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They’d cross that line they’d always stood on either side of That line had a good reason to be there It had protected his heart when she chose Cal It had cemented it when she broke with Cal and chose to run away, hide out for six months with not a word And when she came home and elected to fall back into the relationship they’d always had That was the third time his hopes died He didn’t know if he could do this and hold the line and he needed the line to knoho he ithout her

And he was destined to be without her, because none of this was real

He got out of the shower and put his filthy jeans on She understood before he even spoke Because she knew hie of his joints and back

She put her ar chest She could feel how e us,” she said

He took a handful of her hair “How can it not?”

“Everything changes”

“We’ve been sidekicks all our lives” She would knomore Even when you were free to”

“I am now”

It wasn’t enough for hi “That’s this place”

“Maybe,” she conceded “Where ent tonight, it was somehow predictable and yet I never expected it to happen I want it to happen, Zeke, you and , even if it’s temporary”

He knew that a in his hands as they held her, in the nerve endings of his spine as he bent to create a shelter for her from his body But temporary was a life sentence of loss

“You’re not ready,” she said, looking up at hier or fire in her He’d dripped all over her He’d put the fire out

“Okay,” she pulled on his neck till he rested his forehead on hers “We can park this For tonight For forever if you need Maybe it’s the s down his back to spread over his ass “Tell ive this up”

“We’re working,” he said, because that hat he had Just being so near her again wasdown all the reasons why being with her was a bad idea

She kissed his chest and then pushed away Turning her back to deal with her hair “For the record, I wanted everything we did and more I don’t kno much of that to attribute to this place and how much it’s always been there” There, that was the proble to be weird with me?”