with me? I had a good thing. A very good thing. Piper had been the only woman to put up with my shit but also called me out when I fucked up.
My phone took that moment to vibrate in my pocket. Pulling it out, I didn’t bother checking the display and answered. “Yeah.”
When no answer came, I sat up straighter.
“Hello?” I stood and headed into the house.
No one answered. Instead, all I got was static. I heard what sounded like a car off in the distance.
When I went to demand who was there, the line went dead. Checking the phone, I saw that it was an unknown number.
“Jaron?”
My head snapped up.
Piper stood at the entrance to the kitchen. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Wrong number,” I told her, shoving the phone in my pocket. “I’ll lock up, but I think I’m going to check out that surprise.”
She nodded. “Okay. It’s all in the basement for you.”
When she went to walk by me, I grabbed her hand, stopping her from going any farther. “Thank you, Piper,” I murmured in her ear. “Thank you for everything.”
Much to my surprise, she turned in my arms and stood on tiptoes. She placed a hard peck on my mouth. “You don’t have to thank me for anything, Jaron.” She kissed me one last time before pulling away from me.
I headed to the basement door but not before I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Piper was standing at the door to our bedroom, looking my way. “Enjoy your workout, Jaron,” she said, slipping into the room, the door quietly shutting behind her.
The silence surrounding me suddenly became loud, the demons of what I had done while in jail, screaming for that release. But like normal, I ignored them, and I knew that if I didn’t talk about it, they would eventually take over.
Piper
After I left Jaron standing in the living room, I quickly headed to our bedroom. I went to get changed into pajamas when my gaze landed on his white t-shirt sitting on the edge of my bed. I couldn’t even remember when he had put it there.
Stripping out of my clothes, I threw them in the laundry hamper. My gaze flicked back to his shirt. Lifting it to my nose, I inhaled. It smelled of spice and him. Everything that made up Jaron.
I slipped the worn fabric over my head and down my naked body. The Hell’s Harlem logo sat above my left breast. I fisted the fabric and brought it back up to my nose. The scent of him washed over me, my nipples hardening. That familiar ache settled between my thighs.
My gaze flicked to the door. When I didn’t hear anything, my stomach fell that he wasn’t coming to join me. He said he was going to check out his surprise but a part of me hoped that he would join me instead. Not that I expected anything more than for him to just sleep beside me. But I wanted him to hold me. To tell me that everything would be okay. That we would be okay.
We went into this backwards. Before we actually became an us and I wanted to do everything I could to make it work. But I couldn’t do it without him.
Taking a deep breath and then another, I let my feet guide me to the door. Leaving my bedroom, I headed out into the living room and saw that Jaron was nowhere to be found.
Deciding to check to see if he did go into the basement, I went down the stairs leading to the surprise Cyrus, Sammy, and I had done up for Jaron. It was my idea. I wanted to give him something as a form of therapy. Something that could help him out of his head, and I knew from speaking with Gigi, that working out could help.
Once I stood on the other side of the door that led to the home gym, I chewed my bottom lip. What would I even say to him? I could work out with him, but it wasn’t like I was exactly dressed for lifting weights.
I lifted my hand to knock but hesitated. I could hear the weights moving. I hoped that it would become a routine for Jaron. To give him something that felt…normal. He had said that he wasn’t used to it being so quiet. As much as I was sure there were things about jail that he didn’t want to remember, working out was