Page 19 of My Last Dance

He gave me a gentle grin as he sat back across from me. “You really got beat up today, eh?”

The backs of my eyes prickled. The food in front of me started blurring.

His face went slack. “Shit, Piper, I didn’t mean to…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry!” I heaved, wiping at my face with the back of my hand.

“Oh, well, I am.” His face pinched in sympathy.

“Don’t be,” I said more hysterically. His pity was making me panic.

“Okay, I’m not.” He held his hands up in innocence.

“Good.” Tears were streaming down my face.

“Good,” he agreed, his eyes wide with confusion.

“I haven’t cried since Grand Prix and now I can’t stop,” I said, feeling helpless.

He paused for a beat. “It’s okay to cry.”

“No, it’s not,” I complained, covering my face with the long sleeves of his shirt.

“Why not? I’m not judging, cry all you want,” he muttered before moving around the kitchen to clean his dishes.

After eating—and crying—exhaustion slammed into me, making my eyelids feel heavy. I couldn’t care less where I slept so long as I could finally close my eyes.

I followed him down the hall to a bedroom with one full-size bed pushed up against the wall and two twin beds pushed up against the opposite walls. They all faced a TV at the back with a very old gaming system set up underneath it.

Kappy grinned as he followed my gaze. “JP and Colt used to sleep here so often that my mom eventually got mattresses for them, too.”

Picturing the young, innocent versions of three of them hanging out in here made a small, bittersweet smile tug at my lips. “That’s nice.”

“She’s a nice lady,” he said with a gentle grin.

You’re nice, too.I blinked the thought away.God. What was going on with my head?Instead, I settled on, “Th-thank you for coming to get me.”

“Almost choked on that, eh?” he asked with a teasing grin.

“Shut up.” I elbowed him again, struggling to tamper down the small grin pulling at my own lips.

He smirked, but his eyes remained serious. “It’s okay, P, everything’s fine.” He pointed to the full-size mattress. “That’s all you.”

I immediately shook my head. “I’ll just take the smaller—”

In an instant, he flipped the lights, then wrapped a strong arm around my waist and dumped me on the bed, making me release a yelp.

“Goodnight,” he said with a wry chuckle.

“Way to manhandle me,” I grumbled, trying to rearrange the sheets and blanket in the dark.

“Sometimes you need it.”

I blinked at the dark ceiling. “Andyouknow what I need?” I challenged. A tiny sliver of me hoped beyond all reason that he’d say yes. Because at least that would make one of us.

He was quiet for a beat. I looked over to find him staring at the ceiling as well, an arm slung over his forehead. “Sometimes.”

I didn’t know what to say back to that, so I just turned on my side and stared at the paneled wall.

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