“She and my mom were best friends until Kayla took off. I think that’s one of the reasons my mother never let me leave Ellis. Her one trip outside town—spring break, her senior year—didn’t exactly go as she’d planned. She ended up with a one-week marriage, a surprise pregnancy, and Kayla ended up running off with some guy to New York or something.”
I stare into the eyes of the woman in the photograph. Jade green eyes just like mine. Kayla hadn’t gone off to New York with some guy; she’d gone to the Underrealm. And I know exactly who she went with.
I search the faces in the background of the photograph and find the one I’m looking for: Ren. My father. He looks smaller than I remember in the picture, less regal, wearing blue jeans and a flannel shirt. This is almost eighteen years ago. Back when he was a Champion. Perhaps only hours or days before he returned to the Underrealm. It’s obvious he’s watching the three main people in the photograph, but his eyes aren’t locked on my mother like I’d expect. The person he’s intently staring at is Daphne’s mom.
“Come on,” Daphne says. “Let’s go.”
“Don’t you want to stick around to see if you won?”
She shakes her head. “Singing was prize enough. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair if I took home the trophy, since you bought my way into the competition.”
chapter fifty-two
DAPHNE
“Tonight was fun. Thank you,” I say with a yawn as Haden slides the key card through the door lock. We’d stopped at an ice-cream parlor in the hotel and I’d forced him to try a scoop of mint chocolate chip. Despite his protests at first, he’d gone back for a second helping. “I think you’ve got a sweet tooth.”
He gives me a small smile and pushes open the door.
Garrick is out cold on the couch, Lexie is tucked away in the king room, with the door shut and the TV on a low murmur, and Tobin is asleep, sprawled in the middle of one of the queen-sized beds, with a few empty bottles from the minibar scattered around him. He looks like such a mess that I am happy Haden stopped me from taking that shot at the club. If I’d been able to stomach it, I know I wouldn’t have stopped until I was completely hammered.
Haden pulls the latch on the lock and stands behind me. My arms prickle with static energy as I become aware of the electric current that surrounds him. I also become very aware of the fact that there is only one bed left, and two of us.
I had wanted a distraction when I was in the club, and Haden had given me one—but not in the way he’d expected.
He was the distraction.
He’d known what I wanted—no, needed—before I even knew that I needed it. He’d been in tune with me in the same way I could discern the emotions of others.
A lesser guy would have let me get drunk, maybe even tried to hook up.
But Haden had stopped me from making a mistake, and helped me in the best way possible. What he’d done is unselfish and so surprising that it makes me see him in a new way—and not at all like the person Garrick had tried to convince me he is.
I am aware of Haden in a whole new way.
“Um, wanna flip for the bed?” I cringe, hoping that it didn’t sound as awkward to him as it did to me. “I mean, with a quarter. Not like gymnastics or anything.”
“Thanks for the clarification,” he says from behind me. He’s standing so close, I can feel his breath brushing against my hair. “But I’m all right taking the floor.”
Again with the being selfless.
I don’t argue with him and get my pajamas from my suitcase and change quickly in the bathroom. The awareness that he’s just on the other side of the thin door makes goose bumps prickle up on my skin.
When I return to the bedroom, I find that Haden has made a nest out of the blankets from the closet for himself between the two queen beds. He wears a pair of light cotton pajama pants … and no shirt. I am not sure I have seen someone with such defined abdominal muscles before. He lies on his right side so I can’t see his scars. His eyes are closed, but I know he’s not asleep as I crawl into the empty queen bed. I lie on the side closest to him. I am motionless for a long time, watching him breathe. He’s so still, except for his chest lifting and lowering ever so slightly, that he reminds me of a shadow. As sleep starts to creep into my mind, I relax on my side and let my arm drape over the edge of the bed. My hand dangles a few inches above his mouth. His warm breath sends tingles up my arm. After a moment, I feel his fingers close tentatively around mine.
I don’t pull my hand away.
A cool breeze awakens me the next morning. For a moment, I don’t know where I am until I realize that the cold wind is actually the air-conditioning kicking on. I open my eyes and find that I am lying on my back in the hotel bed.
And Haden is gone.
The blankets he’d used are folded neatly and stacked at the end of my bed. I sit up and look around the room. His duffel is gone, too.
Sunrise peeks in between the curtains. Garrick is lying on the floor next to the couch like he’d rolled off it in the middle of the night, and the door to Lexie’s room is still closed. Tobin moans and rolls over onto his back on the adjacent bed. He holds his hand over his eyes.