Falling Into Forever by Avery Maxwell

Author:Avery Maxwell [Maxwell, Avery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: That's What She Said Publishing
Published: 2023-10-24T16:00:00+00:00

Crickets chirping over the waves licking the shore are the soundtrack to the multitude of fears spiraling in my mind on the walk home.

Dante also seems lost in his head, and I can’t stop myself from checking on him out of the corner of my eye. What the hell did the guys do to him?

We arrive at the back door of my house, which has a private staircase leading to the apartment upstairs so we don’t have to go through the bookstore.

I remove the keys from my purse, but Dante takes them from my hand and unlocks the door. Anxiety creeps up my spine and lodges itself in my throat when he still doesn’t say anything. Is he rethinking our…situationship? Did the guys warn him away from me and my…issues? That’s what I’d do, isn’t it?

There are fourteen steps to the top, I’ve counted them every day since I was a kid. Tonight, each one makes my muscles burn and my heart hammer inside my chest, but it’s not from the physical exertion—it’s the mental one. What happens now? What happens tomorrow? When will he leave me and go back to California? Will he come back?

He holds the door open, and I enter the apartment first. Then the door swishes closed with a near-silent click, but I don’t hear Dante’s footsteps. Did he leave? Tiny dots litter my vision, and sweat gathers on my upper lip.

It’s terrifying how much I want him to be here and how quickly he’s secured himself in my life. I turn slowly with dread weighing down my limbs, only to find him leaning against the door with a boyish smile that makes his dimples pop and his eyes glow in the moonlight.

“I’ve missed you,” he says.

I release a breath so deep I’m sure it reaches him across the room. “We were only apart for an hour.”

I grab the pendant around my neck, the one I made from my sister’s engagement ring, and twist it back and forth on the chain. I had her diamond cut into smaller ones and the jeweler created two beautiful stars out of it. One for me and one for Ainsley. I had them set mine so it appears to float in a thick ring of platinum. Ainsley kept hers small, and she wears the delicate star like I wear mine—as a connection to a life once filled with love.

Dante was right about the dates, though. They’re etched into the precious metal circle that gives me something to hold on to when I feel like I’m drowning.

He shakes his head. “I would dream about you.” His slow, measured steps do nothing to ease the erratic thump of my pulse. “And then I’d wake up with a hard-on so painful I had to count to ten before I could walk.” His voice grows raspy. “But that was nothing compared to the pain of realizing I didn’t have you. It was like losing you over and over again.”

The pendant around my neck makes a zip, zip, zip sound as I drag it back and forth—it’s a comfort to me.

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