Page 74 of Find Me

“Stop caring, Knox. It would make your life so much easier and it won’t confuse the shit out of me,” I said, raking my fingers through my hair angrily.

“I’m not letting you leave until you sober up. So you either give me your purse or I’ll take it from you. It’s your choice.”

How dare he act calm now?I ripped my purse off my body and threw it at him. He caught it when it hit his chest. After that, I stormed past him, then Colt, Creed, and Keelan, heading for the twins’ side of the house.

“Have you eaten anything today?” Knox asked me.

“Go to hell!” I shouted over my shoulder before disappearing down the hall.

“You said you were going to apologize to her, not make it worse,” I heard Colt say, sounding pissed off. “And what did she mean when she said you kissed her?”

Knox grumbled something I couldn’t hear.

I decided to hide out in Creed’s room. I refused to sit out there for however long Knox was keeping me here. The last thing I wanted was to be around them. Not when it hurt so much. Tears dripped from my eyes as I kicked off my shoes and climbed onto Creed’s bed. Lying on my side, I grabbed one of Creed’s pillows and hugged it tight. I had no choice but to feel and it was awful.

25

I’d been cryingnonstop for what felt like hours. I tried to sleep, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t. Creed’s pillow, which I’d been hugging, was soaked. The bed dipped on either side of me and said pillow was pulled from my arms. I slowly opened my puffy eyes to Colt scooting close, trying to take the pillow’s place. A body that I knew belonged to Creed cuddled me from behind and he draped his arm around my waist.

Colt tucked my hair behind my ear before cupping my cheek and brushing away some tears with his thumb. “We’re sorry,” he said, laying his head next to mine so close that our noses were only a few inches apart. “We should have been more patient. It was wrong of us to push you like that.”

Creed’s arm tightened around my waist. “Tell us what we can do to fix this, Shi.”

“Can you turn back time?” I whispered.

Colt’s brow furrowed. “Nothing has changed, babe. I told you that whatever you were keeping from us wouldn’t scare us away.”

I saw sincerity in his eyes, but I was scared to believe him. “How can you not see me differently?”

“We don’t, I promise,” Creed insisted. “Things make a lot of sense to us now, but Colt’s right. We should have waited until you were ready.”

I sighed. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I was ready to tell you or not. I wasn’t supposed to tell you.”

“You know we won’t say anything to anyone, Shi,” Creed said, nuzzling the back of my neck. “You’re important to us and to Keelan. I know it’s hard to believe right now, but you’re important to Knox, too.”

I scoffed at that.

Colt gave me a tight smile. “It’s true. I think he cares for you so much, he doesn’t know how to deal with it.”

“He needs to pull his head out of his ass,” Creed grumbled and nuzzled my neck again. He then inhaled deeply and exhaled a heavy sigh. “I’ve been wanting to do this all day.”

A corner of my mouth twitched. “Smell me?”

Colt snorted.

“No.” Creed’s hand flattened on my stomach. “Hold you.”

“Oh,” I said. Hearing him say that made my heart ache more and I was desperate to soothe it. Even though I was sobering up, I was still in thetake what I wantstate of mind. “Will you hold me tighter?”

Creed’s arm moved up around my ribs and his hand rested just below my breast. Colt scooted even closer, bringing his nose right up to mine. I grabbed his hand that was cupping my cheek and hugged it under my chin. Having them so close lifted a crippling weight off me and my eyelids quickly began to feel heavy.

“Why don’t you try and sleep for a little bit? We’ll wake you for dinner,” Colt suggested.

All I could do was nod before I drifted off.

* * *

“Shi,” Creed whispered in my ear before my hair was pulled away from my neck. “Dinner’s almost ready.”