Page 62 of Crash and Burn

Hudson slid his body up beside me, pulling me into his chest and said, “I love you, Amelia.”

“And I loveyou, Hudson.”

It was the best night of my life, and I knew then. I was deeply in love with him.

Chapter 26

Hudson

That was incredible. Amelia and I laid there in bed for a while with my arms wrapped around her. I couldn’t stop kissing her or get enough of her. It didn’t feel real, and I was afraid that if I let her go, she would leave, and it would’ve all been nothing more than a fantasy.

She placed her hand on my cheek and said, “I’m not going anywhere, baby.” I blinked several times. So, she was a mind reader.Great.

“I’ll just pretend it’s not creepy, you reading my mind like that.”

She let out a big laugh and said, “I could say the same thing about you, ya know. It’s like you knew I was worried you wouldn’t fit.”

I let out a deep laugh and kissed her again. “You felt amazing. I never want to leave this bed.”

“Well, we don’t have to. I mean, Iamstaying the night.” She kissed my chin.

I kept thinking,God, I’m crazy about this woman.“Let me get cleaned up. I’ll be right back.” I got up and went to the bathroom and brought back some tissues for her. Then I climbed right back in bed beside her because I was serious about not wanting to leave. I asked, “Are you okay, Amelia?”

“I’m better than okay. What a night, huh?” She closed her eyes, let out a small giggle, lost the smile and buried her face in her arm.

“Baby, talk to me. A lot of shit happened tonight and it’s still the same fucking day.” I brought my hand up and moved her curly hair away from her face.

“I’m alright, Hudson. It started at the diner, ya know. Kevin. He called me at the diner, and I could tell he was drunk. Then when I got off work, my mom called to tell me that Kevin had actually been harassing her for the past year, trying to find out where I live. She told him to go away, but I mean, he obviously found me because he came to the diner that day.” She let out a huff.

I could feel my blood pressure rising all over again, thinking about her being scared and alone with him. “Well, fuck him. Now you don’t have to worry about him. But Amelia, he likely won’t do a lot of time. I mean, he will dosometime, but I need you to get a restraining order.”

“I know. I know. I should’ve done it a long time ago, but I thought just leaving him would’ve been enough. If I could get far enough away from him then he would just move on with his stupid life.” She snuggled into me, so I wrapped my arm around her head holding her closer to me.

“I got you, Am.” I kissed the top of her head. “I got you and I swear he will never get close to you again. I put my life on it.” We laid there in silence for a bit before I said, “Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow is a new day, and we can figure it all out then.” She looked up at me, so I kissed her one more time before we drifted off to sleep.

*

The next morning, I woke up before she did, so I jumped in the shower, then went to the kitchen to make some coffee. I wanted to take her to the police station today and work out this restraining order situation. I heard the door open down the hall and waited for her to reach the dining room. She saw me sitting there and had a very sleepy smile on her face. Her hair was a mess. A big, beautiful, curly mess, so I said, “Good morning, beautiful,” and chuckled.

She smiled, covering her face, and said, “Oh god, I probably look like a hot mess.”

“Abeautifulmess. Here, I’ll make you a cup of coffee.” I made her a fresh cup and set it in front of her at the table.

“Mmmm, this is soooo good.”

“Yep. Okay, so let’s talk about today. What do you want to do first?” I was hoping she said the restraining order, but I knew there was a good chance she wanted to go to her apartment first to pick up more of her things. She looked at her bag in the living room and I could tell from her expression that she was thinking about it.

She looked down at her coffee and blew the steam away. “Um…I think I want to do the police first. Can we just get that out of the way, please? I want to have that done and behind me.”

I was shocked but happy. “Of course. I think that’s a great idea. Then we can go to your place and pack up.”

“Yeah, ok. That’ fine. What a mess. I’m not looking forward to either of these things, Hudson.” She took another sip of her coffee.

“I know. But once it’s done, it’s done, right?”

“Yes, done,” she said, looking relieved.

We finished our coffee and got ready for the day.

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