Page 64 of Last Chance Love

“Or you could just sleep.”

“Or maybe I don’t want to sleep through the night before I’m ready.”

“And you call me stubborn.”

“They do say it takes one to know one.”

I rolled my eyes, grabbed the latest book I’d been reading, and flipped it open. However, it didn’t take long for my thoughts to drift from the book and return to the soft sounds. It took another twenty minutes before I realized I had read only a few pages and had been rereading the last one for about five minutes.

“My brain is not working tonight,” I said, putting the book on my chest and sighing. “Doesn’t want to read.”

“What are you reading anyway? Or attempting to read.”

“Oh, uh, this series about a world where supernatural creatures are real and were hiding among humanity for generations. But some shit went down, and now everyone’s integrated. Follows this woman, a witch, a bounty hunter and mercenary wrapped into one.”

“Hmm, action?”

“There’s some romance. Quite a bit, but it’s not the focus. The love of her life died pretty horribly in the last one.”

“Geez,” he said, pushing himself up to look over the edge of the bed. “Depressing.”

“She’ll bounce back,” I said with a smirk. “She’s tough. And not one to give up easily.”

“Sounds like you’re enjoying it, so why the struggle?”

“I don’t know.”

“I bet you do.”

“Okay, Mr. Know It All.”

He chuckled, resting his arms on the bed and then his head on his arms. “I don’t know, I just know something’s up. Might as well tell me what.”

I sighed and closed my book, knowing I wouldn’t get any reading done anyway. “I just…I got used to having you around. It's weird that it only took a week to happen, but here we are. And then I just…I haven’t really been, like, thinking about it, but it’s been on my mind. So it’s kind of weird just to lay around like we did all week.”

Getting it out made me feel downright stupid. Of course, there wouldn’t be any fanfare for him not returning to my cabin. There hadn’t been much for him coming to stay for a week. Unless you counted my getting crushed by a wall, I didn’t count that. I sounded like my teenage self all over again, except all the internal fretting was now on the outside.

Reed watched me for a moment before pushing himself onto his feet and sitting on the edge of the bed next to me. It was the closest we’d allowed ourselves to get, and I tried not to focus on his butt lightly pushed against my hip. “I honestly didn’t know if you’d want to make a bigger deal out of it than I already did.”

“Dinner is supposed to be a big deal?”

“A customized meal I had a hand in seemed almost too much.”

I frowned. “You’ve never done too much for me.”

“Really?” he asked, making himself more comfortable, which resulted in pushing back against me more. “Because you always gave me shit for doing too much for you.”

“Well, alright, I guess I did,” I admitted. “And probably always will. I just…I complained, but I didn’t really mean it.”

“Is that so?” he asked with that smirk that I loved and hated, making me even more aware of his presence so close to me.

“It is,” I said, propping one leg up and beginning to wiggle it back and forth. “We both know I’m bad at expressing myself.”

His eyes darted from my face to my leg. “Well, I guess that’s where it comes in handy that I’m occasionally good at reading you then, isn’t it?”

“That…probably comes in handy,” I admitted with a chuckle, still bouncing my leg.

“Would it help if I said I’ve been thinking how strange it will be to be away from you?” he asked with a small smile. “That I’m almost sad about it?”

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