Page 108 of Flare

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. But I’m not ready. I don’t wanna start a conversation until I’m sure what I want to say. Is that so hard to understand?”

He softened. “No, it’s not. But you’re not going to get that answer from me, either. You need to work this out for yourself, Rhys. You have to want it. So, how about I make us some lunch and then you go do what you have to do to get your head on straight, or not so straight, as it happens.”

Two and a half hours later I parked behind Flare and let myself in through the kitchen door, switching off the alarm as I passed. In the belly of the store, I dropped my bag on the service desk and took a good look around. When I’d first opened, this place had been everything, the pinnacle of my life’s achievement. Now? I studied the racks of clothes and cubbyholes full of cutting-edge fashion in the cool and quiet space, and sighed, remembering Hunter’s words that day.This will never be enough for you.The fucker had a psychic streak a mile wide.

I shook my head in frustration. What the hell had happened to me?

Beckett Northcottcame the answer. Beck had happened to me. Beck had parachuted into my life and suddenly I wanted...more.Something I’d been so fucking careful to avoid.

I slumped on the stairs up to my flat and buried my face in my hands.

Shhh. Just relax. It’ll be over soon.The single phrase I could remember in its entirety from that fucking night. Jesus, I’d almost made the bloody thing my life’s mantra.Ignore the want. Ignore the empty hole in my chest. Close my eyes. Work around the problem. Don’t face it. Pretend. Go to sleep and it will all go away.

And it had worked. Until Beck woke me up.

Beck. The sting in his eyes when I’d walked away. The hurt. The love. Jesus fuck, the love.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone and, ignoring the litany of texts from Beck, I scrolled to Callum instead.For emergenciesonly, he’d said. Cue an almost relationship break-up and I figured this fucking counted as an emergency. But my fingers hesitated over the number. You don’t need him to tell you what you already know.

“Rhys?” The glass in the front door rattled with a knock and I looked up to see Leon peering through.

I wiped my eyes and went over to let him in.

“Beck left you this.” He shoved a surprisingly heavy paper bag into my hands. “He said you’d know what it means.”

I stared at the bag. “Beck was here?”

Leon snorted. “He sat outside for two hours in his damn car. Sounds like true love to me. Catch you later.” And he was gone before I could even thank him.

I locked the door, took the bag back to the service desk, and opened it gingerly. A hand-sized metal dragon sat inside atop a note. I held the dragon up to my face and smiled. Fucking Drogon. I slipped the notepaper out and unfolded it.

For The Man Who Has My Heart.

Who knew you’d be the missing piece?

A precious fit.

So loved,

and without whom the puzzle buckles at the edges,

incomplete.

I’d give my world to draw your breath again with mine,

to see the puzzle whole,

to see what magic we can make,

my love.

Beck

(I’m here when you’re ready)

Holy shit.

I stared at the note and read it again, my heart thudding in my chest. And then again, this time aloud, my voice shaking.

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