Page 133 of They Break Beauty

“Yeah. Yeah, we are.”

I eased myself onto his bed and slumped down with a heavy sigh, exhaustion finally getting the best of me. “Thank goodness. Being at odds with you… I hated it. I always hate it.”

He smiled and perched on the edge beside me. Reaching out, he stroked my hair. “Good thing it’s so rare then, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

I went to move, telling him, “Anyway, I’ll leave you to it and—”

He grasped my shoulders. “Chill. I can see how exhausted you are. Just take a load off for a while.”

Then he was easing me down into his bed and covering me with the blankets.

I smiled to myself. Tucking me in.

“Okay,” I murmured.

He settled onto the bed over the top of the covers and rolled onto his side next to me, propping his head up with his elbow on the pillow.

Reaching out and fingering my hair, he told me, “Take a nap, relax.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” I answered wearily.

I was spent.

I hadn’t slept last night because of the damage control I’d had to do, and now it was hitting me.

My eyes grew heavy and soon enough I couldn’t keep them open at all.

The last thing I was aware of was Colt nuzzling against me, before sleep took me.

The sound of my white noise machine was a soothing soundtrack as I eased awake.

I slowly opened my eyes and confusion set in as I found myself tucked up tightly in his zebra-print sheets. I was still in his room then, where I remembered falling asleep in his arms.

But the white noise?

It took me a moment, but then I saw my machine on the floor beside the bed.

I smiled to myself, touched that Colt had specifically brought it in here for me to help me sleep longer and get the rest that I’d needed.

I blinked past the bleariness as I became more cognizant and awake with every passing second, and I took in his skull-and-crossbones clock high in the corner.

Wow. I’d slept for four hours straight.

So much for it merely being a nap. That was almost a full night’s sleep for me.

I extricated myself from the cocoon and pushed up into a sitting position against the headboard, noting that I felt a hell of a lot better.

I also noticed the scrap of paper on the duvet beside me with my name scrawled on it in Colt’s handwriting.

I snatched it up and opened it to read:

Sleep as much as you need, all is well here with Brianna. She’s gonna teach me how to make a dragon origami thingy and then I’m taking her into the studio as I work on my newest song, ‘I Remember’. Didn’t get to tell you about it with the distance between us, but it’s about her and Lev’s relationship, all shmaltzy and shit, but with my usual hard yet raw edge. Speaking of, she’s a fan of my genre, post-grunge. Told me her playlists are full of post-grunge bands from the noughties. How fucking perfect, right? Anyway, rest up, brother. We’re well on the way to being good now. Just keep up with what you’re doing now, no more shutting down, yeah? XOXO. Colt.

Relief coursed through me.

One relationship on the mend, thank goodness.

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