I drop my backpack next to the coatrack, kick off my shoes, and file into the kitchen, just as my phone buzzes with a message from my one and only. I let out a relieved sigh when I read it.
Jace:Intercepted. Lam was already opening it.
I snort. Wouldn’t have expected otherwise. It would surprise me if the guy didn’t try sniffing the box too, just out of pure dumb curiosity. I swear, I’m going to label things asradioactivejust to keep them out of reach.
After grabbing two bottles of Vitamin Water, a couple of granola bars for myself, and a bag of pretzels for Jace, I veer around the corner and immediately halt in my tracks.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have picturedEvbehind a damn console, yet here he is, gaming like his life depends on it, his broad shoulders hunched forward. And he’s not alone. Tuck, Miles, and Raf are all crowded around him, cheering him on as he’sobliteratingLamar, according to the stats.
“Really? Does no one have class anymore these days?” I deadpan.
“We’re all skipping the last lecture,” Tuck says, eyes still on the screen. “If we want to be on time in LA, we have to leave soon.”
“Jodie’s getting nervous,” Ev adds, calmly aiming down the sight at poor Lamar sprinting between two buildings. “You’ve got twenty to freshen up.”
I almost want to utter ayes, siragain, but I’d never hear the end of it if Jace caught wind of that. Not after last time.
“He’s fucking good at this. Did you know that?” Rafa says, smile broad, stars in his damn eyes as they flick between Ev and the screen. He’s been like that ever since Ev and Jace showed up the day before yesterday. Tuck told me it took them two hours to stop his ranting about Jace when I went upstairs. And it tookmultiplebribes to make sure he kept his damn mouth shut to the rest of the team.
Yup. No one knows Jace is here. And for now, we’re keeping it that way. Hedesperatelyneeds his rest.Weneed the rest. The last eight months wrecked him, wreckedus, and the disaster that was the last show? Didn’t help.
So we’re keeping it under wraps, letting him breathe, letting himbe. As far as the outside world’s concerned, he’s still holed up on that stupid bus.
The guys all let out a chorus of shouts just as Lam yells, “What the fuck, man!”
Guess Ev nuked him. I suppose Jace wasn’t the only one who got bored out of his mind on those endless drives.
Shaking my head with a half-smile, I take a step back toward the stairs.
“Remember. Twenty minutes,” Ev calls without looking away from the screen. “No shenanigans.”
I salute him and head upstairs with my snack stash. When I open my bedroom door, I freeze for a second and fucking exhale.
Jace is sitting up against my headboard, my laptop balanced on his knees, looking up at me with a smile so genuine it knocks the fucking wind out of me. The sadness, sorrow, and strain still cling to the edges of him, but it’s tucked behind something softer now. Safer. Like he’s letting himself believe again that we’ll be okay.
I swear my heart skips a fucking beat every time I see him, every time my eyes land on him, which has been a lot these past few days. He’s barely left my side, like we’re both too scared tolet go again. Yesterday, we didn’t even leave the house. We slept in, stayed wrapped around each other in my bed, tangled up in warmth and skin and the kind of silence that says everything. We didn’t do a damn thing exceptexisttogether,breatheeach other in like we’d been starving.
I skipped class.
Skipped practice.
Skipped the world.
All I did was take care of my man. Just like he took care of me. Not with grand gestures or big words, but by being here.Home.By taking up space in my life again; in my bed, in my arms, where he fucking belongs.
But still… some part of me can’t wrap my head around it. That he’s really here. That this,us,together, isn’t just a dream I’ve woken up from too many times before.
He’s in my room. On my bed. Wearing a pair ofmyold joggers and a beat-up Tigers shirt that is just slightly too big on his frame, even though I know we’ve got boxes of his own damn stuff collecting dust in the attic. Stuff and clothing he left behind when they went on tour. Stuff he didn’t take with him when he moved out of his and Missy’s apartment.
It feels like another life. Like a version of us I barely recognize anymore.
And now that he’s here, now that I have him back, I know one thing with every damn part of me: I’mneverletting him go again. This was the last time we’ll be apart forthislong. I’ll make it my mission, my fucking purpose, to keep him close. To keep uswhole.
He’s a goddamn masterpiece. His blonde hair pushed back just the way I like it, those ridiculous bright-gray eyes glinting again with mischief and meaning, and that smirk, thatdamnsmirk full of mischief, is back on his lips like it never left.
And fuck, I missed him so badly it still hurts like a motherfucker. I press a hand over my chest, like I can hold it all in, everything that’s swelling inside me, everything that’s threatening to spill over.
Then I follow his gaze and the amused glint inside it… Because there, lying neatly at his bare feet, is the box.
