Page 39 of My Bodyguard Neighbor
Holly stepped closer, her hand finding his."Let’s give it sometime."
"All you need," Jonah said.He kissed her, gentle and sweet."I'll be next door if you need me."
"I know."
Holly went into her apartment alone.The space felt smaller somehow.Or maybe she was just seeing it with new eyes.The painting she'd been working on before everything started still sat on her easel.The angry reds and blacks that had been her scream against her father's control.
She didn't want to finish it.
Instead, Holly pulled out a fresh canvas.Stared at the blank white surface.And for the first time in weeks, she had no idea what to paint.
That was okay.She had time to figure it out.
She had time to figure out a lot of things.
Her phone buzzed.A text from Jonah:Sweet dreams.
Holly smiled and set the phone aside.They had all the time in the world to figure out what normal looked like for them, what their relationship looked like outside of life-or-death stakes.
But she was hopeful.
And that, Holly decided, was enough for now.
Chapter Ten
Two weeks later
Holly stood in front of her easel, brush hovering over canvas, trying to capture the way morning light filtered through pine trees.Not the cabin where she'd hidden.Not the place where men had died trying to kill her.Just trees.Light.The way beauty existed even in spaces that had held violence.
Her apartment smelled like turpentine and coffee.Normal smells.Safe smells.She'd been painting every day since coming home, working through everything that had happened in the only way she knew how.
The angry reds and blacks of her old work had given way to something more complex.Blues that shifted to purple in certain light.Greens that held both life and shadow.Her art professor would have called it growth.Holly just called it survival.
Her phone sat on the counter, screen dark.Jonah had texted every day.Good morning.Good night.Updates about his new business venture.Nothing that demanded a response, which somehow made Holly want to respond more.
But she hadn't seen him since that first night back.Hadn't gone next door.Hadn't invited him over.She needed space to remember who she was outside of fear and adrenaline and a man who made her forget everything except how much she wanted him.
