Chapter 18 Wren
WREN
Iblinked against the late morning light bleeding through my sheer curtains, my limbs heavy and tangled in sheets I didn’t remember crawling under.
Hungover. Horny. Haunted. The triple H. Great combo.
It took a full minute before I even reached for my phone, still sitting half-buried under the pillow beside me. The screen lit up instantly.
Twenty-three unread messages.
Most of them are from Harper.
I groaned, rubbing the sleep from my eyes before unlocking it.
Harp [1:30 AM]
hey babe u ok??? where’d you guys end up going?
Harp [1:35 AM]
wren??
Harp [1:36 AM]
please tell me you’re safe!
Harp [1:38 AM]
omg reed just texted me. is everything okay??
Harp [2:16 AM]
just text me SOMETHING. literally anything. i’m freaking out over here.
Harp [2:37 AM]
ok i’m trying not to spiral but i swear to god if he hurt you again I’m burning that whole house down
Harp [2:51 AM]
also lena threw up in the rose bushes outside of her apartment. rip to that landscaping.
I smiled, despite the tightness creeping into my chest. Harper was my best friend. She was full of drama, chaos, and unconditional love wrapped up in winged eyeliner and moonstone jewelry.
I started typing a response back to the millions of texts she sent.
Me [12:11 PM]
I’m okay. I swear. I’m home. Fell asleep around 3.
I fell asleep late, with Reed still downstairs. With the ghost of his hand still tingling on my cheek. With the taste of his kiss still tucked into the corners of my mouth.
God.
I sat up slowly, my heart suddenly racing. It wasn’t a dream. None of it was. Ty. The party. The yard was spinning. His hands. My no turning into nothing. And then Reed pulled me out of it all.
“I found you in the dark.”
The words echoed through me again like they had last night. Or this morning. Time didn’t feel linear anymore.
My phone buzzed with Harper’s reply.
Harp [12:13 PM]
OH THANK GOD. ok i’m coming over in like 30. get dressed. we’re debriefing.
I let the phone fall back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment longer.
There was so much to say. To Harper. To myself. Even to Reed. But before any of that, I needed tea. And maybe to brush my teeth. I pressed the heels of my palms into my eyes, sighed, then forced myself out of bed.
I barely had time to finish my tea before I heard Harper’s secret knock. Her knock was quick, chaotic, and exactly three times like always.
She didn’t even wait for me to open the door. Just barged in the second I turned the knob, arms open like she was about to tackle me into a hug.
“You’re alive,” she gasped, stepping back to scan me like I might be missing an arm. “Okay, good. You still have your organs. I was two seconds away from killing Reed to find out what was going on.”
I gave her a sleepy grin. “All organs accounted for. Promise.”
Her bright pink hair was up in space buns, roots showing a little more than last week, her bangs that normally framed her face were pinned away with the cutest butterfly clips, and her eyes were wide under thick lashes.
She wore a cropped black hoodie and cutoff shorts that made my outfit from last night look conservative. Her face was filled with concern.
“You seriously scared the hell out of me,” she said, tossing her bag onto the arm of the couch and heading toward the kitchen.
“I kept picturing it, like, ‘Wren Found Dead in Dumpster After Ex-Boyfriend Incident’ and me crying on national TV.” She dramatically joked, using her hands to gesture as if the words were being shown around her.
I winced. “I didn’t mean to not answer you. Things just got… intense.”
The tea had finally started working its magic by the time Harper launched herself onto one of the chairs at the kitchen table, legs crossed and eyes locked on me. I leaned against the counter, clutching my mug of tea like a shield.
“You’re seriously not dead, kidnapped, or hiding a secret pregnancy?” she asked, half-joking, half-dead serious.
“Not even a little bit pregnant,” I said dryly. “And as for the rest… not yet.”
She snorted. “Okay. So—Ty?”
I sighed and nodded. Tip-toeing around the situation, I responded with a simple, “He was there.”
“You okay?”
I hesitated. “Now? Yeah. Then? Not even a little bit.”
I looked down at my chipped nail polish. “He started with small talk. Like the last six years didn’t exist. Now that I think of it, he was a total douche during that, too. Shocker, right? Then he got touchy. Flirty. Way too close.”
Harper’s face tensed, her foot tapping restlessly against the cabinet under the barstool.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No,” I said while instinctively reaching towards my jaw. “Reed found me before it went there. Thank you for texting him.”
She exhaled, some of the tightness leaving her shoulders. “I wasn’t sure if it was the right move… but when I saw who you were talking to—I just knew. I couldn’t let you be alone with him.”
I nodded. “You did the right thing.”
Before she could say anything else, the soft creak of floorboards reached us from the living room, followed by a low groan and the telltale sound of a body standing up.
Then his voice—still rough with sleep. “You two always talk this much before coffee?”
I looked up just as Reed stepped into the kitchen, his T-shirt wrinkled and his dark hair sticking up in every direction, eyes barely open. God, even first thing in the morning, he was breathtaking. My stomach flipped.
Harper smirked at him and leaned back in her seat. “Only when there’s good gossip. Morning, sunshine.”
He ignored his sister and shuffled past us toward the coffee pot, grabbing his favorite mug from the shelf like he had done a hundred times before.
I try to stay away from coffee, but I always start a pot before Harper comes over.
Chances are, if it’s before four in the afternoon, she is drinking coffee.
It seemed like after the boys turned thirty, they couldn’t start the day without a cup or four.
“Didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” he said, pouring coffee with one hand and rubbing the back of his neck with the other. “Just kind of… woke up to the sound of my name.”
I flushed. “Sorry. We didn’t mean to—”
He waved me off, glancing over his shoulder. “It’s fine. I know you guys are having your ‘yap sesh’ or whatever the fuck Harper calls it. ”
He didn’t look mad or annoyed, just really tired. Harper studied the side of his face with one eyebrow raised. “You good, Reed?”
He took a long sip of coffee, finally meeting her eyes. “I’m fine. Just—long night.”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice softer now. “You did well.”
He nodded, not saying anything, but I saw the way his jaw worked. The way his eyes flicked to me for just a second longer than they needed to.
Harper picked up on it, too. I felt it in the shift of her posture, the way her energy subtly withdrew to give us room without actually leaving.
And still, neither of us said it out loud. Not what happened. Not what almost happened.
So I just looked at him and said quietly, “Thanks for showing up last night.”
Reed’s gaze held mine, unreadable.
“Always,” he said.