Page 90 of One Little Lie
Rylan’s breathing hitches when I stand in front of her. I like that. I like the reaction I cause every time I’m near. She responds to me in a way that just feels right.
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to get your shirt on with all that shit on your back.”
She glances behind her and winces. I reach for my T-shirt and slip it over her head.
“This should cover you enough,” I explain as I pull it down over her body, hating that it covers her and grateful that it does, too. “Why don’t you go shower? I’ll clean up here, and then we can …”
Can what? Talk? After this, I know I can’t give her up. She stopped the panic attack. She truly is my panacea.
“Hatty?”
I glance up to realize I drifted into my own head mid-sentence.
“Are you okay?” Green eyes bore into my blue ones, and I know she can see all my fears. For once, I don’t try to hide them.
“Yeah. I’m good. I’ll meet you upstairs when I’m done here, okay?”
She nods, seeming uncertain, so I lean in for a tender kiss.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” My words turn husky. “I-I didn’t hurt you?”
“I may break from time to time, Hatty, but I’m not made of glass.”
“The most beautiful stained glass comes from something broken,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry if I broke any piece of you, Rylan. I thought I was doing the right thing for you. For Colton. For my family. I thought it was what I had to do.”
“Hatty,” she lowers her gaze as if she’s disappointed, and my gut clenches, “putting everyone else first all the time will ruin you. Sometimes, you have to be a little selfish and go after what you want.”
“And if what I want is you?”
She smiles, and the glacier sitting on my heart melts away. “Then all you have to do is stay.”
Stay? There isn’t anywhere I’d rather be. A goofy smile lights up my whole world, and I set about righting GG’s kitchen. Jesus, I hope she never finds out about this. We’ll never hear the end of it.
Chapter 30
Rylan
Racing up the back stairs, I pray I don’t run into anyone. The last thing I need is to explain why I’m wearing Hatty’s shirt and covered in flour and sex.
Holy shit. Not just sex. Galaxies could collide and not burn as hot. I have never in my life experienced sex or intimacy like that.
Is that what I’ve been missing all this time? It’s not like I really have a lot of experience to compare it to. I was ruined in college trying to get over the man who shattered my world for the second time in my life. Then I met Matthew, and things just happened.
After unlocking my door, I rush through and immediately turn on the shower. I’m starting to feel like I’m in some sort of plaster cast as the flour gunk hardens. Removing Hatty’s T-shirt, I fold it as neatly as I can, then drop it on the bed to return to him later.
I glance around the room like I’m seeing it for the first time, but really, I think I’m living for the first time in years. Hatty does that to me.
Will it last, though?
Negative thoughts enter my head unbidden. I have to focus on the here and now. Nothing can be done about our past. It’s time to look to the future.
Is that what he wants? Are we together?Holy shit, we haven’t had any kind of meaningful conversation that wasn’t during postcoital bliss. Taking a deep breath, I enter the bathroom. I need to slow this ship down before I’m swept away and lost at sea because I wasn’t kidding earlier … I won’t survive him leaving me a second time.
I lift my gaze to the mirror and am shocked by what I see. Hatty marked me. My neck, my chest, and my hip bones bear his mark. Warmth spreads through my body, making me realize just how intensely he fucked me.
Stepping into the spray, I let the water cascade over my body, soothing my nerves and bringing me a sense of calm. I do my best thinking in the shower, I always have, and it’s here that I decide not to push him. We’ll take this day by day, minute by minute, if we have to.
There is no doubt in my mind I’m meant to spend my life with Hatty, but something tells me he still has demons to slay, and I can’t do it for him.
