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chapter thirty-four

“The universe has a funny way of working out the kinks. You give it all your shit, and it goes, ‘Look, three gold flecks, I can do something with this.’ Nothing is ever forever, and even when you have bad, there’s always some good mixed in.”

~From Max Emory’s Guide to Dating and Other Important Life Lessons

Jason

It had been one of the longest nights of my life. I could see the exhaustion on Maddy’s face. I walked her to her door, off-shift, but still in uniform. Her dad answered before she could even touch it.

He took one look at me and asked, “What happened?”

“He saved us,” was what Maddy said, when I’d expected her to say something else like, “Oh, Jason was just doing his job.”

I couldn’t speak.

“It’s what he does best,” her dad answered, and then gave me a nod.

Maddy started to walk in, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her back against my chest.

She slumped against me.

“Stay with me,” I whispered in her ear.

She nodded.

The door closed.

And I was carrying her across the chalk line back to my house. Minutes later, I was starting the shower for her.

She was dead on her feet, so I peeled off my uniform, tried to detach my thoughts of her body from my mind, and stepped in the warm water with her.

I washed her breasts.

I washed her stomach.

I kissed her neck.

I couldn’t help myself.

“It would have been like this,” Maddy whispered against my skin, her lips cold, even with the heat from the water. “It would have been like this, had I not walked away. Nights in the shower together, a partnership… a team.”

I hesitated then tilted her chin toward me. “It can still be like this.”

“Every day?” Her eyes blurred with tears.

“Every day.”

“And the past—”

“Stays where it belongs.”

She was kissing me before I could register what was happening. The soap fell from my hands as her tongue slid past my lips, as her hands clenched my back, her nails raking over my hot skin.

Home never felt so right.

So good.

She was igniting a craving in me, as if I’d been in a deep sleep for ten years, and now, suddenly, she was waking me with every brush of her lips. I tilted her body under the hot water, my lips on her neck, licking her skin.