Page 104 of Love You Like This

“No,” I say with absolute certainty, tilting her head back until we’re looking in each other’s eyes. “We’re not. There’s nothing that makes more sense than you and I together.”

She goes to use the bathroom and start a shower for us while I order dinner. After traveling and fucking, we’ve both worked up an appetite. When I go to join her, the glass has already steamed up, revealing only a glimpse of her profile as she works shampoo through her hair. I snap a photo, wondering if she’d be pissed if I had it enlarged and hung above our bed.

She might have reservations about us lingering in her mind, but I don’t. I’ve known since we were eighteen that she’s meant to be mine. I won’t stop until she believes it just as surely as I do.

A series of incessant notifications rouses me from sleep. I blink the sleep out of my eyes and toss my arm to the side, finding the other side cold and empty. My phone rings with an incoming call.

“Yeah?” I ask without even looking at who’s calling. It’s too early for this shit.

“Have you spoken to Jade?” Darren asks.

“No.” I swipe a hand over my face. “What time is it?”

“Six-thirty.” His voice holds an edge which puts my hackles up.

“Why the fuck are you calling so early?”

“I don’t know, probably because there are photos of you and Jade kissing all over the internet.”

My stomach drops to my ass. “What?”

“Is she with you?” he asks sharply. “Because she’s not answering my calls and her location has been turned off.”

I toss the covers off and walk over to grab a pair of underwear from the dresser. “She stayed here last night.”

“Great. How long has this been going on?”

I ignore the question as I walk out into the living room, my eyes scanning the space for her. She’s nowhere to be found. Her purse, bags, and shoes are gone, too. My heart lurches at her absence.

“She isn’t here.”

“Well, you better help me fucking find her because the conspiracy stories about you two rigging the paternity test results are already spinning out of control in the comment sections. I can’t release a statement without her. This is a fucking nightmare.”

“Relax,” I snap. “It isn’t a nightmare. We know I didn’t rig anything.”

“You better hope Ashley knows or we’re in for a legal battle.”

“Send me the link to the article,” I say before hanging up.

My own anxiety is overflowing; I don’t need to add his agitation to the mix. The link comes through, and as soon as I click it, a photo of the two of us kissing at the airport yesterday fills the screen. Who even took this? The entire terminal was a ghost town.

I skim the attached article, rolling my eyes at the sensationalized story. The author refers to us as step siblings, which is such a stretch as that lasted less than two years. Then I see it, exactly what Jade was so scared of. A line suggesting she slept her way to her position. The last bit of the article even suggests she might have slept with all of us.

Fucking damn it.

I barely resist the urge to throw my phone against the wall. Tossing the closest clean clothes on, I grab my keys and race to her house. There’s no way she didn’t see the article and freak out. It has to be why she left without saying a word.

I make it to her place in record time, throwing my Jeep in park and jogging up to the front door. There’s no sign of her inside. I hit the bell for the Ring camera, and when she doesn’t answer, I rap my knuckles on the wood. Nothing. Crouching down to eye level, I jam my finger against the bell again. After a few seconds of silence, I look directly into the camera.

“Jade, this isn’t the end of the world. It’s definitely not the fucking end of us. I’m coming for you.”

I get back in my Jeep and peel out of the driveway. If she isn’t here, there’s only a handful of places she’d go. As I drive to her condo, I call Stone.

“Miss me already?” he croons as soon as he picks up the phone.

“Ha, no.” I look over my shoulder as I merge onto the freeway. “Is Jade with you and Hazel?”

“She’s not,” his tone changes from teasing to concern. “Why?”