Page 106 of Every Broken Piece
Without hesitating she walks to my bed, pulls the blankets back and crawls under them, scooting until she’s pressed against my side, her injured arm draped over my chest, her leg flung over mine. She buries her nose in the space between my shoulder and chin and releases a deep sigh.
Stunned, I don’t move, afraid to break whatever trance she seems to be in. After a few minutes I slowly pull my arms out from behind my head and place one on her back, urging her closer, while the other comes across her body and cups her shoulder. Only then do I sigh just as deeply as she did and smile up at the ceiling.
“You okay?” I whisper.
“Mmm. I missed you today.”
“I missed you, too.”
She rubs her nose into my shoulder as her body melts into mine.
“I like you,” she whispers. “A lot.”
I love you.
Considering that for eighteen years I swore I’d never love another woman; the words aren’t as frightening as they should be. Instead, they feel exactly as they should—they feel like fate.
I can’t declare my feelings even if I’m biting the words back. First of all, she’s drunk and when I do tell her I want her to remember it. Second, it’s too fast for her and I don’t want to frighten her away.
As I tighten my hold on her I can practically hear the bricks in her walls cracking and crumbling. I don’t know what changed from last night and I don’t care. She’s here in my bed and that’s more than I’d ever hoped for when I walked in the door tonight. The rest we’ll figure out. Tomorrow, the next day, next week, or next month. We’ve got time.
“I like you a lot a lot,” she mumbles.
I swallow the lump of emotion swelling inside me. “I like you a lot a lot, too.”
I can feel her lips curve into a smile against my skin.
This is what I was waiting for. This is why I couldn’t go to sleep. This is what’s been missing from my life. I needed Tess by my side. For tonight. For always. A companion. Love.
Tess.
Chapter forty-eight
Tess
Cotton coats my mouth. Thirst coats my throat. Something coats my eyes because they’re sealed shut.
Until they aren’t.
Then I wish they still were.
Let’s not even talk about the drum solo going on in my head.
I push my face into the pillow and groan. What the hell did I do last night?
Unfortunately, I can’t be that type of hungover drunk who forgets her misdeeds the night before. No. I’m not that lucky. I remember all of it.
All. Of. It.
Go Fish. The whiskey that went down so smooth and warm.
Pax told me his dad only bought the best so I can’t even imagine the dollar amount that I so cavalierly consumed.
Oh. God. Gabe walking in looking alternately furious and confused.
We must have been a sight, Pax and I sitting on top of a table that I’m sure cost a fortune, drinking whiskey that also cost afortune. Does whiskey sell for that much? If it does, then that’s what we drank.
My embarrassment far exceeds my dry throat and the fact that I blew bubble gum scented breath straight into Gabriel Strong’s face.
