Page 103 of Torn In Two

Kissing Grayson had felt nice. I was attracted to him, and he clearly felt the same.

I’d been tied down so long, I didn’t want to cut my own wings.

Maybe Hawk and Hayden had recognized that before even I had. Maybe that was why they’d been so willing to share me.

I didn’t want to choose. Not yet. Not now.

I didn’t imagine I could be as lucky as Bliss and Rebel and have all of them agree to form a family with me.

I shook my head, rolling my eyes at my own ridiculousness. One kiss from Grayson, and I was already planning to include him in a new family unit? I was completely delusional. One kiss didn’t mean anything.

Though the way he rubbed my leg spoke volumes of him wanting to do more than touch me in such a PG manner.

I shivered at the thought.

Grayson glanced over his shoulder at Hayley Jade in the back seat. “She’s crashed out.”

I blinked, twisting to look at my daughter’s sweetly relaxed face, her dark eyelashes fanned out across her pink cheeks in sleep. “I wish I could pass out that quickly,” I said enviously. “We haven’t even gotten off the beach road yet.”

“You didn’t spend all afternoon running around.”

“Plus she’s been at school all week. She’s been sleeping like the dead every night. But I think it’s good for her.”

Grayson nudged me. “You’re doing all the right things. You know that, right? You’ve given her stability. A home. A big family who all love her.”

Logically, I knew that. She had safety. Endless amounts of food. Toys and games and the chance to go to school. Most importantly, the club had given her the protection and love of an extended family who doted on her endlessly.

Especially Queenie and Hawk.

I lowered my voice. “But she’s still not talking.”

“She will when she’s ready.”

Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes, and I turned away, so desperate to believe he was right.

A red pickup truck caught my eye at the end of the beach lot.

For a second, I couldn’t work out why it was so familiar.

Until a lanky young man stepped out of it, stretching his arms above his head and twisting side to side like he’d been inside the cramped vehicle too long and his limbs and joints had paid the price.

My heart thundered.

“Grayson, stop.”

He glanced at me. “What?”

We were about to pass the end of the beach lot, and then we’d be on the road up to the bluffs where it would be miles before he could safely turn around.

In that time, Kyle could be gone.

“Stop!”

Grayson stomped down on the brakes, slowing the car enough he could steer us over to the side of the road, a few hundred feet away from Kyle’s truck.

I slammed my way out of the car. “Kyle!”

But my voice was whipped away by the wind stirred up by the incoming storm.

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