“I’m gonna save you in here as Red, but can I have your actual name?”
“Isabel.”
“Isabel…” he says, trying it out on his tongue.
“And yours?” I ask.
“Hunter, your future boyfriend. No…your future husband.”
This time I laugh so loud, I get an angryshhfrom the librarian, so I cover my mouth.
“Why are you laughing?”
“It’s a bit overkill, don’t you think?”
“No,” he replies, looking offended. Then he leans in and changes my perception of everything. Drowning out everything around me, he whispers, “I don’t normally do this. I don’t talk to women or hit on random girls in libraries. I don’t even like to start conversations, but I would do all of that just to get to know you. I would do anything to get to know you. That’s not overkill. That’s fate.”
I’m yankedfrom the memory by the sound of Drake ascending the stairs. As he passes by my open door, I call out to him.
“Sleep in here. Please.”
His steps freeze in the hallway. A moment later, the light goes off as he presses open the bedroom door. Quietly, he creeps into the room.
“Are you sure?” he whispers.
I don’t answer. I just reach for him.
Without a word, he slips off his clothes and crawls into my bed next to me. I press myself against him, using his arm as a pillow and breathing in his familiar scent. It’s not Hunter, but it’s literally the closest thing I have at the moment. It’s enough to make the tears dry up.
“He’s coming back,” he whispers. “He couldn’t stay away from you if he tried.”
“What if he doesn’t?” I ask, my voice shaking.
“That’s impossible, Isabel. You are his entire world. You never saw the way he changed for you, but I did. He dideverythinghe could to deserve you.”
“And now he’s doing this to deserve you,” I reply quietly into the space between his neck and shoulder. Drake stiffens.
“I never should have complicated things. This is all my fault.”
My head snaps back as I stare up at him. “You only did what he asked you to.”
“I pushed him. I did certain things…just to make him jealous. I knew what I was doing, and I knew he wasn’t ready.”
“Don’t blame yourself.”
“I guess while you were his whole world…he was mine.”
My heart splinters as I stare at him. My sweet, open-hearted Drake. He has spent his entire life loving a man obsessed with someone else—someoneI’vehad. How does he not hate me?
Because this is just who Drake is. He might be too giving with his body and his attention, but his heart has always been loyal.
With absolutely no motive in mind, I wrap my hand around the back of his neck and pull his mouth to mine, a simple, closed-mouth kiss, just so I can breathe him in. When our mouths part, he kisses my forehead and pulls me closer. We lie like that until sleep takes us, and my dreams pick up where my memory in the library left off.
Rule #35: Don’t be afraid of change. It usually grows back.
Drake
Two monthslater