Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
HAYES
My eyes opened and went to the alarm clock beside my bed—five fifteen, just like clockwork. My alarm wasn’t set to go off for another forty-five minutes, but I’d been like that since leaving the Corps.
The only difference between all those other mornings and this one was that when I woke up, I did it with a huge fucking smile on my lips.
Scrubbing at my face with one hand, I used the other to reach across the bed and pull Tempie’s warm, soft body against me. Only she wasn’t there.
“Fuck,” I hissed, shooting up and looking in that direction.
My heart sank like a stone in water and rage filled my veins as I jumped out of the bed and pulled my jeans back on, not bothering with the button once I had them in place and zipped up.
The sheets were still warm and the pillow was depressed from where her head had been resting, so she couldn’t have been gone long.
Thinking I could catch her in the parking lot and do exactly what I’d promised the night before—tan her ass for bailing on me—I started out of the bedroom and down the hall at a quick clip.
“Son of a bitch.”
I jerked to a stop, relief flooding through me as I whipped my head toward the kitchen to find Temperance standing there in nothing but my shirt from the night before.
The sleeves were rolled up, and the hem hit her at mid-thigh.
Her hair hung loose and wild all around her, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen her more beautiful than she was right then.
“What are you doin’?”
She pointed a fork at me and shot me a glare. “You’re supposed to be asleep,” she said in lieu of a response. “How am I supposed to surprise you with breakfast in bed if you’re awake?”
I turned my attention to the stove. My one and only shitty pan was on a burner, and six pieces of bacon were crackling inside of it.
It was only then that the smells penetrated the frantic anger I’d been feeling at the thought of Tempie running out on me, and the tension in my shoulders melted completely away.
“I woke up and you weren’t beside me,” I said quietly as I moved into the kitchen. Taking the fork from her, I tossed it aside, then pulled her into my arms and held her close, finally able to relax now that she was pressed against me. “I thought you left.”
Those expressive eyes filled with sadness as she pressed her palms deeper into my chest. “I promised I wouldn’t, honey.”
Resting my forehead against hers, I closed my eyes and pulled in her intoxicating scent. “I know. And I’m sorry for freaking out. This is just gonna take some getting used to, you know? I’ve dreamed about getting you back for twenty-one years, angel, but I never really thought it would happen.”
Her fingers pressed beneath my chin, forcing my head up.
When I opened my eyes, I was hit with her beautiful smile, and I knew the truth right then and there.
I’d never fallen out of love with Temperance Levine.
She’d burrowed into my heart when I was fifteen years old, and she’d never left.
She was the reason I never moved on, never met someone and started a family.
She was the reason I lived in this shithole apartment.
Because I couldn’t imagine my life without her, I’d spent the past twenty-one years in a holding pattern, simply existing instead of living.
But all it took was that one smile and the shadows that had been casting my world in gray dreariness burned off, and the sun shined through, bright and brilliant.
“You have nothing to apologize for, Hayes.” Then her smile fell away and a fake scowl took its place. “Except maybe ruining my surprise.”
I let out a chuckle and pressed my lips against hers. “Hate to break it to you, baby, but I haven’t slept past five fifteen since I turned twenty. But you wanna make me breakfast in bed, I’ll be happy to climb back into it and act surprised if it makes you feel better.”
She let out a giggle and gave me a playful shove, putting pressure on my arms until I let go so she could move back to the stove and turn the bacon. “No point in that now. You’ve ruined it. You’ll just have to eat breakfast sitting in a chair like a normal person.”
“Need help with anything?” I asked, pressing against her back and speaking the words against that spot on her neck that never failed to make her shiver.
She did just that and leaned back into me, her voice growing a bit husky as she answered, “Could you start the coffee? The bacon’s about done, and the eggs’ll only take a minute.”
“You got it, angel.”
I moved around the kitchen, filling the pot and dumping the water into the machine before setting it to brew.
Once it started, I rested back against the opposite counter and crossed my arms and legs as I watched her work.
“Eggs and bacon sound great, Tempie. Haven’t had a normal breakfast in forever. ”
“What do you usually do in the mornings?” she asked as she started cracking eggs into a bowl.
“I usually just have coffee. Or I stop off at Muffin Top on the way to the station if there’s time.”
She looked over her shoulder at me as she started whisking and gave me a little tsk. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And I actually am a good cook. I wanted to do pancakes or French toast too, but seeing as you live like a frat guy, I was lucky you even had eggs.”
The coffee finished gurgling, and I grabbed two mugs from the cupboard above. “Next time you cook for me, we’ll do it at the farmhouse. I’m sure you got that place stocked up. How do you take your coffee, baby?”
“Usually with creamer, but since all that’s left in your fridge is mustard, beer, milk, and what I hope to god is cheese, I’ll take a splash of milk and two sugars.
” I drank mine black, so I set about doctoring her coffee as she continued to talk.
“And speaking of the farmhouse, I need to get back there to take care of Stargazer and Cat.”
I tried not to choke on the sip I’d just taken as I asked through a laugh, “You named your cat Cat?”
“Well, she’s not actually mine.” Tempie smiled and tipped the skillet sideways, dumping fluffy eggs onto the plates next to the bacon. “She kinda came with the house. She’s a wild barn cat, but Reenie kept her fed enough to spoil her, and now she expects me to do the same.”
“And Stargazer?”
“Reenie’s horse.” Her expression softened, her voice coming out hushed as she said, “Well, I guess my horse now. She got her a few years back and asked me to name her.”
My body froze, every muscle pulling tight as my eyes met hers. I could read clear as day what she was saying with them as she looked at me. Fuck me. She’d named that horse for me.
Back when we were together, we used to drive my beat-up pickup truck out to a small pond on her family’s land and camp out in the back of it, staring up at the stars for hours as we talked and, when she got older, made love beneath them.
That was the spot where she’d given herself to me for the first time.
To this day, that was the best gift I’d ever received, and I remembered every single thing about that night like it was burned into my brain for eternity.
Besides our spot in the woods, that pond had been the place we’d escape to for some privacy.
“Angel,” I whispered, my chest aching.
She came closer, a plate in her hand, and stopped an inch away. “I never forgot, Hayes. Not for a single moment.”
Goddamn it. She was undoing me.
Before I could say anything else, she handed me the plate and commanded, “Eat. You need to fuel up if you’re gonna spend your day hunting down bad guys.”
I stayed on my feet, choosing to hold my plate so I could watch her unimpeded as I dug into my breakfast. Tempie hopped up on the counter across from me, crossing her ankles together and swinging them to-and-fro as she bit into a strip of perfectly cooked bacon.
Lifting her mug to her lips, she took a swallow before turning her attention back to me. “You know, since we’re starting over and being totally honest, I want you to know that I forgave you for what happened with Krista a long time ago.”
My fork stopped halfway to my mouth. “What?”
Her eyes once again glinted with sadness before she dropped her head and spoke in a low voice.
“I knew I made a mistake, Hayes. It took me a while to find the courage to make it right, but when I went to meet you that night in the woods, I was going to ask you to forgive me for ruining what we had. But when you never showed….” She squeezed her eyes closed as though she were in physical pain.
At her words, something dark and ugly slithered up my spine. “Temperance.”
She gave her head a shake, lifting her watery eyes to me and asking, “Why didn’t you come?” on an agonized whisper.
My gut twisted into knots, and suddenly every breath I took felt like being stabbed with millions of tiny needles. “Baby, what are you talkin’ about?”
Her head cocked to the side, and her brows drew together in confusion. “You left me a note, Hayes. The night my parents….” She paused and swallowed audibly. “It was on my bed. You asked me to meet you at our spot that night. I waited for over an hour, but you never came”
Texting wasn’t a thing back when we were together, so Tempie and I had come up with different form of communication.
We’d pass notes, in school and out of it.
If she wasn’t home and I wanted to see her, I’d climb through the bedroom window she always left unlocked for me and leave a note on her bed telling her where to meet and what time.
She’d always loved it, claiming it felt secretive and forbidden.
She’d get my note and show up at our spot without fail, usually so turned on by having to sneak around that I’d barely get a word out before she jumped me.
I remembered every single word written on every note we’d ever exchanged.
Except for the one she was talking about now.
Goose bumps broke out along my arms. “Temperance, I didn’t leave you a note that night.”
“What are you talking about?” she clipped in agitation. “Of course you did. I didn’t imagine it.”
Dropping my plate to the counter, I closed the distance between us, grabbing her knees and spreading her thighs so I could fit my hips between them.
“Baby, I swear to Christ, I didn’t leave you a note.
I thought we were done, and I spent that night doing what I’d been doing every night since you broke up with me.
I went out with some of the guys and got hammered to try and forget how fuckin’ miserable I was. ”
Her eyes went wide as shock and fear flooded through them. “What?” she asked brokenly. “But… I saw it, Hayes. It was right there on my pillow where you always left them.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around what she was telling me.
For twenty-one years I’d driven myself crazy, trying to figure out where she’d been that night, why she wasn’t in her house when her parents were attacked.
After their funeral when everyone had gathered back at the farmhouse, I’d tried to talk to her, but she’d looked at me with so much hatred and sadness in her eyes before hissing, “This is all your fault.” That was the last time we spoke before she left town.
I didn’t understand then why she’d blamed me, but now that I did, and I was more confused than ever.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” she said, echoing exactly what I was thinking.
Reaching up to cup her jaw, I asked, “You remember what the note said?”
She gave her head a tiny shake. “Not word for word, but you apologized for sleeping with Krista and asked me to meet you at our spot in the woods.”
I wracked my brain, trying to come up with a logical explanation for everything, but none of this made any damn sense.
“Maybe you just don’t remember,” she tried to reason. “You said it yourself, you’d been drinking a lot. Maybe you were just drunk and don’t remember leaving it.”
I didn’t bother arguing, I could already see in her eyes that she knew the truth. She was just struggling to accept it.
“I don’t want you to worry about this,” I said, cupping her jaw in a gesture of comfort.
“Are you serious?” she snapped somewhat hysterically. “How do you expect me not to worry about this? I mean, what the hell? Who left that note, Hayes?”
“I don’t know, angel, but I’m gonna find out, okay? I promise I’ll find out what happened that night. You have my word.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down.
“You trust me?” I pushed, wanting desperately to ease her mind.
“Of course,” she answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“Then you can trust me on this, okay? I’ll figure out what happened. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about. Odds are it was just some asshole kid pullin’ a practical joke that went bad.”
I didn’t buy what I was telling her for one goddamn second, but I could see some of her tension drifting away as I spoke, and if that helped calm her down, I’d take it.
“You really think so?”
“Yeah,” I answered. I hated that I was lying to her, but no matter what the case was, I’d find out and I’d make it right. That was all she needed to concern herself with. “You know as well as I do that teenagers can be little shitheads.”
“Yeah,” she said on a breath, a shaky smile stretching across her lips. “Yeah, you’re right. Man, teenagers suck.”
A loud laugh rumbled up from my chest. “Yeah they do.”
“Were we ever as obnoxious and annoying as the kids you see today?”
“Of course not,” I replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “The level of awesome we were canceled out any chance of being obnoxious or annoying.”
“True.” That smile grew bigger and steadier. “We were pretty badass, weren’t we?”
I gave my head a shake and leaned forward, her mouth too goddamn tempting to ignore. “Absolutely. The badass-est.”
She giggled against my lips. “The most badass in all the land.”
“People in town talk like our relationship was a fairy tale anyway, so it only makes sense that we’d be the most badass in all the land.”
“You know what?” she asked, lifting her arms and wrapping them around my neck. “I think I’m starting to like that the town talks about us.”
For twenty-one years, I’d been hearing the town rumblings about me and Tempie, and for twenty-one years, it set my teeth on edge. But now, with Tempie pressed against me, her arms holding on tightly, I suddenly found that I didn’t mind the gossip at all.
“Me too, angel.”