Page 64 of Xavier

As soon as I’d gotten home, I crawled into bed with my ice pack and my phone, determined to shut out the rest of the world for the foreseeable future.

While I was glad Kate and I had come to some sort of understanding and agreement between us, I was damn exhausted—both physically and emotionally. Much more so the later part.

“I’ll survive,” I finally answered.

Probably not the answer he was looking for, but that’s all I could manage to give for now. My brain was too mushedfrom everything that had happened within the past twenty-four hours. I desperately wanted to pass out and go to sleep but unfortunately my body seemed determined to keep me awake regardless of how fried I felt.

“Too bad I can’t give you one of my sleeping pills,” Gage mumbled. “I knew I should’ve slipped one in your bag before you left.”

I smiled a little. “As much as I love that you think of me, I’m glad you didn’t. I really wasn’t in the mood to spend the entire day in TSA jail trying to explain a mystery pill.”

“Okay, you have a point.”

As soon as I’d crawled into bed, I’d called Gage, not caring if he was busy with work or still sleeping. I’d needed to hear the sound of my boyfriend’s voice, even if it lulled me to sleep. Call me childish or clingy, I didn’t care.

He had a knack for calming my nervous system down even without the offer of drugs.

“I miss you,” I sighed.

“I miss you, too.” His voice sounded somber.

While neither of us could’ve predicted our planned fun-filled week to come crashing down around us, I was glad that no matter what, Gage always took things in stride. He never once made me feel bad about leaving or whined to try and convince me to not follow my gut in bringing Dexter home.

“You and the twins doing okay?”

“Yeah. Asher finally came home last night around two. He was so vague in what he was doing that I felt like some crazy disgraceddetective trying to suss out clues as to where he was and with who all night. Of course, Grey was no help.”

I huffed out a laugh. “You’re such a helicopter mom.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

Despite my teasing, that was one of the things I loved about him. He showed his care through his overabundance of worry and love—a man with his heart stitched onto his sleeve.

“I love you, Gage.”

I could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “I love you, too. Get some sleep, okay? Call me when you get up. I’ll have my phone on me.”

I breathed out slowly as my body finally started to relax. Almost like it’d been seeking permission to give in and finally rest like I’d be dying to since getting on a plane early this morning.

Listening to the sounds of Gage on the other end of the phone, my body finally fell limp and I slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER 25

Xavier

Waking up some hours later,my body felt less like it’d been run over by a truck and more like I had a hangover from a night of partying—way more manageable in my opinion.

Rolling to sit up, my ice pack, now warm to the touch, slid from my forehead and slapped down into my lap. The room was dark, thanks to my blackout curtains that I’d been smart enough to draw over the windows before crawling into bed.

My phone was somewhere buried under my covers and most likely had a message from Gage waiting for me that I’d answer as soon as I had some food in me.

After blinking the sleep from my eyes, I shoved the covers off of me to roll out of bed. The clock on the nightstand read six-thirty on the dot, which meant I slept almost a full ten hours without waking up once.

As impressive as that was, my body was definitely feeling it given the stiffness in my bones from not moving at all while I’d been passed out. Clearly I’d needed it, though.

Despite the still lingering headache, I did feel better. More clear headed. More in control of my emotions. Less likely to snap and go on a murderous rampage.

That last one might still be up for debate.

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