Page 91 of This

“I wasn’t sure about the skylight at first.”

I still at the sound of her voice behind me, unconvinced it’s her and not the universe playing a cruel fucking joke. The dreams are moving into full-blown auditory hallucinations. But when I spin toward the unfinished kitchen, Bennett’s leaning against a wall stud. She’s wearing the same camouflage pants she wore the day I found her, a paint-splattered T-shirt, and her hair is in a messy bun.

So fucking beautiful.

She straightens. “Then I realized I could stargaze from my living room.”

My breath quickens as I absorb the last part.Herliving room. If I could, I’d scan the place again. Search for any sign of her inside these walls. Only, right now, I’m barely capable of lifting the paper clutched in my fist.

“Why am I getting bills meant for you, Bennett?”

She looks at the sawdust-covered floor while playing with her necklace.No.Mynecklace. The chain wraps around her fingers, the silver bar dangling under her palm.

After seeing her in Colorado, I gave up the idea of getting over her anytime soon. Part of me always figured if I did leave Arizona, I’d end up in Virginia, searching for the girl who still haunted my dreams on a semi-regular basis. But now, she’s here. In Phoenix. In a house she’s remodeling.

I slowly close the distance between us. I need her to say it. To tell me what she’s doing here.

“Bennett,” I repeat. “Why am I paying for new gutters?”

“Because I was mad you never asked me to stay.” Her gaze comes back to mine. “You should have asked me, Dane. When I came back or when you were in Colorado. You never asked, not once.”

“You told me not to.”

“Well,” she says fast, “then I’m mad at you for listening when I obviously had no idea what I was talking about. Either way, you’re making it up to me with gutters. Unless you’d rather it be with floors. Although you did yell at me and make me cry last time I was here, so I should get both. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the shit you pulled the first time I drove in snow.”

Now I look around. All the renovations. “You bought a revenge house?”

I can’t help the amused smile forming because this woman is fucking certifiable, and I love every neurotic inch of her.

“No.” She pauses and reaches for the necklace again. “It’s just a regular house, but the down payment wiped me out, so the least you can do is cover the repairs if we’re going to live here together.”

I rewind and replay the last part as she continues to ramble, “We’ll need to figure out utilities and the mortgage, and your name isn’t on the deed yet—”

“Live here together?”

She looks away, hitching up a shoulder. “Only if you want—”

“I want.” The invoice falls to the floor. I grab her face in my hands before she can step back, and her eyes come back to mine. “Fuck, baby, do I want. I’m just trying to catch up. You never moved to Virginia?”

Bennett shakes her head.

“You’ve been in Phoenix the entire time.”

“At Joyce and Patrick’s.”

The avoiding and sneaking around—Keaton’s been cheating with Bennett the last several weeks. So close the entire time I’ve been missing her.

“And after dumping me, claiming you didn’t want any of this and forcing me to exist without you for months, you just bought a house for us to live in without even asking me?”

Her throat bobs when she swallows, and her chest rises faster.

I huff out a laugh, staring down at her. “You’re fucking crazy.”

She nods. “If you haven’t figured that out by now, you’re hopeless.”

My face dips down, lips hovering over hers. Torture, considering how long I’ve been dying to taste them, but a delicious kind I can end whenever the hell I want to. “Always have been when it comes to you.”

I press my lips to hers and drop my hands to the small of her back, holding her tight against me. “Stay,” I say into her mouth. “Stay, stay, stay.” I could say it all day, but she laughs, and I groan. That sound will ruin me.

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