One More Step

by Colleen Hoover

  “Get out.”

  “Camila, wait. Just hear me out—”

  “Please, Reeve. Please just go. If you ever felt anything for me at all, you’ll leave.”

  His chest rises on a sharp inhale, and I swear I see pain flit across his face before it’s back to that blank mask. He nods, mostly to himself, then slowly rises from the bed. He dresses in silence, and I know I’m in too deep when I have the urge to reach out to him and make it better. I turn my back to him and hide out in the bathroom until he’s gone.

  There is no possible or logical way I’ll be able to face him at his next session. I’ll have to quit and find a new job. I’ll have to throw years of schooling and my hard work away just to steer clear of a man. A man who ruined my life.

  FOUR

  I DIDN’T QUIT, but I did let the head coach know that I had some personal problems to take care of for the next week or so, and that I wouldn’t be able to make two of my sessions with Reeve.

  “You look like shit,” my brother comments the second I step over the threshold into his house. I shoot daggers at him. “I’m surprised the Blackhawks coach even gave you time off. Your job is to care for the injured players, and his best player is currently—”

  “Are you done?” I snap, tossing my bag onto his leather couch. “I know what my job is. I just came here to shove my foot up your ass for lying to me.”

  “Me? When the hell did I lie?” he asks, tone affronted. As though he’s actually innocent.

  “You told me he didn’t care that I was taking the job. I went into this thinking there wouldn’t be any problems, and you know what happened instead? Problems, Crew. Huge problems.”

  My brother grows quiet and releases a heavy sigh. “What happened?”

  Tears spring to my eyes as I think about what happened the other night. It was magical and hot, and everything it used to be. But we aren’t the same. After kicking him out, I did what I’ve always done best. I ran.

  “We slept together. And now…I can’t have this, Crew. This is too complicated.”

  “What’s the issue, Camila? Forgive him and move on. You both want to be with each other, but you’re too stubborn, hanging onto the past the way you are.”

  My hackles raise, and I narrow my eyes threateningly. “He cheated on me, Crew. Your best friend fucking cheated on me and broke my damn heart! How can you possibly expect me to let that go?”

  Crew makes a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and swipes a hand down his face irritably. “He never cheated on you!” he suddenly shouts. His words echo around us long after they’re spewed. I take a cautious step back, my heart seizing in my chest.

  “He did. I caught him. How can you possibly try to defend him right now? Does your friendship mean that much to you that you’ll protect him instead of protecting me?”

  Guilt flashes across Crew’s face, and he looks down at his polished oak wood floors. “He didn’t cheat on you, Camila. I’m telling the truth.”

  I’m shaking my head. I refuse to believe it. “No. You’re lying to me. I caught him. I was with Maribel when I caught him and—”

  “For fuck’s sake, Camila. He wasn’t the one cheating that night; it was me. I freaked out when you came in with Maribel. I was drunk, and the girl who was inside wasn’t there with Reeve, she was there with me. He took the fall for me.”

  A choked sound tears from my chest as I take a shaky step back. My stomach drops and my heart clenches, painfully so. My hand flies to my mouth, and I press down, trying to hold in the impending sob.

  “Why would he…? Why would he let me…?” I can’t even get the words out; my throat is so thick with emotions.

  “I’m sorry, Cami. I really am. When it happened, I never thought it would turn into what it did. I never thought my one stupid decision would ruin your relationship.”

  “You held me when I was brokenhearted, crying in your arms. You helped me move on and go to college and find my career, and not once, not once did you think to tell me the truth?”

  He swallows. “I was still with Maribel. I didn’t want to risk her finding out.”

  I scoff, an angry tear leaking out of the corner of my eye. “So you let your best friend take the blame for your mistake instead? You’re a goddamn coward, Crew. Mom and Dad would be so disappointed.”

  “Don’t you think I know that!” he snaps. “I tried to fix things and make them right, but you wouldn’t listen. You were all, ‘fuck the world,’ and didn’t care about what I had to say. You did what you do best in a tough situation. You ran. We tried telling you, Cam, but you didn’t want the truth.”

  I swipe angrily at the tears on my face. “I can’t even look at you right now.”

  I storm past my brother to his guest room he had made up for me. I fall onto the comfortable sheets, burying my face in the pillows and let the tears flow in torrents. Pain is rippling through my chest, sobs wracking my body.

  I spent so many years hating Reeve. I spent so much time walking around feeling jaded, and they both let me. They let me believe the boy I’d loved most of my life had ruined us, when really, it wasn’t him at all. It was my brother…and me.

  • • •

  I tense at the knocking on the door the next morning. I spent the night huddled under the sheets in the fetal position crying. I was upset with my brother, upset with Reeve. But mostly, I was upset with myself. Why hadn’t I dug harder? There were things about that night that didn’t make any sense, but now…now they do. I wish I would’ve taken a step back then and taken a closer look. Instead, I jumped the gun, pushed Reeve out of my life, and I ran away from him.

  “Go away,” I tell my brother.

  He ignores me, pushing inside the guest room anyway. It’s on the tip of my tongue to cuss him out for not listening, but the words die in my throat when I see who it is. Heat crawls up my neck to my cheeks, and my heart skids to an abrupt halt in my chest.

  Reeve limps into the room, shutting the door behind him. He leans against the wood for support; his gaze incarnating me from head to toe.

  “How did you get here so quick?” My voice doesn’t even sound like my own. It’s too vulnerable and weak. I don’t know how to act around him anymore. For so long, he was the man I was in love with, then the man I hated. Now…he was an enigma. I couldn’t help but feel like an adolescent teen, unsure of how to act around her crush.

  “I booked a flight when Crew told me you were coming out here.”

  “Bastard,” I hiss under my breath.

  Reeve chuckles, taking a seat next to me on the other side of the bed. His presence fills the room, making it hard to breathe. We sit there in a tense silence until I can’t take it anymore.

  “Why didn’t you tell me? You let me go years thinking that you cheated.”

  He sighs. “I tried to tell you, but everything about that night spiraled out of control. One second, you were mine, and the next, you were on the first plane to a new college. You didn’t answer my calls or texts. I had already lost you.”

  “That’s just the thing, Reeve. It doesn’t feel like you fought for me at all. I mean, how could you possibly be okay with ruining our relationship in order to protect my brother?”

  “That wasn’t my intention. It just happened. Everything about that night got out of hand, and I couldn’t go back and make it right, no matter how badly I wanted to.”

  My heart caves, a searing ache slithers down the center of my chest. “You ruined us. I’ve hated you for the past four years.”

  Pain ripples across his face, and he swallows. “I know.”

  Hot tears roll down my cheeks as I admit the truth I’ve been fighting every day since I walked away from him. “But I’ve loved you more.”

  “I know,” Reeve whispers, pulling me into his arms. I fall into his embrace, soaking in the feel of his body around mine. His thick arms wrap around me, drawing me into him. We stay like that until I’m fresh out of tears.

  When we pull away, he swipes under my eyes wi
th the pad of his thumb and searches my gaze. “I’m sorry, Camila, for being a complete idiot and ruining what we had. I meant what I said, there’s never been anyone but you.”

  Our lips collide in a kiss that I feel all the way down to the depths of my soul. It touches some part of me deep down that I haven’t felt in years. We stay like that, our mouths fused together, making up for lost time. I’ve never felt more at peace.

  When my stomach growls, Reeve and I get dressed, leaving Crew’s house in search of food. We stop at one of my brother’s favorite dinner spots and grab two slices of pizza. Reeve and I settle next to each other on a rock in the park a few blocks down that overlooks the city below. There are people and families milling about, and a few stray paparazzi trying to snap a picture of the great Reeve Bennett while he’s supposed to be recovering.

  We sit on the edge, pizza in hand, the sun warming our skin, just like it’s done so many times in the past when we’ve done this. Only now the scenery is different. We’re different.

  I let out a deep sigh, still feeling utterly unsettled. I don’t know how to feel about everything. A part of me is happy that I know the truth, happy that Reeve isn’t the cheater I thought he was, but I’m still angry. I still feel deeply betrayed. I’ve been lied to, cheated out of a relationship, and led to believe the worst of someone when it wasn’t his fault at all.

  As much as I want to place most of the blame on my brother—though, in fact, most of it does lie with him—I know Reeve holds a lot of the blame, too. He made a decision that night, four, almost five years ago, and decided to protect his friend instead of protecting me.

  “So, where do we go from here?”

  Reeve shifts, glancing at me, and my heart doubles over in my chest. I’ve missed this. I’ve missed him.

  “We go wherever you want to go, princess.” He sets his plate down between us, and his hand slides around the back of my neck, drawing me to him. He presses his lips against mine softly. We both freeze when we hear the yelling followed by the snapping.

  “Mr. Bennett!”

  “Reeve!”

  “Who is the mystery woman?”

  “Are you really off the market?”

  “Is she the reason your recovery is taking so long?”

  Reeve and I pull apart from each other slowly, sharing a look. He’s wearing that sexy crooked smirk that I’ve missed wholeheartedly over the past four years, and I can’t contain the smile that takes over my face.

  “So much for remaining under the radar.”

  Reeve chuckles warmly against my lips, leaning into me. “I prefer it this way, anyway, Camila. Now the world knows you’re mine.”

  THE END…FOR NOW.

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  BOUND

  * * *

  A Fae Realm short story

  CATHLIN SHAHRIARY

  ONE

  ONE MORE STEP would mean certain death. She teetered forward, shifting her center of gravity. Her arms pinwheeled out, attempting to counteract her inevitable plunge. Thankfully, two strong arms wrapped around her stomach and yanked her backward, slamming her against his hard chest.

  “Did you not hear me when I told you to slow down? Or were you under the impression that you know more about your budding powers than the one you got them from?” Evin hissed in her ear.

  She panted, attempting to catch her breath despite the fact that she didn’t feel winded. He released his tight hold on her, and she stumbled forward until his arms caught her again, more gently this time. He moved to face her. Her chest still heaved from the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She’d had no idea she could move that quickly, and her misstep could have proven fatal.

  Evin tipped her chin up and brushed back a lock of her auburn hair that had come loose from her ponytail, running his finger over the top of her ear, which had recently changed from rounded to slightly pointed.

  “I’m sorry,” she huffed between gulps of air. “I didn’t know.”

  “I know,” he soothed, the backs of his fingers brushing her cheek. Scolding her for a common mistake wasn’t helping, and her racing pulse told him how badly she had scared herself. Evin could remember a time or two when he had made mistakes while learning the boundaries of his own speed. Luckily, Reid had usually been there to save him.

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, smoothing out her breathing with his reassurance. As he pulled away, her hazel eyes stared up at him, shimmering with flecks that mirrored his own golden eyes.

  “What?” Callie asked, reading the slight raise of his brow.

  “Your eyes,” he whispered.

  Her gaze widened, the golden specks fading back into hazel.

  “There were glowing flecks of gold, like stars.” He marveled at her.

  “Should I be worried?” She chewed on her bottom lip. So much had changed since she left for college. It wasn’t just starting her freshman year but also adjusting to his blood flowing through her veins; the magic that saved her from the brink of death and eternally linked the two of them. They weren’t sure what the magic would mean for her in the long run, only what Amina, the Djinn who’d bound them, had told them. He sometimes caught her eyeing him with that look in her gaze, the one that tried to apologize for shortening his life span. It didn’t matter how many times he told her he would gladly sacrifice more than those years for her to live, that the only life he wanted was one with her in it; he knew it still bothered her. These more recent developments had been a learning process for them both.

  “I don’t think so. They’re back to normal now. Perhaps it was only because you were using your powers.”

  “You mean your powers because that speed is definitely yours. I had no idea I could run that fast. How do you see where you’re going? I was terrified I was going to hit a tree, or worse.” She paused, glancing at the deep ravine into which she had almost tumbled head-first. “Everything was so blurry I had to stop, and it’s a good thing I did.” She shuddered, not wanting to think what one more step could have meant.

  “You have to remember you’re part Fae now—that tumble probably wouldn’t have killed you.”

  “Probably?” She arched her eyebrow.

  “Let’s just say it’s best we don’t tempt fate. And the eyesight comes with time and training. It should develop with your speed.”

  “You mean I could get faster?”

  “There’s no knowing what your limits are until we reach them. For now, we’ll keep track of how quickly you move on campus… and don’t try out for a sports team any time soon,” he teased, his amber eyes tightening with concern against his caramel skin. His smile faded too quickly for her liking. “Seriously though, Callie—it’s imperative no one finds out what you are.”

  “No one? You mean humans, right?” His silence made her heart drop. “Do you mean to keep me a secret forever?” She took a step back, putting space between them, and to Evin, the short distance felt like miles.

  He yanked a hand through his coif of black hair and sighed. “No. I just … It’s hard enough for me to trust two Unseelie with your secret even if they are your best friend and her boyfriend.”

  “Ianthe would never—” she blurted.

  “I know she would risk her own life to protect you and that’s enough for me. It is. I’m just … I’m still figuring out the best way to handle having you over in Fae.” He sighed. “It would’ve been easier had Ianthe not used your name and pretended to be you when she was here last.” The last sentence was stated like an afterthought, but it struck her like a lightning bolt, igniting a spark of anger.

  “Oh yes, let’s blame Ianthe for rescuing me from you.” She arched her eyebrow accusingly, knowing Evin didn’t like to be reminded of the huge mistakes he had made with her in the past, particularly the time he kidnapped her as a means to capture her best friend, Ianthe, and ultimately seek revenge on Casimir, the Fae
who killed his brother.

  “I’m not blaming her. I’m just saying I need to consult my father on how to introduce you to the Seelie king. By revealing who you truly are and how you came to be, we would basically be handing over Ianthe’s identity to her father’s greatest enemy.”

  “Do you really think Lachlan would use her against the Unseelie king?” It wasn’t a secret to the Unseelie that Ianthe was their exiled princess, but Callie knew they had gone to great lengths to keep it from the Seelie king so Ianthe wouldn’t be used as a bargaining chip in a war she wanted no part of.

  Evin sighed. It’s not as if he was close enough to King Lachlan to have a good read on him. “That’s why I need to talk to my father about it. He would be the one with the best idea of what Lachlan might do with the information.”

  Callie stared down at the ground, unable to meet Evin’s gaze. “Does your father at least know?”

  Evin’s lips tightened. He had hoped to avoid this conversation, knowing no good would come of it.

  His silence pierced her heart like a fiery arrow, pain and heat spreading through her veins. She would not let him know how much this hurt her.

  “Do you think it’s wise for us to be here then?” She threw her arm out, gesturing roughly to their otherworldly surroundings while taking a step away from him.

  “Probably not, but it’s safer than testing your abilities in the human realm.”

  She sucked on her teeth, her tongue hitting one of the pointed tips as she did so. She gasped, raised her hand to her mouth, and traced her teeth with the pad of her thumb, panic flooding her body. “Evin! My teeth!”