Page 116 of The Casualty of Us
“Freckles.” His shoulders shake with a low laugh. “Why are you mad?”
“That’s not what I told you—”
“Would you rather mehavedone something?”
“I—” My mouth snaps shut before the lie escapes, like my damn body is hesitating in it, and eventually…I just push the covers back. “I’m going to shower.”
Or escape, take your pick.
Because that knot in my chest is just unraveling more with him here, letting me breathe again, and it’s all starting to crash through with it. Because he didn’tdoanything. I can see it quite literally written into every part of him. Because this time, he’s perfect and I’m the mess, and now…now there are no excuses left but mine, are there?
The trust issues. The problems. The drama. The meltdowns.
Me. Me. Me. Me.
“Ophelia.” His fingers wrap around my wrist just as I make it to the side of the bed. “What happened?”
“I…” My face pinches up with the truth on the tip of my tongue, part of me battling for it to escape and wanting nothing more than to wrap myself up in him until I’m hidden away there, while the other is reminding me that even him being here is a risk. That he’s no safer with me than Ollie. That the right person would be able to take one look at us and see that he matters whether I like it or not. “I just…”
Fuck. Even Talan called it, and that’s when I was only texting him.
I should send him away.
I know—
“Ophelia, you’re scaring me.” The low rasp has me clenching the covers as his fingers tense around my wrist. “What the fuck happened this summer?”
I turn my head just enough to glance up at him through my lashes, and that’s what seals it right there. Heart tripping and panicking and unable to find any kind of rhythm as he stares at me like he’s about two seconds from crawling right out of his skin and into mine. Hazel eyes moving all over my face as he tries to find the answers he’s looking for under brows that are so low they’re almost touching that dark ring of lashes.
Something selfish rises in me, demanding that it needs him and leaving me a mess of things but knowing that I can’t do it either. I can’t send him away right now.
“I just need…” You. “Someone to be there,” I choke out quietly. “Just for a little bit, okay?”
Hoping that it doesn’t sound as much like begging as it does to my own ears.
“Hey.” He soothes tensely. “I’m not going anywhere, Freckles, you hear me?” I jerk a quick nod, and he leans in until we’re practically eye-to-eye as his thumb brushes across my wrist. “I’ve got you, okay? I’m here.”
“Okay.” The word leaves me in a rush of air, and some of the concern in his gaze eases, his thumb making another pass over my pulse point before he continues quietly.
“But we’re not done here, yeah?”
And it’s careful, but it’s there, the warning that he’s not going to just drop this.
It’s in the tap on my pulse point and the worry I can still see hiding in the backs of his eyes.
“I know that,” I whisper, trying to reel myself back in enough to process and plan. What said plan is going to entail exactly…no idea after this, but still… “I know that.”
Because how do you plan for someone that’s the cause and the cure all in one?
“And I missed you too, all right?” His voice drops to a hushed note, thumb giving me another light tap as my eyes try to start burning. “It’s okay to miss each other, baby, that’s kind of the point.”
Oh fuck.
“Okay.” I jerk another quick nod and drop my eyes to where the necklace is still clasped in his other hand. My stomach flips at the sight of the absolutely stunning piece, and I hesitate for a split second before reaching for it. “And thank you,” I add, closing my fingers around the top of the chain with my voice cracking as he lets go. “I love it.”
I lift my gaze back up to find his waiting there, everything about the way he’s looking at me unraveling another bit of that knot and making me stand up suddenly. “I’m going to go shower.”
“You good if I wait here?”
