Page 20 of California Wild

Because himself was the thing he had been running from all his life.

And now he had nowhere left to go.

He swallowed hard, blinking up at the dark ceiling. His chest ached from the weight of it.

From being alone.

From being sober.

From being stuck in the space between who he was and who he was trying to be.

His fingers twitched against his ribs, restless. He clenched his fists.

This is what it takes.

He told himself that. Every night.

Because this?

This was the price of getting his life back.

This was the part no one saw.

No one except himself.

And tonight, just like every other night, he would endure it.

One more night.

One more fight.

And in the morning, he’d get up and do it all over again.

Eventually exhaustion took over, and Jesse drifted into dreams—but they were short lived.

Within a few hours, Jesse woke up to nothing.

Not sound. Not movement. Just silence, thick and suffocating.

The kind of silence that pressed down on him like a weight, making his chest feel tight.

He blinked into the dark, exhaling slow, his body heavy, sluggish, sore from training.

Then—

A glow.

Not his work phone. That one was silent, untouched, sitting on the nightstand.

No—this was his personal phone.

Jesse frowned, reaching blindly, fingers fumbling over the screen before he brought it close enough to see.

Caller ID: Hayley.

His pulse kicked up.

For a second, he just stared at the screen.

---