Page 98 of Stay Scared

“I’d find something else to panic about.”

“That was exhausting too.”

“Yeah.”

“Good to know.”

A real laugh escapes him, small enough that pain cuts it off quickly.

I step forward before I think better of it and check the edge of the dressing. The bandage remains clean.

Cade watches my hands.

“You still think about me.”

“That was dangerously close to asking a question.”

“I’m bleeding. I’m experimenting with vulnerability.”

“You should stop before it becomes a personality.”

His mouth almost smiles.

I smooth one corner of the dressing.

“I do think about you.”

His next breath catches.

I keep working at the gauze.

“Sometimes a song comes on, and I remember you ruining it in the kitchen. Whiskey still tastes wrong occasionally because it isn’t on your mouth. And when a man gets too close behind me, sometimes I remember how much I wanted you there.”

His hands tighten against the table behind me as his knees shift closer to my hips.

“Other times I remember how badly I needed you to move.”

His knees ease apart again.

“I think about you every fucking day.”

“That is not romantic after this conversation.”

“I’m not trying to make it romantic.”

“Then what are you trying to do?”

His eyes move over my face.

“Trying real hard not to grab you.”

The bluntness sends heat through me before irritation can catch it.

I straighten.

“That’s more like you.”

“Feels more like me.”