Libby
I STRETCHED LAZILY, RELISHING IN the aches that accompanied two blissful nights in bed with Maxon, my movements halting when the person behind me burrowed closer.
Someone too small to be Maxon. Someone smaller than me.
Someone with ice-cold feet pressed to my ankles.
My eyes flew open, a demand for my best friend to get out of the bed on the tip of my tongue, until my brain suddenly caught up with the situation.
If Einstein was in bed with me . . . that meant Maxon was gone.
And Henley was scheduled to return to LA today.
I was out of bed and storming out of the room before my chest had a chance to start aching.
My gaze touched everything as I moved . . .
The leather cuff I gave him when he first left Wake Forest wasn’t on my nightstand.
The clothes I’d ripped off his body last night weren’t scattered on my floor.
The acoustic guitar Lincoln brought over yesterday was no longer propped against the couch.
There wasn’t a trace of him anywhere.
He wouldn’t.
He wouldn’t, he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t.
Cruel, unwanted thoughts reared in my head, saying he would.
Saying Maxon did this—did everything—to get back at me for all the times I told him I wouldn’t be waiting for him. For all the times I left before he woke. For the last six months.
But every promise and plea, every touch and kiss, were quick to push those thoughts away, making his disappearance that much more incomprehensible. That much more painful.
I didn’t realize I was gripping at my chest and my hair until I heard a loud, obnoxious yawn from behind me.
I turned, my breaths coming out rough and ragged when I saw Einstein watching me with a look of annoyance.
“Kinda hard to cuddle when you jump out of bed like it’s on fire.”
“He’s gone,” I said, the words nothing more than a breath.
“Well, who would stay when that’s how you sleep? Jesus.”
“He’s gone.”
“Calm down,” she mumbled as she passed me, wrapping my comforter around her tiny frame before plopping on the couch. “He’ll be back when he’s done.”
A wounded laugh punched from my chest. “He was supposed to be done, Einstein. He wasn’t going to go back—not for a while. We were going to—” I bit at my lip, unable to say the words as pain seared my chest.
Einstein stared at me like I’d grown another head. “Have you always been needy and whiny and insecure? Because I feel like we wouldn’t have been friends if I’d realized this before now.”
I straightened, my expression falling into something I was sure would’ve made others cower.
Not Einstein.
“I thought I lost him to someone else,” I said through gritted teeth. “Now after having him back for a couple nights, he’s gone. And you’re calling me—”
“Yeah, and like I said, he’ll be back. Do you want him to talk to Dare or not?”
My head jerked back. For a few seconds, I stood there watching Einstein. “Wait, what?”
“You honestly think the two of you can be together without Dare’s approval? Dare hates him.”
“He’s . . . he’s talking to Dare?”
“Yeah.” She waved a comforter-covered hand toward the hallway. “If you wouldn’t have jumped out of bed and ran, I would’ve told you that.”
“I didn’t—” I laughed faintly and ran my hands through my hair. “Considering I didn’t fall asleep next to you, I wasn’t expecting to wake up with you there.”
“Well, don’t sound so butt-hurt about it. I’m an awesome cuddler.”
“You only cuddle because you’re cold.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I’m awesome at it,” she shot back. “Anyway, I was about to make coffee when he left. I figured cuddling was better than coffee.”
My mouth twitched into a smirk. “Cuddling in the bed I’d had sex in all weekend? On and under that comforter?”
Einstein’s face went void of any emotion. After a few seconds, she pushed the comforter away from her body and stood from the couch. “If you need me, I’ll be in the shower. Scrubbing my skin with steel wool.”
I laughed when she passed me, light and free.
Now that I knew where Maxon was and knew he was coming back, it felt like a weight had lifted off my chest. It felt like how it always should’ve been.
Maxon and me.
Together in Wake Forest.
The dream I’d always had but could never touch, wasn’t only in reach now, I was living it.
Over the next two hours, I moved around the apartment on a cloud.
I washed the bedding and took a shower. I dressed in something other than clean pajamas since Maxon would be back soon. Made coffee and breakfast for a still-scowling Einstein and myself.
And when Maxon knocked on the door as he opened it, I ran for him and jumped into his arms.
But the way he gripped me, arms like steel bands around my body, like he was afraid of what would happen when he let go, had me leaning away.
I gripped at his hair and pulled his head away from my chest, searching his whiskey eyes, my heart sinking as he slowly lowered me to my feet.
“Maxon . . .” My unspoken question lingered in the air between us.
“Holy shit,” Einstein said from somewhere beside us, drawing out the words.
But Maxon didn’t respond or look at her. He stared at me with eyes like fire as the muscles in his jaw worked.
When I started to look toward Einstein, she asked, “He said no, didn’t he?”
“What?” I searched Maxon’s expression for any indication that what she assumed was wrong. My stomach dropped moments later. “No. No, tell me this is a joke.”
The corners of his mouth twitched into a weak smile. “It’ll be okay.”
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to shove from Maxon’s arms so I could get to the door and to my brother.
But his arms only tightened, and then his mouth was on mine.
When my body relaxed, he moved his lips to my forehead and placed a gentle kiss there. “It’ll be okay,” he repeated. “You’re mine, and I’m not going anywhere. He’ll change his mind eventually.”
I nodded against his lips, but I didn’t plan on waiting for eventually to come around.
Dare couldn’t give me my freedom only to control my life.
He couldn’t stop me from being with Maxon after waiting nine years for him to come home to stay.
Dare would change his mind sooner rather than later, or he wasn’t going to have a say at all.