Page 51 of Life After You

I fucking ache for you.

It’s pathetic, the way my body responds before my brain can catch up. The way I lean in, just slightly, like gravity’s lost its goddamn mind. I let out a laugh, but it’s weak, shaky. "Logan—"

"Don’t." His fingers flex on the back of the swing, his jaw tight, his breathing unsteady. "Don’t do that. Don’t pretend it’s not there. Don’t act like I don’t see the way you look at me."

I shake my head, but my pulse is pounding, my hands clenching uselessly in my lap.

He’s too close.Too solid.Too fucking much.

This beautiful idiot doesn’t get it.

Maybe I should pump the brakes. Maybe I should remind myself that this is temporary. That he’s leaving. That falling into Logan Dale is the kind of mistake that ruins people.

But I already know the truth.

He isn’t just a bad habit. He isn’t something I can just quit.

He’s a drug I won’t want to stop taking.

He’s my heroin.

“Logan, you’re leaving soon.” I whisper. It sounds pathetic even to my own ears.

His throat bobs as he swallows.

“I know.”

I hate how much that hurts.

I hate that I want him to tell me that he’s staying. That he’ll throw it all away—his band, his tour, his entire fuckinglife—just to stay right here.

With me.

But I won’t say it.

Because it’s selfish.

Because it’s unfair.

Because it’s not the way this works.

So, instead I sit there, gripping the bench like it’s the only thing keeping me grounded, while Logan watches me like he’s memorizing every inch of my face.

Like he already misses me.

He exhales, rubbing a hand over his jaw.

“I don’t know how the hell I’m supposed to leave you again.” The words are barely above a whisper, but they hit like a cannon.

Something snaps in my chest.

I turn toward him, and suddenly we’re too close, our knees pressing together, our breaths tangling in the space between us. My heart is awild, reckless thing, slamming against my ribs.

“Then don’t.”

Logan stills.

I don’t know who moves first. Maybe it’s him, maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the inevitable fucking gravity that’s been pulling us together since the moment he walked back into my life.

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