ONE
April 2016
HARPER
Caleb’s fingerstrace lazy circles on my bare shoulder blade, and I’ve never felt safer in my entire life. Morehome.
We’re tangled together in his bed.Ourbed now. The place where everything changed.
Finally, I think I’ve stopped feeling like just the broken girl from the trailer park.
Because I’mhis.
The sheets are soft against my skin, still warm from what we just did. What we’ve been doing for hours, really, like we’re trying to make up for lost time to erase the last two days from existence.
“I can’t believe you came back,” he murmurs into my hair.
His chest rumbles beneath my ear with each word, and beneath that, there’s his steady, soothing heartbeat. “When I saw you running up the driveway?—”
His voice breaks, and I feel it—the way his arms tighten around me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear again if he lets go.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper against his skin. He smells like cedar and soap andCaleb. “I’m so sorry I left. I thought—I thought it was the right thing. For you. For your mom?—”
“Shh.” His lips find my temple. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”
I tilt my head back to look at him. The lamp on his nightstand casts golden light across his features—those sharp cheekbones, that perfect jaw, blue eyes so mercurial in the dim light. He’s looking at me like I’m something precious.
How did I ever think I could walk away from this?
“Your mom—” I start again, but he shakes his head, pain flashing across his face.
“Not right now. Is that okay?” His thumb traces my lower lip, and my breath catches.
“Of course.” I nod quickly.
It’s enough that I’m here, in his arms.
It’s enough that he’s taken me back.
He kisses me with a tenderness that makes everything in me go liquid. “We’re going to fix this. We’ll get your dad the best lawyer. We’ll prove he was protecting you from a setup. We’ll?—”
His voice gets rough with emotion, and he stops, forehead pressing against mine. We breathe the same air for a moment, inhaling each other’s exhale.
“I love you,” he says, and it sounds like a vow. “God, Harper, I love you so much. When you left, I couldn’t?—”
“I know.” My hand slides up to cup his face, feeling the slight stubble on his jaw scratch against my thumb.
I imagine I’m pressing my phantom fingerprint there, claiming him as mine forever. “I know, baby. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere ever again.”
His eyes search mine, vulnerable in a way that makes my chest ache. “Harper, Ineedto hear you say it.”
Then his gaze drops, dark lashes shadowing those deep blue eyes.
“But only if you feel it for real,” he finishes in barely a whisper.
I’ve been such a Goddamned idiot. Why have I been so scared to give this moment to him?
The words have been sitting on my tongue ever since he rescued me from that horrible party, then held me through the night, offering such complete, unselfish comfort. Or hell, maybe since the very first day I walked into that classroom and saw this beautiful boy with his color-coded binders and his careful rules and his wounded eyes.