Page 256 of Cross the Line
“So you didn’t go,” I finish, skimming a thumb across her flushed cheek.
“I could see them all outside. Waiting. It got too much and I couldn’t go out there.” She blinks fast, then steadies herself with a slow inhale, a long exhale. “Because I couldn’t face being alone, I went up to the garden… and turned my phone off to shut the notifications up. Then I sorta fell asleep.”
“Crazy is exhausting.” Jayden gives the loose tendril that’s escaped the knot on her head a playful tug.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sweet angel—” I kiss the crown of her head. “—stop apologizing.”
There’s a shuffle behind us, followed by the excited scratch of Blanca’s nails on the slippery stone floor before she leaps up into us.
Salem trails behind her. Relief smoothing the deeply etched lines of her face when she sets eyes on Finley.
“Thank God you’re okay.” Salem offers a watery smile.
“Are you?” Fin moves toward her, and Bee’s wet nose nudges back to my shin.
“It’s been…a day.”
“Have the two of you had dinner yet?” With Bee sniffing at his ankles, Jayden heads for the door. When they both shake their heads, he announces, “Come on, I’m making pasta.”
And this is why I love him. Time and again, he proves how selfless he is.
It’s almost midnight, after a long day and fiery game, and while Fin is prepping sweet mint tea, he’s pulling out ingredients to make his sunshine pasta for us all.
Whoever said perfect doesn’t exist was wrong.
It does exist. And it’s the two people pottering around the kitchen in front of me.
CHAPTER 75
FINLEY
Goodbyes suck.
Ass-crack-of-dawn goodbyes, even more so. The emptiness they leave behind cloys in my chest as I walk into mine, Eli’s, and Jayden’s bedroom. The warm smell ofalmost-morning sex still lingers, along with creases in the rumpled sheets that Blanca has corkscrewed herself into.
She raced me in here to swaddle in Eli and JJ’s mixed-up scent. Cheeky girl is lucky I love her, or I might run her out of the bed. Instead, I cuddle up and drag the duvet over us, cocooning us completely.
“Four games, Bee,” I tell her as my bracelet vibrates twice, then once, and one more time. Right before my phone trills with a text.
I snag it from the nightstand and find a message from Eli in our group chat. I have to double-take to make sure it’s him, since Jayden changed our chat name to Forever—because that’s what we are. Forever and always. Eternity.
Eli
4 games
My chest squeezes at the number we’ve put on this away run. It’s easier to digest games than days.
Six.
Six days of missing them with every breath. Six nights of aching for their return. Until I can hold them again. Share the same air. Steal their body heat to warm my cold hands and feet in the middle of the night.
Six whole days.
My fingers tickle over Blanca’s short fur, letting her warmth seep into my skin while I reread Eli’s message.Four games.
JJ
