Brownie ambled back through the back door, followed closely by Stevie. Tails wagging, they sat down next to our stools like good little dogs and looked at Hunter.

"No table scraps for you today," he said. "The vet will have my ass."

I snorted. It was clear the dogs were used to table scraps. I cut two small pieces of salmon and dropped them for the dogs. They inhaled them. Hunter raised his brows.

"It's fine as long as it's a little treat," I said. "Also, it'll make them like me."

We had our dinner in peace, then cleaned up the kitchen. It was difficult to remember that Hunter and I had been apart for ten whole years. We worked together so well, our movements in sync. The sound of the water running, the clatter of dishes. It was such a mundane moment, yet it was the most peaceful I felt in years.

After we were done, I folded the dishtowel on the counter. "Well, it's been a nice evening. I should go."

Hunter dropped some trash in the bin under the sink. "Why don't you spend the night?"

I gave him a flat look. "No."

He sighed. "It's almost midnight. You're tired. I'm tired. Just crash here. I promise my dogs won't devour you in your sleep. Right, Brownie?"

Hearing her name, Brownie barked once, her tail wagging. What a cute girl. I opened my mouth to argue.

I would drive all the way to the city in Hunter's car because I couldn't ride a cab, so Hunter would have to drive back here.

It would be well past midnight. He would be tired, sleepy. My heart raced from all the scenarios of what could go wrong on the drive. Car accident. Hospital. Phone ringing with bad news. My lungs screamed for air. I closed my eyes and focused on my surroundings. The cold counter, the drip of the tap, Hunter's smell.

I forced a deep breath. In and out. In and out. Until the tightness in my chest subsided. I opened my eyes. Hunter was watching me, his eyes knowing.

"I'll spend the night," I said. I kept saying yes to him, even though I told myself I shouldn't.

"Great," he said. "I don't have any furniture in the guest bedrooms, and I take it you won't spend the night in my bedroom-"

"Don't push it."

"Right." He cleared his throat. "I'll get you some blankets and a pillow. The couch should be comfortable. I crashed on it many times."

The thought of Hunter sleeping on his couch in his big, empty house made my heart ache.

He could have everything. He was successful, young, rich, handsome. Above all, he was a decent guy. By all means, he could've settled down with a nice girl and had the horde of children he'd always dreamt of.

Yet here he was, living alone in a half furnished house that felt too big and empty for him.

I used the bathroom and brushed my teeth using a spare toothbrush Hunter got for me. There were two bathroom downstairs, one was occupied by Tux, who didn't show his face. So I used the other, changing into Hunter's t-shirt and sweatpants.

I looked ridiculous, with the big t-shirt and the rolled up pants. But I was comfortable. And if I kept sniffing Hunter's scent on the clothes, it was a momentary weakness on my heart's part due to the late night and the heavy discussion we'd had on the way over.

Ready for bed, I went to back to the living room. Hunter was sitting on the couch, two blankets and a pillow stacked at the end of it. He held the remote, the low sound of the TV droned in the background. He looked up at me and his lips twitched.

"I think my clothes are too big for you," he said.

"Very perceptive," I said, and sat down on the other end of the couch. I got my phone out and checked my appointment for tomorrow. The first one was at eleven o'clock, which left me enough time to go back to the gym, pick up my car and go home to get ready.

Brownie laid down on Hunter's feet. Stevie scrambled to get up the couch. Still watching TV, Hunter reached down and helped her up, as if he'd done it countless times before. A boxing fight played on the screen.

"What an idiot," Hunter mumbled when one of the fighters took a right hook right in the chin.

"When are you making a comeback?" I asked.

He made a face. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" I asked. "People are going crazy over whether you're coming back or not."

The theories for Hunter's sudden hiatus were wild. Around two years ago, it was like he dropped off of the face of the planet. No one knew where he went or whether he was going to even fight again.

He turned his attention from the TV to me. "What about you? Are you curious?"

I opened my mouth to give him a snappy reply. But I was too exhausted. "I guess I'm curious, too."

He grinned, and it was worth it.

"Well?" I urged him.

"Fighting is.... It's something I'm good at. Don't get me wrong, I like it. But I'm twenty eight, and I can already feel the toll it's taken on my body. It's not something I'm planning to do for long. Maybe a couple more years? I really don't know. It depends on a few things."

"What do you want to do instead?" I asked.

He fiddled with the silver bracelet on his wrist. So that was what he was always touching under his sleeve. The bracelet was two silver bands clasped together, between them was a black line. It was the first time I actually paid attention to it.

"You know," he said.

I frowned. What did he mean-

Oh. I perked up. "You still like it?"

He gave a small nod. "I do. I think a professional camera is one of the first things I bought when money started rolling in. I have a few now."

I wanted to see. I wanted to see all the pictures he'd taken over the years. I opened my mouth, but my eyes kept going to the bracelet. To the black line between the two silver bands.

A niggling suspicion flared in me. Hunter followed my gaze and covered the bracelet with his hand.

I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask, but I knew I wasn't ready for the answer. My mind went to the blue scrunchie in my bathroom drawer.

Nerves pinched my guts, and my heart rate picked up. My chest tightened. I looked away and focused on my breathing.

In. Out. In. Out. Stevie, next to me, wiggled until she found my lap and put her head on it. My hand found the soft fur. The small weight of her head and her warmth eased the vise around my lungs. Until the spark of panic died.

"Sapphire?" Hunter asked, his voice pitched low. "Are you okay?"

I breathed out deeply. "Yes. Don't mind me."

He sat forward, his eyes on me. "Anxiety?"

I gave a reluctant nod.

I had developed anxiety during the time I was sick. Being diagnosed with cancer left me permanently scared. What if the next time I went for a check up they found something? What if I had to go through all of that again?

That fear had bled into everything else in my life. Until I'd gone to therapy. I could deal with it now. I knew how to get outside my head and roll with it. There were still times when it got difficult, though.

Hunter didn't look away from me, but he stayed quiet. I buried my fingers in Stevie's curly fur and focused on my breathing, using a couple of techniques I'd learned, until I was relatively calmer again.

All this stress could not be good for my health. I stood up. "I think I'm going to sleep."

Hunter turned off the TV and rose. He hesitated a second. "Good night. If you need something, I'm just upstairs."

"Thanks."

He left, and the dogs ambled after him. I fixed my makeshift bed, turned off the light and settled down for the night.

My mind refused to steer away from that bracelet. That black line looked like a hair tie. Worn out and old. I covered my face with my hands. My throat closed up, and the tears I'd been pushing back today rolled down like a waterfall. Everything Hunter had said, everything I felt today.

I cried for a young, heartbroken me, thinking she was abandoned because somehow, she wasn't good enough. I cried for the life we could've had if his father hadn't been a controlling asshole. I cried for a young Hunter, who'd had to give up so much and leave because he had no other choice, because he'd wanted to protect me. For all the years we'd been apart and all the things we'd missed.

But maybe it was all for the best.

Why did he have to come back now? I had been settling into a peaceful life, without complexities, without heartache. Why did he have to come and ruin it all?

I wiped my cheeks, fluffed my pillow, and turned on a true crime podcast on my AirPods. As weird as it was, it helped me get out of my head and fall asleep on difficult days.

The drowning voice of the narrator soon pulled me under.

*

I stirred when I felt a whisper of a touch on my fingers. Coming awake, I kept still and cracked my eyes open. My hand dangled over the couch's side, and Tux was sniffing at my finger.

His body was close to the ground. He looked wary, ready to jump back at the slightest movement. Then those golden eyes looked right at me. I didn't blink. I didn't even breathe. His little nostrils kept moving, taking my scent in.

A door slammed shut upstairs, and Tux flew like a rocket towards his bathroom. I glared at the ceiling. He just had to close a door right now.

With a sigh, I rolled out of the couch. The massive French doors let in enough light to wake the dead. He needed blinds for those doors. Probably in a pale color. It would go well with the neutral theme of the house.

He should also swap the TV stand for something more- Wait, what was I doing? Why the hell was I decorating someone else's place. Get a grip, Sapphire. I slapped my cheeks and stood up.

I checked the time. Surprisingly, I'd slept in later than usual. Hunter was right, the couch was pretty comfortable.

I folded the blankets and used the restroom. Hunter was in the kitchen when I got out. The French doors were open, letting in a fresh morning breeze. It smelled clean and cold. I loved it.

"Morning," he said, flipping an omelet onto a plate. A kettle boiled on the counter, next to it were two mugs and a container of tea bags. All kinds.

"You're a tea person?"

"I am. Coffee makes me jittery," he replied. That made two of us.

We got our breakfast ready and sat down to eat. Brownie and Stevie must be outside.

Yesterday's conversation played in my head. Under the light of the day, everything felt like a dream.

I glanced at Hunter's wrist. The bracelet was still there. I opened my mouth. The question was on the tip of my tongue. But I shoved it back at the last moment. I wasn't ready for the answer, whatever it may be.

Hunter and I pushed our chairs back as one. We cleaned up the kitchen, and he went to give Tux her food. Brownie and Stevie filed in from the backyard, and I gave them their food.

I closed the bag of food and stuck it in its cabinet when Hunter emerged. He saw me, saw the full bowls of food, and smiled. His smile looked too smug for my liking.

I narrowed my eyes. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing."

Whatever. "I have to go soon."

He sighed. "Let me take a shower and we can go."

He disappeared upstairs. I had to change my clothes as well, but first....

I couldn't resist a look at the back yard. Yesterday it had been too dark to see. I stood by the French doors and felt my breath catch.

The back yard was too big to be called that. I could see what Hunter meant when he said the house needed some work. The backyard had two trees in the middle, nothing that Tux could use to climb over the wall. I padded down the steps outside and scanned the vast space. In the light if the day, the true size of the house came into focus. The entire estate was maybe the size of a football field, the house was only a small part of it. Brownie was chasing Stevie around a tree. I smiled. The dogs must love all the space.

Except for the trees, there was a square. It must be a pool. There was no water in it, as far as I could tell. The rest of the grounds was plain grass.

I squinted. No. There was something there, in the middle of all that space. White stones? My steps slowly carried me over, and as I got closer, my throat closed up.

A pond.

It was still empty. And there was a wooden structure on either side of it. The beginnings of a bridge.

I blinked hard. A fresh wave of tears springing to life with the memory.

"So, dogs and cats."

"And kids," I said, turning my head to grin at him. He was already looking at me, his eyes soft. "Lots of kids."

He smiled. "As much as the pets?"

"We'll see. But at least three," I said, looking at the TV again. "We should also have a koi pond, while we're at it."

"A pool and a pond," Hunter said.

"With a little bridge over the pond."

"How big is that house, exactly?" Hunter asked, a smile in his voice.

I chuckled. "Big enough to have a koi pond and a bridge. We should work hard, then."

I put my hand over my chest. It felt too tight, like it would burst from the weight of the memory and the implications of what Hunter had built.

He'd built our dream house. He already had three pets, and he was trying to win me back. He wanted that family we dreamt of.

A family I couldn't give him even if I wanted to.

Breathing heavily, I turned around and hurried inside to the bathroom.

I splashed cold water onto my face and looked at my reflection.

I had to get myself together.

My clothes. I needed to change into my own clothes. It wouldn't stop the jumbled emotions from twisting a knife in my chest. But they would make me feel more like myself.

I went to get my clothes from the couch when a bell rang. I glanced around. The console next to the door lit up. Hunter was still upstairs, so I checked who it was.

A red car was next to the gate. Through its window, Ava looked at the camera. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail, revealing her beautiful features, brushed to perfection by makeup and good care.

Something twisted in my chest. Jealousy.

I shouldn't be jealous. She was his PR agent. Of course she'd know where he lived.

She was also a beautiful woman. They'd been working together for years. Something must have happened between them at some point.

I caught my train of thought and shook my head. I was being ridiculous and judgmental. Just because they were close didn't mean they'd slept together, for goodness sake.

She rang the bell again. With a sigh, I opened the gate. She'd obviously been here before, and she must have business to discuss.

I opened the front door in time for her to come up the stairs. Her steps slowed down when she saw me.

She gave me a once over and raised her brows. "So you spent the night," she said, pushing past me into the house. "I think it's time for you to be gone, then."

I rolled my eyes. I was wearing Hunter's clothes. It was obvious what kind of conclusion she drew from that.

"I'll go when I feel like it," I said. I shouldn't have responded to her teasing. But my emotions were still too raw.

I closed the door and went to the couch. Ava was standing in the middle of the living room, looking at the couch with a small smirk.

"He chased you out to the couch as soon as he was done. So you know he's not the cuddling type. Really, have some self-respect and leave before he comes down. And change into your own clothes for goodness sake. This is not college."

It irritated me. Not because what she said was true, but because her words confirmed my earlier suspicions. They had been together at some point, otherwise she wouldn't feel like she had to stake a claim on him.

I stuffed my own clothes in my bag and gave her a sweet smile. "I think I'll keep Hunter's clothes. I didn't know his PR agent had a say in his personal life."

She smiled back just as sharply. "I do. And not only because I'm his PR agent."

This bitch. My fist itched.

--- ---- ---

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M.B.