Page 135 of California Wild

It was never enough.

But god, it was still everything.

Her fists stayed clenched against his chest, her forehead against his, breathing his air, caught in his silence.

Do better, she wanted to scream.

Say something.

But Jesse never had the words.

He only had this—his touch, his hold, the way he gripped her like if he let go, he’d unravel completely.

And Hayley—fucking Hayley—just stood there.

Held by a man who never knew how to keep her.

Loved by someone who didn’t know how to say it.

And still—still—she leaned into him.

Hayley didn’t fight him when he led her back to bed.

She should have. Should have resisted, should have held onto the anger burning through her veins like fuel, should have clung to the reminder that this—this cycle, this pain, this endless loop—was exactly why they didn’t work.

But Jesse didn’t take from her this time.

He didn’t push, didn’t crush her with his weight or drown her in kisses meant to erase the damage rather than fix it.

He just pulled her under the covers, wrapped her against him like it was the only thing keeping him sane, and held her.

No words. No apologies.

Just silence.

He kissed her shoulder, his lips warm, lingering, sending a shiver down her spine, but he didn’t try to go further.

She lay stiff in his arms, her mind spinning. It felt wrong. But it felt right. The heat of his bare chest against her back, the slow, steady rise and fall of his breathing, the strong, calloused hand that drifted absently over the curve of her stomach.

His fingers traced soft patterns there, reverent. Like he was memorizing the life growing inside her.

Like he was grounding himself in something real.

Hayley pressed back into him, waiting for him to escalate things, to close the distance between them the way he always did. But he didn’t.

Her brows furrowed, lips parting as she glanced back at him. “This is new… not trying to fuck me?” Her voice was teasing, but underneath it, there was something real. Something raw.

Jesse exhaled roughly, his breath warm against the nape of her neck. His fingers traced slow, lazy circles over her stomach.

“Because,” he said, voice hoarse, “It used to be how I fixed things with us. I don’t want it to be that way anymore.”

Hayley stilled.

That was new.

She turned slightly, just enough to meet his gaze in the dim light. “What’s changed?”

Jesse’s expression was unreadable. Heavy. “Everything.”

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