Page 144 of Help Me Remember
“I . . . I have no excuse.”
“No, you don’t.”
I hold on to his wrists as he leans his head against mine. “I was so afraid that he hurt you.”
“Whatever fear you had, sweetheart, amplify it by one thousand. That’s what I felt when you were gone.”
I lean back, staring into his deep green eyes. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“After I went crazy running through the alleyway.”
“I knew you wouldn’t let me be here alone.”
He drops his hands. “Damn right I wouldn’t have. I would’ve called the cops and had them do their job. Then Quinn and I wouldn’t have had to hope the receptionist could throw a brick through the back window. We went through all that, and you didn’t even let me rescue you.”
I force myself not to smile. “When he went into the bathroom, I wasn’t going to wait around.”
“But you knew we were coming.”
“I did, but I also thought—”
“Stop doing that,” Spencer says, not looking amused.
“Doing what?”
“Thinking. Next time you think yourself into a great idea, run it by a rational person. Blindly running to save a boy from a madman who has a gun is not a good plan.”
“No more thinking,” I promise.
He sighs deeply and pulls me to his chest. His lips press to my forehead and stay there. “No more thinking.”
“We’re safe now,” I muse.
“We are. There’s no more threat to you or anyone else.”
“For now,” I say, leaning against his strong body.
“Yeah, until you find the next stupid thing to get caught up in.”
I laugh at that and melt into him. “I love you, you know?”
“I do.”
“I like those words,” I tell him.
“Your turn to say them,” Spencer demands.
“I do.”
“I like them on your lips.” He stares down at me, something glimmering in his eyes. “Run away with me.”
“What?”
“Let’s leave. Now. We don’t go back to Rose Canyon, not as just Spencer and Brielle anyway.”
My brows scrunch together. “What would we go back as?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Cross.”
