Page 83

“Thank you,” I said gratefully.

I could hardly believe that I’d finally be seeing my parents in a matter of hours. “I can’t believe it’s really over,” I shared with him.

“It’s over,” he grumbled. “No more hiding. No more using an identity that isn’t your own. No more fear of some asshole wanting to kill you.”

All of that really hadn’t sunk in yet for me.

“It’s going to take me a while to get used to that,” I admitted. “It feels like I’ve been in hiding forever.”

“Do you think you’ll be going home with your parents?” he asked in a cautious voice.

Devon and I had never talked about a future together.

We’d been living day by day for the most part.

I’d never been quite sure if our relationship was going to have an expiration date.

I had no doubt that I was head-over-heels in love with Devon, but I wasn’t entirely sure that he felt the same way about me.

I shook my head. “I’d like to stay for a while. I’m not leaving Hannah when she’s so close to her due date, and she doesn’t have time to train and replace me at the moment. I’d like to handle that for her.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that,” he commented lightly.

Okay, he hadn’t said anything about me staying permanently.

Did that mean he expected me to go back to Spokane?

I was mentally and physically wiped out, and I wasn’t sure I could ask him that question right now.

I’d always known that this relationship might not be a forever thing, but I wasn’t sure how I’d go through a life without Devon in it anymore.

Just the thought of that made my heart hurt.

We could probably do a long-distance thing, but that would be difficult for me.

Devon was anything but a casual boyfriend for me now.

He probably never had been.

I’d been crazy about him even when I’d offered him a friends with benefits relationship.

Now…he was my everything.

Relax, Reese. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future yet.

“It’s not like I have a job to go back to,” I mumbled. “I’m going to have to find a new job.”

Devon stroked a soothing hand over my back. ‘One step at a time, sweetheart. It’s going to take time to adjust back to your old life and identity.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. I’d been living day to day for a while now. I could keep on doing it a little longer.

He was right. Everything felt off for me right now. I could go back to Spokane and pick up my old life with a new job change, but that just didn’t appeal to me anymore.

Not only was I in love with a man who lived in Crystal Fork, but I’d become close to so many of the people who resided here.

I’d called two of my closest friends in Spokane.

They had been concerned about me, and we’d spoken like old friends, but they’d moved on with their lives.