I bit my lip.
Then I gave him quiet.
And I endured his heavy mood all the way home without sleep not having any idea the worst was yet to come.
Chapter Seventeen
Always
It was very late when we hit my apartment, after one in the morning.
The drive had been silent, Chace’s mood not lifting, not in the slightest.
The very much shorter walk up my stairs to my apartment had been silent too.
I was wandering the space, turning on lights, trying to decide what to do, what to say and wishing I could go to the bathroom and call Laurie, Lexie, Krys or Twyla to ask when Chace spoke.
“Headin’ home.”
I was standing on my side of the bed, turning on the light but at his words, like a shot, my back went straight and my eyes cut to him standing in his coat by the door.
Since the night he took my virginity, we never slept apart. Not once. We never even went to bed without the other.
Not once.
I didn’t have a good feeling about this.
“What?” I whispered.
He didn’t repeat himself.
Instead, he said, “You go on to your folks tomorrow without me. I’ll call you Monday. Maybe Tuesday.”
Monday?
Maybe Tuesday?
A chill slid over my skin even though I still had my coat on but I didn’t move a muscle and stared at him.
He finished, “Later, Faye.”
Later, Faye?
No kiss. No touch. No darlin’, honey or baby.
Just later, Faye.
He was at the door when I called on a stammer, “I… you… Chace, what’s going on?”
He turned at the door and leveled his eyes on me. “Need space, you do too. This is happening fast. Too fast for me, where I am. Too fast for you, this bein’ your first relationship. Just slowin’ us down, givin’ us time, takin’ that time to sort my head.”
Sort his head?
What was there to sort?
My heart started pumping so hard, I could actually feel it.
“I… I don’t… it doesn’t feel fast,” I told him cautiously.