Page 109 of Unravel Me

Hugging a purring Mittens against my chest, I close my eyes. “I’m gonna miss you, buddy, but I’m so happy for you.” He nudges his soft head against mine, and I press a kiss to it before securing him in the carrier.

“You can come visit him sometime, maybe,” Jaxon says, taking the carrier and following me out to reception. “He’s gonna live like a king.”

“I have no doubt.”

He pauses at the desk, looking me over. “You okay?”

“Fine.”

“You’d be surprised, but years of fuckboy behavior have taught me that when a woman says she’s fine, she’s never fucking fine.”

I manage a tired laugh, scrubbing my exhausted eyes.

“Seriously, what’s up? You look like you’re ready to crumble.”

“It’s just been a tough couple of weeks. It’s nothing.” I sniffle. “I’m fine.”

I wait for him to nod, to walk out the door with his new best friend, but he doesn’t move. Just stares at me. Waits.

“I lost a dog yesterday,” I blurt. “At school. Her name was Pepper and she was still just a baby. I held her paw while she took her last breath, and then I had to tell her mom…” Tears blur my vision, and the memory squeezes my throat. “I had to tell her mom she wasn’t going home. And all I wanted was to go to Adam, because he just listens, he doesn’t try to fix things that can’t be fixed. He lets me feel what I need to feel, and he makes me feel safe while I do it. But I’m stillsohurt. He was my safe place, but I wasn’t his.” I swipe at my cheeks. Of course I’m crying again. Feels like all I’ve done these past two weeks. “I want to be someone he’s proud to be with, but instead, it feels sort of like I was his dirty secret rather than his first choice.”

The carrier hits the desktop on my last word, and Jaxon’s arms come around me, bringing me into his chest. He holds me like that until my body stops shaking, until my tears stop coming, and when he finally releases me, I can’t look at him.

I watch out of the corner of my eye as he rounds the desk, shakes the mouse to wake up the computer, types on the keyboard. Then he pulls me back into him. I feel his chin on top of my head, and for a moment, I sink into the compassion.

“I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but I promise you everything will be okay.” He releases me, picks up Mittens, and walks to the door before pausing once more. “You were never his dirty secret, Rosie. You’re his world, and I’m pretty sure it’s stopped spinning since you’ve been gone.”

Thoughts of Adam run rampant in my mind as I watch Jaxon drive away. Footsteps approach, and Archie’s familiar whistle sounds behind me before it comes to a sudden halt.

“Rosie? What is this?”

Archie’s leaning over the desk, staring at the computer. He gestures me over with the tip of his head, and my heart tries to claw out of my chest at the video waiting for me on the screen, the caption up top.

Adam Lockwood breaks hearts everywhere: he’s taken!

The video is cued up, paused at a spot halfway through. Adam is sitting on a stool, wearing the same outfit he had on the last time I saw him.

Archie reaches for the mouse, but I grab it away.

“Jesus,” he mutters as I press Play. “I was gonna do that, bossy girl.”

“Not fast enough.”

Everything in my body rolls to a slow stop when the video starts, Adam’s heartbreaking smile on display, his blue eyes electric, the deep timbre of his voice as he talks about his life in Vancouver. My stomach squeezes like a fist at the reminder from the reporter that I wouldn’t have ever found Adam if he hadn’t re-signed to Vancouver shortly before we met.

I might’ve lived through a whole life before him, but now it hurts to imagine one without him. Because when Adam tells the camera his heart is in Vancouver, I know mine is too.

“I’ll have a lot of angry women on my hands later on if I don’t ask the question everyone wants the answer to, especially since the NHL’s resident serial dater seems to have completely disappeared off the dating scene in recent months,” the reporter says. “So, Mr. Lockwood, everyone wants to know…is there someone special in your life?”

I’m hyperaware of Archie’s stare, ricocheting between me and the video, the way everything around me falls away and slows, until all I can hear is the patter of my heart, the drum of blood in my ears. My hands tremble, and I’m nearly about to shut off the computer when Adam’s eyes come alive, a familiar spark that holds so much love, the grin that comes over his face, splitting his cheeks.

“Yeah, there is someone special. Two someone specials, actually.”

The reporter’s brows jump. “Two?”

Adam chuckles. “It’s not how it sounds. She’s got a little boy.”

“Stepdaddy Adam!” someone shouts from off camera, followed by a slew of hoots and whistles. His cheeks blaze before he ducks his head to hide his smile.

---