Page 98 of Changing Lanes

“Give me,” he starts, then drops his hands smoothing them on his toweled waist, “give me this one night. That’s all I can offer you. That’s all I got.”

“Beckett.”

Leaning down to my eye level, he whispers, “Please?”

Tonight’s the last night I’ll be there to ward off his nightly ghosts, after that he’s back on his own. A victim to whatever’s plaguing him in his weakest state. He’s a big boy though, he can fight his own battles.

But my body chooses for me by walking backward into his room, ready to take on Beckett’s demons one last time.

“Hold that thought.”

He returns to the bathroom, leaving me standing confused in my own towel until I hear the telltale sounds of him brushing his teeth.

With a shake of my head and a racing heart, I grab a shirt out of the first drawer I open and shove it over my head before peeling back his covers to climb in.

One night. All he wants is one night. All I want is one night. I can handle one night. He can handle one night. This is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Isn’t it?

CHAPTER 22

Paige

“So, have you heard from your brothers since your birthday?” Cynthia asks over the phone.

Pulling into the parking lot of the guys’ garage a few minutes before Cruz was ready—his boss wouldn’t give him the time off after all—I called Cynthia to catch up. She just started her new job and filled me in on all the differences so far. She does well with the high stress situations often accompanying nursing positions so she should do amazing in the emergency room.

As far as I’ve seen in the days I’ve been back, Dennis, and the others, have been doing much better. Everyone except my mother. She’s looking healthier from getting her medication regularly again, but she still doesn’t seem quite herself. And maybe that part is just another piece of her slipping away to the disease. Another chunk of her DNA that makes her so uniquely her is just gone, forever lost to the turbulent sea of Alzheimer’s. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I refuse to accept this is the end and I never will.

My eyes flutter closed as I lean back on my bike, soaking in the sun. My face is almost back to normal and the rays of sunshine feel like forbidden kisses from a long-lost lover across my daylight deprived skin. It’s taken the whole week to get adjusted to working nights and sleeping days again, that last one in particular has been especially hard. After Sunday night with Beckett, I returned to my room, to my bed, to my customary seclusion—to loneliness.

Marc’s been gone all week. I have no idea where he went other than I saw him wheeling a suitcase out to his car one afternoon when I couldn’t sleep and noticed he hasn’t been back since. Yeah, sleep’s been hard to come by lately.

“They’ve been checking in but this week is crazy,” I say around a yawn, stretching my arm above my head to pick at my pillion. While it’s true the boys have called to talk to me, none of them have made the effort to visit Mom which still frustrates me.

“I bet it is with those two hot roommates to keep you busy.”

I snort, grateful nobody’s around. I already scanned the lot, twice, for Beckett’s bike, knowing he took it in place of his Tahoe today, and finding it strangely absent. It’ll make this awkward lunch date with Cruz easier without him here. That’s what I tell myself as I check the lot for the third time.

“I wouldn’t put it that way.”

“Are you telling me they’re not? I saw them for myself, Paige.”

Spotting a pizza delivery car pull in, I sit up and meet the busted ass Honda in front of my own busted ass Honda. At least mine is faster though. And thanks to Beckett, not quite as busted anymore. Although she still isn’t special to most, she’s precious to me. I pay the awkward teen with an extra tip for his excellent taste in rides when I catch him eyeing my baby. Too bad I’m on the phone or I’d let him rev the engine. That always gets the kids excited.

“I didn’t say that.” And I never would. Hot describes my roommates perfectly even if they’re like night and day. Where Marc is an opaque depth warning you away from impending peril, Beckett is a sparkly surface just above a murky unknown coaxing you to come a little closer. “Sunbrook’s just been insane, that’s all. It hasn’t left much time for anything else.”

I would’ve assumed the garage was slammed, too, based off Cruz not being able to even break away for a quick bite but this place seems pretty tame compared to how he made it sound this morning. He apologized profusely but still wanted to go out. As he started hinting toward my cherished weekend, I quickly volunteered to bring lunch to him instead. It’d cross this stupid date off the list and leave my weekend open. Not that I have any plans but spending my only night off with Cruz sounds like a supreme waste of time. Time I could spend at home. Or something. I don’t know. Going out just doesn’t hold the same appeal anymore.

I haven’t seen Beckett since the morning after our shower when I slipped from his bed unnoticed. When he begged me to stay the night with him, I assumed it was to play Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Beckett’s Monster Cock Right Over again and I was right. The man is like a tree I want to climb.

Wanted. I wanted to climb. But that’s done and over with now. We are done and over with. This date today proves that.

But, that was four days ago and the only reminder of the hours we spent together under his sheets are the hickeys littering my body. Beckett left marks everywhere. On every fucking part of me, even places I swore I’d never let him, or anyone else, reach.

Seeing his bike missing from Pop The Hood’s lot fills me with more jitters than if it were here, front and center. I think.

I tune back in to Cynthia carrying on about her new coworkers.