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Ev hesitates, but Kayla is already dragging her away.
“She’ll be okay, Ev.” She tugs on Ev’s arm. “I have a good feeling about this. Come on.”
“Good feeling about her going home alone?” Ev still turns to look at me. “Are you sure, Amber?”
“I’ll be perfectly okay.” I blow them a raspberry and start walking away from them to end the awkward moment. “Go have fun and tell me about it tomorrow.”
I walk briskly toward the apartment, my hands in the pockets of my short jeans skirt, my purse bouncing against my side. My toe nails wink at me from my leather sandals, purple-red, and I shake my head and grin. Kayla and her girls’ night…
Definitely not what I expected. I had fun. I can have fun without changing who I am… like Jesse said. No need to suddenly turn into an extrovert, much less a party animal, to be happy.
Am I happy? Not sure. Also not sure why the question makes me think of Jesse—again. He’s in my every thought.
And then he’s right there, right in front of me, sitting on the steps of a random building.
Am I seeing things? I stop in my tracks, my breath caught in my chest. It has to be around midnight. Is it really him?
I take a few steps closer, until I’m standing at the entrance of the building. He’s curled up on the dirty steps, arms folded over his chest. He’s wearing his baseball cap backward, and his head is tipped to the side, resting on the wall.
It is him. His dark lashes cast shadows on his cheeks as he rests, his chest rising and falling evenly.
He’s asleep. On the steps of a building. It’s like a weird déjà vu—not from my memories, but from his.
“Jesse.” I lean over and shake him. “JJ!”
He starts awake, sitting up, and I see a darkening bruise on his jaw. What happened here?
“Are you all right?” I ask, and he blinks, looking confused. “Come on.” I grab his hand and pull. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jesse
“Let’s go home.”
In my dream I’m sitting in a back alley behind a restaurant, waiting for Helen, curled up on the step. Fear runs through me like a current, tension and exhaustion born of uncertainty about tomorrow. Where will I end up? Will I be safe? Will I have money? Where will I sleep?
Will she be okay?
Then I’m blinking, and there’s Amber. Amber… Her face doesn’t fit in with my memories, and yet seeing her calms me down and wraps a warm band around my chest.
Still… Can’t recognize this place. The steps are all wrong, and what is she doing here? My brain’s muddled from sleep and I’m disoriented.
I should… Should be careful. Walk away. My jaw hurts, and my ribs smart. Not a good sign, and it’s the kind of pain my nightmares feed on. It’s probably why I have so much trouble getting my brain to let go of the dream.
But her hand is on my arm, fingertips digging lightly into my muscle, and I let her pull me to my feet, bracing my other hand on the wall. The street lights blind me as I stagger down the steps, following her onto the street. The headlights of a passing car stab my eyeballs, and I curse under my breath.
“Why aren’t you sleeping in your bed?” she asks, her small hand slipping down to slide into mine, and I curl my fingers around it, a weight lifting off my chest—as if I’ve caught a lifeline in the storm.
“My bed.” My apartment. What the hell? I was back on the streets for a moment there. Kinda missed a whole year of my life. “I don’t…”
Memory returns in fits and starts, and I bite back a groan. Oh yeah, I remember now. Dammit.
She glances at me, probably waiting for an answer.
“Shit happened.” Real enlightening, J, very smooth.
“I thought you’d still be at work at this time.”
