CHAPTER 28
Hazel
I cannot believeI am waking up in a strange bed again.
I roll over with a smile though, ready to tease him a little, but I find myself alone. A quick look at my phone tells me it’s barely six o’clock, so I’m not running late—yet. But I need to get out of here pretty quickly.
I heard what Campbell said, but it still just baffles me she’d bethatunderstanding. Technically, she doesn’t need to know, but I’m done with all the secrets, all that stuff. It’s legit driving me insane trying to play both sides of every fence. I always thought I had principles, and could stand on those no matter what, but life is weird. It’s gray a lot of the times, and not black and white.
I’m obviously not going to give her the filthy details, but if she asks, I’ll tell her the truth. It’s not like we don’t have enough to focus on today. I’m going to need to drink at least a gallon of hot tea with honey if there’s any hope of my voice holding out. The moaning last night probably didn’t help.
My cheeks pinken a little thinking about it. How does he do that to me?Uhh, he let you do it to yourself, really.
I feel like I’m living two different lives right now, and I’m not sure how to feel about either of them. How am I supposed to make this work? That was what we were supposed to do last night.
Hash things out, form a plan. Some kind of logical path forward.
Not have sex and fall asleep like we’re a couple and nothing else is wrong in the world.
What if he’s the man I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with? What if this is it and I blow it? I might be young, but it feels so perfect. Look what we’re up against and we still want each other. When I think about it—really think, weighing it in my heart—it feels like we’re meant for each other.
A door opens elsewhere in the apartment, and I sit up in bed. “Paxton?”
“Who’s Paxton?” A deep voice booms through the apartment. “The hell are you doing here, lady?”
My heart nearly stops.
He appears a moment later, laughing uncontrollably, giant shoulders bouncing, holding a paper bag that smells like heaven is waiting inside, along with a tray with two coffees. “Figured you’d be hungry. I know I am.”
“Fresh bagels?”
“They appear that way.”
I snatch one away and quickly bite into the thick, chewy bagel and it tells me he’s right. It’s still warm, almost too hot.
He snickers. “Aren’t you going to put anything on it?”
“How many did you get?”
“Six.” He’s really enjoying himself, watching me.
“I’ll put some on the next one. Takes too much time right now.”
“Nice.” He hands me a coffee.
I taste it and groan my approval. “God, is that white mocha? Extra espresso?”
“Yep.” He nods a few more times.
“You have incredible instincts.”
“Agreed.” He sits on the bed, taking his own coffee and bagel before unpacking plastic cutlery and cream cheese from the bag. “Guess you have a pretty big day ahead of you.”
“I do.” I know we just had sex and discussed nothing last night, it still feels like we’re on good terms right now.
“So do I.” He winces a little before biting into his bagel. “Meeting with my legal team.”
“You know something...” I set down the food in favor of turning my full attention to him, because he deserves that much at least. “I know what you have to do. I won’t take it personally, I promise.”