What If...I Love You by Yvonne Marie

Author:Yvonne Marie [Marie, Yvonne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9798987402511
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Sojourner Publishing Group LLC
Published: 2023-04-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

RENEE

By the time we get back to Knox’s place, it’s already late afternoon. The setting sun casts shadows across his expansive living space from the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows.

The ride back to Austin felt like old times. We laughed and talked and reminisced. We sent Jordyn a few roadside selfies, knowing she would be happy to see us together again, and it really did feel like us again—the way we were before everything fell apart. I talked about the Calm Monitor and what inspired me to design it. I told him about wanting to find a way to help anyone trapped in a nonverbal state of distress, how many times I struggled to communicate my own anxiety and pain when I was in a complete state of shutdown.

He listened the way that he always did, and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I didn’t have to explain myself to the point of exhaustion. With Knox, I never had to worry that he would try to downplay my experiences or try to come up with an oversimplified solution that dismissed the depth and complexity of what it’s like to be neurodivergent. Knox never needed to understand it, make sense of it, in order to empathize. He always just believed me and accepted me as I am.

I’m in my room unpacking when Knox walks in, staring at his phone, brows pressed together, jaw tight. All the relaxed joy I felt the past few hours quickly sweep away because I know that reality is about to dump a bucket of ice water on us both. “What’s wrong?”

“More photos,” he sighs, turning his phone to me. It’s an image of us from this morning. Facing each other at the campsite just after all the campers drove away. We’re standing so close, we could share breath. Knox is looking down at me with heat in his eyes; I’m looking up at him like I’m hypnotized by this golden, beautiful man, and honestly, at that moment, I was. We’re not touching, but the angle of this photo makes it look like an intimate moment when in fact, Knox was just asking me if I was ready to leave. In the next photo, he’s picking a twig out of my hair, but in the photo, it looks like he’s gently caressing me.

I hand the phone back to him and swallow around the lump in my throat. Damn, those photos were hot, even though in reality we were just coming down from the emotional high of the night before. We’re just two friends who are trying to reconcile and deal with our baggage.

I think.

“I can’t believe they followed us,” he says. “This is getting ridiculous. I’m going to find out who is taking these photos and put a stop to this now. They’re trying to create a narrative that is just not true.”

Hearing him say that should make me feel better, but I can’t deny the confusing mix of disappointment and a longing that bubbles up inside of me.

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