Page 21 of Only Ever You

“You could have all of those things over there, too.”

He could. He could have a wife and the white picket fence. But there was one thing that he wouldn’t have. One person he couldn’t even imagine leaving behind.

Bash knew he shouldn’t pin his plans on someone else, especially someone who was just a friend, and his reasons for staying were only a fraction abouther, but the thought of not feeling Faye in his arms as he hugged her tightly each week, or missing the beam of her smile when he surprised her at work, crippled him so much that it was hard to breathe.

That alone should tell him what he needed to do.

He was thirty. And though Faye was right, he didn’t need to rush to the starting line of a wife and children, even if he was doing little about it, he was more than ready.

He was incomplete. A family was a piece missing from his puzzle, and he was being drawn inexplicably to find it.

“If you want to go then I’m not going to stop you. I’ll even help you figure it all out,” he promised Bennet.

“Bash, we’re a team. I can’t go all of the way to Americawithout you.” They looked at each other for a long moment, Bash’s gaze against Bennet’s deep brown. The latter scratched his nails through his short beard. “Look, we’ve not got long left to giveWoodrow and Sturridgean answer. New Year’s Day isn’t far away.”

Bash let out an uneven breath. “I know.”

Less than two weeks. That’s all he had to solidify his decision.

7

BASH

There was no easierway to describe the galloping of his heart than the constant, nauseating fear that pulsed through Bash’s veins in the dead of night. These shoes were definitely not made for running in, but it was less hassle than flagging down a taxi when he could quick-foot the distance just the same. The added boiling layer of his coat didn’t help him, either.

He was halfway out of breath and regretting his choice of a burger at the pub when Faye’s flat came into view. Every light glowed at the edges of her windows which meant that she was still awake. He’d kept his phone off of silent mode just in case she called him again, though Faye had no reason to doubt he’d come to her. The only thing that could’ve stopped him was if he wasn’t physically able. Or dead. And even then he still would’ve tried.

He’d been at the pub with old tennis friends when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Thedingand sensation were easy enough to ignore, but a tug in his stomach as if that organ knew something which he didn’t made Bash pay attention. When the buzzing didn’t stop, he’d pulled the phone out to find?—

Faye?

Why would she call him at midnight? She never called that late,usually fast asleep by then, what with her early mornings. Bash’s panic went into overdrive and he’d known before he’d answered that he couldn’t ignore her call.

He’d been on his feet and left to run straight to her without thought, only her crumbling words and sniffles on the line playing in his mind.

“She’s my best friend and she called me because she’s scared,” he’d argued against the protest he’d received. “Of course I’m leaving.”

Faye never brought drama to his life.Ever. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her, including legging it rather suspiciously through London after midnight.

For the first time in a long time, he was scared. And he wouldn’t befineuntil he saw Faye’s face and held her tightly in his arms.

Bash

I’m almost outside x

He sent the text so she didn’t spook when he buzzed her intercom, figuring that was safer than letting himself in on this particular occasion. But he needn’t have done; Faye opened the shared door to the hall outside of her ground floor flat before he’d even touched it.

“Peanut?” Bash tried to claw back his breaths. “Hey. Woah—” Faye flung her arms around him with such force that he stumbled, catching himself on his back foot and lifting his arms just in time to have them circle around her.

He’d tried to be as quick as he could in getting here, but it was too long.

“You came,” Faye murmured into his chest where her chin tucked down. The sweet mango scent that floated off of her after every shower filled the air beneath his nose, mixed with the cold bitterness of winter nighttime.

Hearing her quivering voice through the phone had squeezedBash’s heart, but that ache and desperation to keep her safe was nothing compared to her shaking against his chest. If he could wrap her up in cotton wool and still let her be free, then he would.

Raising his hand, he smoothed down her hair, letting the soft blonde strands move through his fingers as he pulled her closer. “I said I would.”

She sniffled into his coat.

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