Page 189 of Love Me

And truer words have never been spoken. I feel him tense next to me.

“Baby.”

“Two weeks. We’ll manage that, but afterward, no more separation.”

I don’t even care if we’re codependent. I don’t want to change that.

“Promise.”

He backs me into the mattress and says, “I promise.”

He pulls my bottom lip through his teeth. “I love everything about you. I am irrevocably crazy about you.”

“Good, the feeling is mutual.”

We both smile. It’s a small, thoughtful one.

We might have won our freedom, but the demons are still lurking around us.

Saying goodbye to Celine for two weeks fucking guts me.

My arms tighten around her as I stare at the car where her parents are waiting for her.

She places a tender kiss on my chest before I lift her from the ground.

“Go, before I glue you to me.”

“I wouldn’t even mind.”

With one final deep and passionate kiss, I place her down. When she reaches the car, she turns around, patting the necklace and mouthing, “I love you.”

I mimic her gesture and stay outside our house until they disappear from view. Sitting at the top of the stairs, I hold my head between my hands.

I have no clue how I ended up with this perfect woman who owns my every heartbeat.

If it were up to me, I would have put her in the car, driven straight to our house, and returned years later.

“Afraid she’s not coming back?” Hunter smirks.

“Fuck you, she will.”

“Yes, because she’s mad about you.”

Hunter offers me a bottle of beer. We clink them, and he says, “You could wallow in self-pity now or do something productive.”

“Like what?”

“Like finding your father. I will not look over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”

“Man, I think you need to get a life. Period.”

He glares at me, but he has a point. My phone rings and I answer my mother. Her cries pierce my ears. “Mother, what happened?”

She’s crying too hard for me to make out her words. I hop on my bike and drive toward the city, parking in the underground garage of my parents’ downtown penthouse.

I rush toward the elevator and when the doors slide open on the top level, my mother’s on the floor, looking disheveled, an empty bottle next to her.

Bending down at my waist, I scoop her up and place her on the couch.

---