“Good to see nothing has changed,” she declared.

“Why change what works?”

“Oh my god.”

I grinned at her. A pure, delighted grin.

Fuck I missed this girl.

She sighed. “Okay, well I don’t think hanging around here for the rest of the day is an option given how you greeted the pack. So let’s head home and get you introduced to mum and Celeste and then settled in. We’ll need to make amends with the pack on your behalf at some point, since we’ll be working with them.” She eyed me with adorable annoyance. “But we might need to give Zander a day to simmer down. Hopefully that will help him not want to kill you.”

“Please, like he could.”

“So not the point.” She glared at me.

“Alright, alright.” I grabbed her face again. “I missed you, Supernova.”

CHAPTER 9

VENUS

This was the second time my face had been held today … by two different guys.

What on earth was my life?

And why was this all happening to me at once?

I couldn’t help but lean into Griffin’s touch, the tiny sparks flaring to life along our joined skin. I waited for the guilt that had plagued me earlier with River’s loving touches to hit me … but it never came.

What the fuck did that mean?

I didn’t know what any of this meant anymore. What to make of it.

Fuck, Griffin’s choosing you. That’s what it meant.

I had this whole plan to talk to him. To smooth things over, make sure things weren’t weird and try to salvage our friendship. But this meant that he didn’t want to just be friends. That he didn’t want to be casual anymore either?

He wanted more with me. A relationship. Something that I thought was so out of reach when it came to this enigma of a man.

Yet he was willing to try now.

And I had this other guy—one that I’d loved my whole life—waiting for me no more than a quarter mile away. One that had assumed that now that things weren’t as messed up as they had seemed, and that we had vowed honesty, meant that we were on our way to mending our broken relationship. And if we were being honest, after being back, I had somewhat assumed the same.

I had never thought that Griffin would come for me. Even though he had told me before that he would. After that rogue attack, he explicitly told me that he’d always come for me. I just thought that I had blown it and that his hurt would outweigh that promise he’d unknowingly made.

This—Griff and I—had been my new normal. This was what my life consisted of for the last couple of months. And I had loved it. Loved every minute with him.

And having him here, seeing him come for me, felt pretty damn perfect.

But I couldn’t make this decision. Not yet.

I was having to deal with this all a lot sooner than I’d anticipated.

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