Chapter 26 #2
I help Sierra load her trunk, fitting her bags around the supplies she brought but never used. The vibrators and toys that weren’t enough. The nest materials that now smell like all of us.
“That should do it,” she says, closing the trunk.
“Yeah.”
We stand there awkwardly for a moment. I have no idea what to say. How do you say goodbye to someone who’s become essential in the span of a week?
“Cole—” Sierra starts.
“We should exchange numbers,” I blurt out at the same time.
We both stop, startled.
“Numbers?” Sierra repeats.
“Yeah. I mean, we’re in the same industry.
We run into each other at events anyway.
Might as well be able to... to text or whatever.
” I’m rambling now, I know I am, but I can’t stop.
“Professional courtesy. Or just, you know, making sure you got home safe after the storm. That’s normal, right? That’s a thing people do?”
She’s smiling now, soft and a little sad. “Yeah, Cole. That’s a thing people do.”
We pull out our phones and exchange numbers. Then she insists on getting everyone else’s too, and suddenly we’re all standing in a circle in the driveway, programming each other into our contacts.
Like we’re making a pact.
Like we’re promising this isn’t really goodbye.
“I should probably get going,” Sierra says eventually, pocketing her phone. “Beat the traffic.”
“Right,” Malik agrees. “We should too.”
Nobody moves.
“So I’m going to get in my car now,” she continues. “And drive away. And you guys are going to do the same. And we’ll all go back to our normal lives. Right?”
“Right,” we all echo, though it sounds hollow.
Sierra takes a breath, then moves toward Jalen first. She hugs him tight, and I see his arms come around her like he’s trying to memorize the feeling.
“Thank you,” she whispers. “For everything.”
“Always,” Jalen murmurs back.
She moves to Malik next, then Dax, then finally to me. When her arms wrap around my waist, I pull her close and breathe her in one more time. Honeycomb and cherry syrup and home.
“This isn’t goodbye,” I tell her quietly. “It can’t be.”
“It’s not goodbye,” she agrees against my chest. “Just... see you later.”
“See you later,” I repeat, even though I have no idea when later will be. Or if it will happen at all.
She pulls back, and I make myself let her go.
Sierra gets in her car, starts the engine. We all stand there like idiots, watching as she backs out of the driveway. She pauses at the end, window down, looking back at us one more time.
“We’ll be right behind you,” I call out.
She nods. Gives me a soft smile. Then I watch her shoulders rise and fall in a heavy sigh before she waves.
And drives away.
We stand there for a moment, watching her car go.
“Well,” Dax says finally. “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “Fuck.”
“Get in.” Our gazes shift to Malik and without a word, we’re moving.
We load into our own truck in silence. Dax drives, Malik in the passenger seat, Jalen and me in the back. He floors it, and soon we see Sierra’s little car ahead.
A breath of relief rushes through me as we tail her, watching her drive out of our lives, even though we’re following right behind her.
Nobody speaks for the first twenty minutes of the drive.
Finally, Jalen breaks the silence.
“We can’t just let her go.”
“Jalen…” Malik releases a breath.
Jalen leans forward, intensity radiating off him. “We spent a week with her. We took care of her through her heat. We built a nest together. We... we became something. You all felt it. I know you did.”
“Of course we felt it,” Dax says roughly. “But that doesn’t mean—”
“What? That it was real? That it matters? Because it felt pretty fucking real to me.”
“To all of us,” I add quietly. “It felt real to all of us.”
Malik is quiet for a long moment, his jaw working. “She has a life in Sweetwater. A business. Friends. We can’t just expect her to upend all of that because we spent a week together during a storm.”
“I’m not saying we expect anything,” Jalen argues. “I’m saying we should at least try. Ask her if this could be something. If we could be something.”
“And if she says no?” Malik asks. “If she wants to keep things professional? Go back to being competitors?”
The thought makes my chest hurt.
“Then at least we’ll know,” Jalen says. “At least we won’t spend the rest of our lives wondering what if.”
Silence falls again. I stare out the window, watching the coastline give way to inland roads, familiar territory that feels foreign now. Everything feels different after the week we just had.
“I want to try,” I say finally. “I want to ask her. See if she feels what we feel.”
“Me too,” Jalen says immediately.
“Fuck,” Dax mutters. Then, louder: “Me too. Obviously me too.”
All eyes turn to Malik.
He’s quiet for so long, I think he might say no. Might be the voice of reason that brings us back to reality, reminds us this is crazy, that we barely know her despite the intensity of the week.
Then he sighs.
“We’d have to do this right,” he says. “We have one shot at this.”
“Agreed,” Jalen says.
“And if she needs time, we give her time. If she says no, we respect that.”
“Of course.”
We all face forward, watching Sierra’s little car before us, and a slow smile spreads on my face.
Because we’re going to try.
And we may actually have a shot at this.