Page 71 of Wilder Puck
I take a shuddering breath. “I'm being evicted.”
“Shit,” he says. “Shit, Baddie, there’s something I have to tell you.”
At the same time, I’m saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing now, Ry.”
Ryan's jaw clenches, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “I'll talk to your landlord, Ads. I'll fix this.”
But I'm already shaking my head, fresh tears stinging my eyes. “I have thirty days to get out.”
“I’m going to fix this for you.” He looks determined, his hands falling to grip my shoulders. “I can help. I can–”
“Can what?” I interrupt, suddenly so tired I can barely stand. “Throw money at the problem? Use your big, bad hockey star clout to strong-arm him into submission?”
He flinches, hurt flashing in his eyes. “That's not–– I didn't mean.”
I sigh, scrubbing a hand over my face. “I know. I'm sorry. That wasn’t fair.”
“Hey.” He tilts my chin up, forcing me to meet his gaze. “You don't have to be fair right now, Ads. You're allowed to be angry. I’m sorry.”
“I feel so lost, Ry. It’s not only the eviction.”
He pulls me into him. “Are you going to be mad if I suggest you move in here?”
I chuckle against his chest. “Move into the guestroom?”
He looks down at me and shakes his head sincerely. “My room.”
My stomach sinks like a trampoline park with a thousand kids jumping at one time. “What?” I mutter.
“Yeah,” he says softly.
I remove myself from his arms. My heart is racing ridiculously fast as I stare into his eyes.
“I know what you’re going to say, so don’t say it,” he says. “Please hear me out. I know you want your own space. If youmove in here, it can be temporary, but honestly, you’re here all the time. It’s close to your coffee shop. And I want you to be here.”
I stare at him in disbelief. What if he gets tired of me? What if I lean on him too hard, need him too much? What if he wakes up one day and realizes I'm too broken, too fucked up to be worth the effort? God knows it wouldn't be the first time someone's left me behind.
“I'm scared,” I whisper, confessing. “About us.”
He goes still. “Us? I’m not going anywh––”
“Ry, you are the best thing to ever happen to me.”
“Addison.” He says my name like a prayer, his arms banding around me until there's no space left between us.
“I overheard your dad,” I admit. “I didn’t mean to, but he really doesn’t approve of me, does he?”
“My dad doesn’t get a say in this. I feel what I feel. Ads, you're not going to lose me. Not ever.”
“You can't know that.” I squeeze my eyes shut, hot tears leaking from beneath my lids. “People leave. Even when they don't mean to, even when they promise they won't…they leave.”
“I won't,” he says like a promise, his voice cracking with the force of it. “I will never leave you, Ads. You're, fuck, you're the best thing to ever happen tome.”
My heart stutters in my chest, hope and fear tangling into a painful knot. I want to believe him. I want it so badly I can taste it. But the fear is hard to shake.
“I'm a mess to live with,” I choke out, my fingers curling into the waistband of his sweats. “I leave out my snacks until they go stale, the shower drain will clog from my hair, and if some beautiful woman from the bar wants to meet you, I might just give you her phone number. I don’t know how to be a girlfriend, someone you deserve. I only know how to be your friend.”
“Then we'll figure it out together,” he says, pulling back to cradle my face in his hands. His eyes are blazing. “Baddie, I want to be worthy of you too. I'm not expecting you to be perfect. I'm not expecting this to be easy. But I know, down to my fucking bones, that you're worth it. That we're worth it.”
