Chapter 8
Sumner
I had to tell him because hiding it felt wrong. I watched his face and knew he didn’t believe me at first, but the longer we stood there, the more he understood I wasn’t joking.
He furrowed his brows and shook his head. “Come again?”
“Joey’s alive,” I said.
Sly dropped his face into his hand, muttered a curse, then looked up. “Of course he’s fucking alive. Unbelievable.”
I just nodded, because I’d been shocked too when he suddenly moved after Sly left.
“How? What happened after I left?”
The grocery store wasn’t the best place to talk about this, but pretending we could shop first and talk later felt worse. I took a deep breath, took one step closer to him, and told him everything.
“After you left, I went to call the cops and an ambulance to tell them there was a dead man in my house. When I came back with my phone, Joey was moving and groaning. I stood there wondering if I’d gone mad, and if I had been imagining everything. To be fair, it was a strange night.”
Sly pressed his lips together and shrugged, like he hadn’t helped make it strange.
“He’d lost a lot of blood. He was drowsy and confused. I called an ambulance, helped him sit up, and kept pressure on the wound. Before they arrived, I took the tape off his arms and legs. When they got there, they loaded him fast and took him to the hospital without asking many questions.”
I paused and slowed my breathing. I was talking too fast. Sly watched me the whole time, thoughts flickering behind his eyes, trying to make sense of it.
“I followed to the hospital. They stapled the wound, ran scans, and did some tests. Then the doctor hit me with something that gave me relief and also upset me.”
“And what’s that?”
I studied him for a second. I’d thought about lying, just to make it easier. But he didn’t deserve a lie. For five days, stalking and all, he’d been making sure I was okay. That alone was more care than Joey ever managed. Sly never meant any harm toward me.
“Joey lost his memory that night. And he lost memory of me.”
Something sparked in Sly’s eyes. It was a surprise, and a thin strip of gloating he tried to smother. He bit the inside of his cheek and looked at the floor, sorting himself out.
“So…the man slams his head on a table, passes out, bleeds like a waterfall, and loses the one piece of information I actually respected him for knowing.” His gaze lifted to mine as he threw his hands into the air. “Perfect. Ten out of ten.”
I pressed my lips into a line. “Thought you’d be excited. You got the easy way out. Again.”
“I’m not exactly excited he’s alive. That goes against everything I’ve planned since I was young. Since the early days of his tormenting me. Hell, I crossed his death off my kill list that night. I can’t uncross it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you made it about you. There’s something seriously wrong with you, Sly. I said he’s alive and has major memory loss, and you centered yourself.”
“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” His face softened almost immediately. “Fuck. I’m sorry. You’re right. This isn’t about me.”
He took a small step toward me and reached for my hand. I pulled back before he could touch me. I wasn’t ready for that. I needed him to stay back for now.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, quieter this time. “I guess you’re out, too. I mean, if he doesn’t remember you, you’re surely not going to remind him about your relationship.”
No, I wouldn’t. I’d be stupid. I didn’t want to get back with him and act like all the abuse never happened. Just because he couldn’t remember, it didn’t mean I didn’t.
“No,” I said. “I’m not going back to him.”
“Good. So you’re single.”
“Sly.” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “That’s not the point.”
“Yeah, shit. I know.” He moved but stopped himself from reaching for me again. “I don’t know everything he put you through. I do know you’re better off without him, and you deserve better. I’m not saying I’m everything you need. But I’m saying I’d treat you how you deserve to be treated.”
Those were big words. I’d heard big words before, followed by the opposite. I wanted to believe him. I knew it wasn’t fair to put him in the same box as Joey because of my history, but I couldn’t let another man in unless I knew he was worth it.
I studied him, then gave a small smile. “I can’t let you get close to me. Not right now.”
“I get it.” His voice stayed steady. The cockiness dropped for once. “I’ll give you whatever space you need. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
Any other woman’s heart would’ve melted at those words. Mine didn’t. I’d learned not to open so fast, especially after the damage Joey did. It took me too long to admit that his behavior toward me wasn’t okay.
I waited to speak until the woman debating tissues finally moved on. “I’ll be okay eventually. I don’t need you to stick around.”
“But I want to,” he said.
“Why?” I asked, brows pulled tight.
“Because…” He dragged his fingers through his hair, looking a little wrecked and unsure.
I hadn’t seen that on him before, and it did something to me.
He wasn’t afraid to show emotions, something Joey never did.
Unless it was anger. That red flag faded over time because I got used to it. That was on me.
“Because when you walked in, that was it for me,” he said.
“Something shifted in me. I don’t know every detail of what he did to you, but I saw it in your eyes that you’ve been hurting because of him.
Maybe I’ve got a hero complex and want to save you from your past, but I truly want to be there and treat you with the respect you deserve. From the first second I saw you—”
A woman eased her cart between us and reached for the tissue boxes as if we were scenery. Sly exhaled, throwing his hands up. “Ma’am, we’re having a serious, honest conversation here.”
I watched as she gave him an annoyed look. “There are coffee shops for that. You’re in my way.”
I pressed my lips together to keep the smile in. Since Sly crashed into my life, I’d wanted to laugh more than I had in years. That meant something. He was an honest man who could make me laugh without trying hard. I’ve not felt the pull of a real smile in years. Joey never gave me a reason to.
It had to mean something. A guy who could make me smile without effort, and who spoke openly and honestly without me dragging it out of him.
Sly grabbed two boxes of tissues and dropped them into her cart. “There. Emergency solved. Now excuse me while I convince this beautiful woman I’m worth having around.”
The woman stared at him, then at me. “I don’t know this man, but he’s obnoxious. You might want to rethink this.”
My eyes flicked to Sly. His mouth hung open like she’d slapped him across the face. She wasn’t wrong. He was obnoxious, but in a fun way I didn’t mind.
“Take that back,” he said, frowning at her.
“No.” She pushed the cart forward, but Sly wasn’t done.
“That’s the thanks I get?” He set his helmet on the shelf, reached into her cart, and pulled the tissues out again. “You don’t deserve my kindness.
“Put those back,” she snapped, grabbing for the boxes. “You can’t undo a favor.”
“It wasn’t a favor,” he said. “It was a ‘here are your tissues, now please vacate the aisle so I can ask this woman for her number without a live studio audience.’”
“Young people,” she muttered, tugging harder. “You think you’re the only ones here and forget the older generation.”
“I do not forget you,” he said, offended. “I’m a decent twenty-eight-year-old man trying to demonstrate decency, but you’re making it really hard for me.”
I was unable to hold back my smile any longer, and I let it escape. The woman yanked the tissues free, then gave him a light punch to the arm on principle. “You should rethink this,” she told me, then rolled away.
Sly rubbed his arm with a scowl. “Witch.”
“That was…unexpectedly fun,” I said.
He blew out a breath and faced me again.
“I’m sorry, Sumner. I know I haven’t made the best impression.
Feels like everything I say argues against me.
I just want one chance. To show you I mean it when I say I want you to be okay.
I want to get to know you. I want to give you what you need.
If what you need is space, you get space.
If what you need is help, I’ll help. If what you need is for me to disappear, I'll disappear.”
We stood there in silence for a moment while I let his words settle between us.
They sounded like something I wanted to believe, but it wasn’t easy to accept that someone might actually try to be what I needed.
Part of me still wanted to tell him to vanish, to close the conversation before it opened a door I didn’t fully trust.
I worried about the backlash. People would have questions.
Why I left Joey, why I’d chosen to walk away after everything he’d lost, why I hadn’t stayed to explain or forgive or fix something that wasn’t mine to fix.
I imagined the looks, the judgment. I wasn’t ready to be judged for the trauma Joey put me through.
Sly didn’t offer judgment. He offered help and a willingness to wait. That was new. The only problem was that I didn’t yet know exactly what I needed. I hadn’t figured that out for myself.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a second before looking at him again. “Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Yeah. Fine.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and handed it to him. “Give me your number.”
He hesitated but took it from my hand quickly, like he was worried I would put it away again. He tapped his number in with that impatient hope flashing on his face. Then he handed the phone back, his expression surprised, his lips slightly parted.
“If I want to hear from you, I’ll use it,” I said.
“Understood,” he replied with a nod.
“And you’re going to stop standing outside my house,” I added.
He went quiet, and I raised a brow. “Sly.”
“How will I know you’re okay?” he asked, sounding defensive.
“Trust me,” I said. “I need time to sort this. Give me space. Don’t stand outside my house. Don’t camp on the street.”
He exhaled and let his head hang low, looking defeated. But then he agreed with a nod. “Okay.”
“And you won’t follow me around.”
He pursed his lips. “I’ll have to think about that.”
“Sly. I mean it. No stalking. Not that you’re very good at it anyway.”
“Fair enough.”
“No stalking,” I repeated.
He pressed his lips together, jaw tightening. “Fine.”
“If we bump into each other somewhere,” I said, “we say hello and that’s it. We don’t turn it into a conversation.”
“Got it.”
“And if I tell you to leave, you leave. No arguments.”
“Yup.”
It seemed like he was learning about boundaries for the first time, and to be fully honest, it was adorable.
Even if he was a grown man, Sly had something youthful about him.
It pulled me to him when all I wanted was to keep my distance.
That’s why these boundaries had to be created.
He was truly listening to me, which didn’t help with my attraction for him.
No. Scratch that. No attraction.
I couldn’t be attracted to him.
Not this soon.
We stood there in silence again, just two people who had briefed each other on what would or wouldn’t happen next. And I was pretty happy with the outcome.
“Okay, then.” I gave him a tight smile and picked up my basket. “Have a good day.”
He frowned, showing just how unhappy he was with my decision to end this conversation so abruptly. His body tensed as he battled with himself, trying to fight the urge to protest, then he nodded once and said, “You too.”
I looked at him for another second before turning away and leaving him in the aisle. I didn’t look back. Didn’t check if he was following me. I just went to checkout and left the store with just the security of knowing he had my back whenever I needed it.
That was enough for now. It had to be.