Page 138 of Caught from Behind

Hot chocolate. Of course it’s hot chocolate.

And then hands me a Snickers bar.

My chest hitches.

“I see you,” he whispers.

“I haven’t had one,” I say, unwrapping the candy. “Not since the last time we—” I shake my head, eyes stinging.

“Is it too much now?”

I stop, consider that. Really consider it. Because this man gives me the space to. Because this man makes sure I’m safe to take that time.

“No,” I eventually say, breaking the candy bar in half and passing him one piece. “It’s…perfect.”

Because he’s here.

Because I don’t have to be anyone but myself with him.

Smiling gently, he brushes his thumb over my bottom lip. Then he hands me a cup of hot chocolate positively overflowing with mini marshmallows, and asks?—

“Will you tell me about her?”

Overhead, the stars glimmer, all those constellations she once taught me beautiful and sparkling and…not cold at all, I realize.

They blaze with memories.

With love.

With my mom.

And suddenly, more than anything, I want to tell him.

So, I recline back against the cushions, nibble on my candy bar, drink my hot chocolate with loads and loads of marshmallows, and…

I tell the man I love all about my mom.

Knox

“You never learn, do you?”

I straighten with a grunt, my legs on fire?—

Hell, my entire body is on fire.

But I don’t stop moving.

I can’t stop.

If I stop, the voices get too loud and?—

The dumbbells are ripped out of my hands and I growl, “What the fuck?”

Ivy drops them onto the rack and whirls around to face me. “The workout ended two hours ago.”

God, she’s beautiful.

Even when she glowers at me.

---