Page 14 of You Found Me in the Dark
“I forgot how easy it was to talk to you,” Ty said, voice almost too soft to hear over the fire’s crackle. “Even now.”
I looked at him then. Looking at the tan skin, the scruff, and the hair I used to run my fingers through in the middle of summer when the world was nothing but possibilities. And for a second, I forgot all the reasons we ended. All I remembered was what it felt like to be wanted by him.
Maybe that was the alcohol talking. Maybe it was the part of me that had been lonely too long. Or maybe it was something I was trying to use as a distraction from what Ireallyneeded.
11
REED
My phone buzzed once on the coffee table, lighting up the dim living room with Harper’s name.
I almost ignored it. It was well past midnight, and I was ready to crash on Cam’s couch. Figured it was the usual party picture or some random update. But something in my gut told me to open the text. I picked up my phone, leaned back on the couch, and opened the message.
Little Sis
fucckk reed. wrens with tyler. You remember ty? because i dont think she does. ooorrrr she’s too drunk to remember.
I sat up straight.
Tyler.
That name hit me like a slap to the back of the head.
I hadn’t heard it in over five years, and I preferred it that way. Tyler “Ty” Carrington was the smooth-talking ex who left Wrengutted, paranoid, and doubting her own damn reality. The one who’d played nice in public and torn her down in private. The one who’d isolated her from friends, controlled who she talked to, and who she was. The one who charms a room and ruins a life behind closed doors. The reason Wren gave up painting.
My jaw tensed. I fired off a reply without hesitation.
Me
Where are you? Send me the address. Now.
I was already up, grabbing my hoodie and wallet off the chair by the door. I didn’t even stop to put my shoes on correctly.
Cam was in his room, music on. I paused for a second outside his bedroom door and considered telling him, but then turned around and kept walking to the front door.
If Cam found out Ty was back in town and back near Wren, it’d be a problem. A serious one. The kind that didn’t end with words. Cam would burn down the whole damn house with everyone in it just to get to him. And I didn’t have the energy to talk my best friend out of going to jail tonight.
No. This one, I could handle myself.
The phone buzzed again in my hand. A dropped location pin from my sister. My thumb hovered over it for half a second, then tapped it. The map was up and the route was clear. Fourteen minutes, I bet I could make it in seven.
I was already halfway to my truck before the front door clicked shut behind me.
12
WREN
The new can of cider I grabbed was already almost empty and becoming warm as I held it. But I kept sipping, needing something to do with my hands. My nerves buzzed beneath the alcohol. Or maybe it was just him that made me anxious.
Ty leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his beer dangling in one hand. His blue eyes never left me, and under the firelight, they looked darker than I remembered. He looked more tired than I remembered.
“You ever think about how different things might’ve been?” he asked, voice low. “If we hadn’t fallen apart?”
I exhaled slowly, trying not to slur my words. “Of course I did. But not so much these days.”
He nodded. “Fair.”
There was silence for a moment, the kind thatusedto be comfortable with him. The kind where our bodies would just lean into each other, speaking in touches instead of words. So when his knee brushed mine, I didn’t move it. When he leaned in closer,breath smelling faintly of beer, I didn’t pull away. And when his hand touched my thigh, slow and deliberate, I tensed for half a second, but then I relaxed.
