Repeat - Kylie Scott Page 0,47
the blanket. “Where did you go?”
“Just walked around for a while.” He pauses. “Is that my shirt?”
“Yes.”
His brows rise. “You’re wearing my shirt?”
I’m too tired to be embarrassed. “It smells good. It’s comforting.”
“Okay.” He exhales and holds out a hand. “Come to bed.”
“Are you sure? You don’t have to do this just to be kind, you know?”
He twitches his fingers impatiently and I take them, letting him lead me into the hallway. The door to the spare room is shut so Leif must have already crashed. A bedside lamp is on in Ed’s room. A good thing. Not sure I could handle the brighter glare of the overhead light right now. He closes the door, slips off his sneakers and socks before taking off his shirt. Undoes his jeans and slides them down his legs. Holy shit, the hard planes of his chest and the sight of his black boxer briefs. All of a sudden, I’m wide awake. His strong thighs, his knees, even the light hairs on his legs are sexy. I turn my back on the ridiculously unintendedly hot striptease before I spontaneously orgasm or something. So I now know Ed dresses to the left. There you go.
I climb onto my side of the bed and get comfortable. Maybe tomorrow I should just hide out in a closet. Take a mental health day and disappear from the world for a while. It might be best. Having all of the details about our breakup come out has been emotionally exhausting. Perhaps I should ask Ed if he wants to hide out with me. It’s been hellish for him too.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, lying down on his side of the bed.
“Hiding out in a closet for a while. Taking a mini-break from life tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.”
“Well, you’d be very welcome. We’d just have to find a closet big enough for both of us.”
“Hmm.”
I roll over to face him. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry again because I’ve said that so many times and past a certain point it doesn’t really work, does it?”
“Still think I didn’t cheat on you?”
“I know you didn’t. It’s just not you.” So many feelings. It’s a lot to deal with. I turn onto my back, staring at the ceiling and around the walls. “Wonder if we’ll ever know what the hell was going on in my head back then?”
He makes a noise in his throat.
“Hey, is that Tessa?” I ask, pointing at the charcoal drawing of a woman’s lower back. The curve of hips and rounds of her ass cheeks. Probably not the wisest question, but whatever.
“Of course not. It’s you.”
“Oh.”
“Like I’d hang up a naked picture of another woman in our bedroom,” he says, shaking his head. “Haven’t been able to bring myself to take it down yet. First week after you left, I just drank. I was a fucking mess. Couldn’t believe it, you know? You’d always been a little insecure, but I thought we had it under control. I thought you knew how I felt . . .”
“Then you started dating other women a week or two later,” I add helpfully.
He cuts me a look. Not angry. Surprised maybe.
“All right. So maybe I’m a little upset about your swift timeline for that particular decision. And I’m not even going to bring up the whole issue regarding taking someone to my favorite restaurant, because . . . well, just because.”
“Clem, you left me,” he says. “Whatever version of yourself you’re currently operating as, you were the one that did the leaving. The dumping. So you don’t get to be upset about that.”
“Fine. Whatever.”
Weirdly enough, he smiles. Like he enjoys me being jealous or something. Though Lord only knows what the man actually thinks. “Then Tessa and Nevin kicked my ass and reminded me that I had a business to run, regardless of where you were at. So I pulled my shit together and . . . yeah. The dating was like the drinking. Me trying to distract myself from being fucking miserable twenty-four seven.”
“Frances said I was a mess too.”
He nods.
I go back to staring at the ceiling. It’s safer than ogling him. “Today was a big day. A lot happened and there is much to digest.”
Silence.
“What are you thinking about now?” he asks, face open and unguarded for about the first time in forever. The man’s even more beautiful this way. “Clem?”
“Lots of things. Beauty. Heartbreak. Loss. And sex, of course. I mean, we’re lying in bed together so