I felt like the worst piece of shit on the planet when I returned to Jordan's house later that day. I had broken my promise to him. I had told the secret he had spent years trying to protect. And worse, I wasn’t brave enough to admit it. I knew I would never tell him what I had done. I couldn’t. I had just gotten him back. Revealing that I'd told my parents all about the horrific abuse he had suffered could make him run again. I couldn’t bear that.

So, when I walked into the kitchen later that afternoon with two suitcases full of my possessions, and Jordan asked me about my day, I lied to his face.

I invented an elaborate tale about why Teagan had needed me last night, and then I rambled on and on about the book I should have been working on, but wasn’t.

Jordan believed me. Every single word. And why wouldn’t he? I had never lied to him before. Disgust filled every pore in my body, laced with the knowledge of what I had helped Hunter do this morning, until I was oozing with self-loathing.

"So, how is this going to work?" I heard myself ask later that night as I stood in front of Jordan's already over-flowing closet with my suitcases on the floor by my feet and a look of despair on my face. None of my stuff was going to fit in this house. It was too small. "I'm never going to fit in here."

"We can toss out most of what's in there," Jordan offered as he continued to empty the drawers of his dresser. "I don’t wear any of it."

"No." I shook my head and closed the closet door. "We're not dumping your belongings, Jordan. I'll manage with the chest of drawers."

Jordan must have heard the uncertainty in my tone because he stopped what he was doing and gave me his full attention. "We'll make this work, Keychain." Tossing an armful of shirts on the bed, he walked over to where I was standing and opened the closet door. "You'll always fit in here." He then proceeded to wedge both of my cases into the bottom of the closet before shoving the protesting doors shut. "With me."

I wanted to ask him if Annabelle and her baby belonged here with him, too, but I held my tongue. She had been here when I got back, and hell if I wasn’t feeling put out with her presence. I could hear her and the baby right now. They were in their bedroom next to ours. The walls were paper thin and I could hear her playing and cooing with Ryder. I didn’t like acknowledging jealousy. It wasn’t an emotion I was used to feeling, and one I liked even less, but right now I was bursting to the seams with the green-eyed monster.

"What's on your mind?" Jordan ask, breaking through my thoughts.

"I'm just trying to register everything," I admitted honestly. Walking over to the foot of his bed, I sank down and released a heavy sigh. "It's been a crazy twenty-four hours."

"Yeah," Jordan agreed. Sitting down beside me, he leaned forwards and rested his elbows on his thighs. "For me too."

"Are you having regrets?" I dared to ask, not looking at his face when I added, "About me?"

"Not about you," he finally replied after the longest damn pause known to mankind. "But maybe about the speed everything seems to be moving at."

Now I did look at him. "The speed?"

"This is fast, Hope," he explained. "Really fast."

My heart sank clean into my butt. "Do you want me to leave?" I asked, unable to mask how appalled I felt in this moment. When he didn’t answer immediately, I sprang to my feet in pure horror. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be fucking happening! "Oh my god," I shook my head and laughed humorlessly. "You do!" I was such an idiot. "You want me to leave."

"No. Of course, I don’t – Hope, sit down."

I couldn’t sit down, not when he sounded so uncertain. "Tell me what you want," I demanded then, unable to pretend I hadn't just heard that tone in his voice. The tone that told me he was still very confused. "I can't read your mind. If you're having doubts, then I deserve to know now."

"I'm not having doubts," he was quick to say – too quick. "This is what I want, Hope. To be a family with you. I just don’t want to do anything to mess it up. I don’t want us to rush into anything. The way I see it is we have our whole lives to rebuild this relationship." He shrugged helplessly, then patted the mattress. "Come here."

Helplessly, I returned to where I had been sitting, but this time I tucked my feet up on the bed and sat cross-legged. Call it crazy, but I needed to be comfortable for this conversation.

"I love you," he told me. "That has not and will not change."

"I love you, too," I replied, and that was the complete truth. I did love him. My love for him was the reason I was here, throwing myself into a foreign environment and ignoring the gut instincts that had protected me my whole life. "So, what happens now?"

"Now?" Jordan turned and smiled at me, his green eyes piercing and full of love. "I guess we adjust to being in each other's lives again and live."

"It's not going to be easy, is it?" I asked with a rueful smile.

"No," he mused, playfully nudging my shoulder with his. "But nothing worth having comes easily."

"We can do this, right?"

Jordan took a moment to think about what I had said before nodding firmly. "We'll take our time. One day at a time. Step by step." He reached for my hand and squeezed reassuringly. "But yeah, Keychain. We will do this."