Page 44 of California Wild

“I was so far gone I barely knew who I was,” he said. “Half the time I didn’t know if I’d wake up in my bed or some stranger’s. That’s what you’re chasing right now, Hayley. The wreckage.”

“No,” she said, fast, desperate. “I’m chasing the part of you that loved me.”

He went still.

Her hands were on his chest now, his heartbeat wild under her palms. His eyes were fire. His jaw clenched. And then—his voice cracked.

“I did,” he said. “So much it scared the shit out of me.”

She froze.

He looked at her like he wished he hadn’t said it. Like it slipped out from a part of him he couldn’t keep locked up anymore.

“I’d have the most beautiful girl in my bed,” he said, “and I’d still go looking for the high. Because loving you made me feel too fucking much.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“I hated you for it,” he whispered. “Hated how you saw me. Hated that you could look past all the bullshit and still believe there was something worth saving.”

“Was there?” she asked, tears catching in her throat.

He didn’t answer.

Instead, his hand slid to the back of her neck, his forehead pressed to hers. They stayed there like that—quiet, trembling, too close.

And just when she thought he might kiss her—

“You’re leaving in two days,” he said.

Like it undid everything.

Like it rewound the clock.

Hayley stiffened.

“I forgot,” she admitted.

“I didn’t.” His voice dropped. “I’ve been counting every fucking hour.”

The silence yawned between them.

And then—he stepped back.

Hands falling away.

Warmth gone.

“You should forget me,” Jesse said.

The words weren’t cold. They were broken. Fractured.

She stood there, blinking against the tears in her eyes. “You think I don’t want to?”

He looked wrecked.

And still—he didn’t ask her to stay.

Hayley turned, heels hitting pavement, each step harder than the last. Her chest ached. Her throat burned. She felt like she was bleeding under her skin.

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