Page 31 of Drifting Hearts
It was stupid of me to allow this little break from reality to continue, but exhaustion tugged at me and I went to him, rolling onto my side so I was the little spoon and my broken arm wasn’t being squashed underneath me. Kieran grabbed an extra pillow and put it in front of me, tucking it carefully under my arm. Then he pulled the covers up from the foot of the bed where they’d been kicked.
The light stayed on and I closed my eyes, wondering if I could sleep without it, cocooned like this in Kieran’s arms. Kieran, who was asleep in a matter of moments. His breathing deepened and the arm he’d wrapped around me grew heavier. I liked how secure I felt, but hated that it was temporary.
Sleep should have come easy for me. My body felt like I’d been filled with cement, but my mind was racing. Dreaming. Thinking. Worrying. Wondering what life would be like when I woke up. Either nothing would change, or everything would and I couldn’t decide which one I wanted more.
Chapter 16
Kieran
“You look like shit,”Shane said as he dropped in the seat across from me.
I’d gone out for breakfast at Bennett’s diner every Friday morning for years now, so it wasn’t hard to track me down. And Shane might not have needed to track me down had I not been avoiding everyone. I lifted my gaze from my phone and shot him a dirty look before returning my attention back down at the screen.
“Nice to see you too.” I scrolled through the photos of my ruined truck. They’d found it burned to a crisp in a gravel pit outside of the town it was stolen in. Apparently, it had been a joyride gone bad.
The past week had made me feel like I was going insane. After renting a car and driving home, I’d left Clay at Mom’s and gone about my business as if nothing had ever happened between us. Well, I would have liked to say that’s what I’d done. In truth, I dropped Clay off and then ignored his existence entirely.
The week had been hell. This morning when I woke up, I realized that not only did I miss Clay, but that I missed sleeping next to him. And we’d only done that once. I’d all but abandoned him when we got back to town, and my ghosting him had me hating myself more than a little. The result was an increasingly bad mood, made only worse by learning the fate of my truck.
But even my truck’s demise wasn’t enough to distract me from the fact that I liked Clay more than I wanted to. More than I should, considering his past. But it was hard for me to reconcile that he was the same person who’d ruined his business and burned his life to the ground with the sweet, funny man I went on that road trip with. The same scared, trembling, trusting man I had sex with later.
And that was the problem. I felt like I’d taken advantage of him. Clay had been scared and we were alone, and all day I’d done nothing but think about how much better he looked than he used to. How even his hair was shinier now, how although he still rarely smiled, but did so for me and how I treasured every one like it was a gift.
“Did they find your truck?” Shane asked.
Ethan came by and poured a coffee for Shane. I shook my head. I’d already had far too much caffeine and it wasn’t even eight in the morning. I furrowed my brows and looked at Shane.
“What are you doing out of bed before noon?”
Shane’s expression said it all. My absence had been noted. And if Shane noticed, even though he was tangled up in Asher all the time and unaware of much else lately, everyone else had likely noticed too. Especially Clay.
“Did they find your truck?” Shane asked again instead of answering my question.
I opened the text message I’d received from the officer and slid my phone across the table.
“Shit.” Shane looked stricken when he saw the photos of my burned-up truck. “Guess you’re going shopping.”
“I might get a car this time. Or maybe an SUV. I haven’t decided yet. I don’t really need a truck.”
A car would be better on gas. And if I was going to ever go on that road trip, I’d want something that got decent mileage.
“Maybe I’ll get a hybrid.”
“Whatever you need, man. I couldn’t live without my truck.” Shane slid my phone back across the table. “Mom says Clayton gets his cast off next week.”
I nodded and took a drink of my coffee to prevent myself from saying anything. Clay was nervous about the cast coming off, but I didn’t know if that was information he wanted shared around. He’d already had the entire Taggart family up in his business already.
“Have you heard from Brodie?” I asked, steering the conversation to safer territory.
“He sent Archer some pocket-sized art prints he got from a street vendor in Rome.”
“Ah, so he’s still in Europe.”
“Again. He was in Africa last month.”
“I can’t keep up. But maybe we can convince him to come home for Mom’s birthday.” Going on an extended vacation the way Brodie had done wasn’t my style. I’d go too stir crazy if I didn’t have something to keep me busy and after a while I doubted sightseeing would cut it. But I still wondered what it would be like to pack a bag and take off, just me and a car, maybe a convertible. I had visions of driving along the West Coast, the salty ocean air whipping through my hair.
And suddenly I wasn’t alone in that fantasy. Clay was next to me, riding shotgun with his arm draped out the window and the wind blowing his hair. My chest constricted and I had to resist the urge to rub the ache out of my sternum.
