“I swear that thing jumped out at me,” I whispered, trying to distract myself from all the thoughts driving me mad.

Jared smirked lightly as he opened the counter drawer for a Ziplock bag, then the freezer for ice. It was like he was in his own damn home; he’d always been quick to pick up on things. ‘And he has been here for hours.’

He handed me the bag of ice, standing there awkwardly. He was wearing my shirt and sweatpants, both too big for his slim frame. “Does...it hurt a lot?” Jared asked quietly, a part of me wondering if it was just to kill the silence.

I pressed my lips together to silence a smirk. At least I wasn’t the only awkward one. “Do you want me to rate the pain on a scale of one to ten? I thought you were a teacher, not a doctor.” I couldn’t resist the joke and was relieved that my nerves began to settle.

In my youth, being around Jared had always been easy; we’d been such good friends. Jared had been the only person I hadn’t felt the need to win over. The only one who liked me before I tried to impress people to make them like me—though I’d pestered him for days to get his attention when we’d first met.

I cleared my throat, trying to banish the bittersweet memories; it was my fault we’d drifted apart.

I didn’t have the right to miss what we had.

Focusing on my throbbing foot, I was grateful my eyes had adjusted enough to see I hadn’t done any real damage. I hissed in a breath at the chill of the ice pack, waiting for it to be tolerable; it would be worth it, to keep a nasty bruise from forming. “I’ve had worse, and I don’t think I broke anything. I’d have to be really skilled to manage that.”

Jared nodded, a hand on his other arm as he looked up at me with a slight laugh. “Like the time you fell out of a tree in eighth grade, trying to impress what was his name?” Jared glanced to the side for a minute, then chuckled, looking back at me. “Axel Miller! Remember him? What a piece of work.” He grinned, trying to keep his voice down.

I snorted, shaking my head. “I wish I didn’t remember. All that effort and he turned out to be a douche who thought cologne was a shower in a can. He must’ve bought stock in that company by the time we graduated high school.”

“Oh no doubt, I’d be amazed if he has any sense of smell after all that.” Jared sneered, nodding. “Not to mention his,” Jared signaled air quotes with his fingers, “friends.”

I scoffed, “Don’t get me started on those idiots. Like a barrel of monkeys when they had to get his mom to take me to the ER. I swear their IQ was smaller than their shoe size.” There was a grin on my face as I remembered how horrified Jared had been when I’d told him what happened.

As if on cue, Jared’s smile faded. “Yeah…those were the days,” he said quietly, letting out a sigh. “Then we had to grow up and have everything get complicated.” Jared’s fingers brushed my upper arm, making me jump and almost drop the ice pack as he whispered, “Do you still have the scar?”

I found myself struggling, swallowing hard before I remembered how to speak. “S-sure do. It’s pretty faint now, but I still have all the old battle scars.” My expression faltered as I became conscious of how close he was to me, the warmth of his fingers against my skin.

Anxiety reared its ugly head and I fumbled for words. I would have stuck my foot in my mouth if we weren’t interrupted by the sound of, “Daddy!”

Maya’s voice rose in volume as she called for me, and I could hear the warble that meant she was on the verge of tears. My chest tightened; I’d heard her like that plenty of times in the middle of the night after her mother died; when she woke up from horrible nightmares.

Taking a step back, I looked in the direction of the hallway. “Shit, I must have woken Maya up,” I grumbled, annoyed with myself for waking my daughter—and for more than that…because I didn’t want to leave Jared.

The sound of little feet pulled my attention to where Maya had walked into the living room; one hand was rubbing at her eyes, the other latched securely around the arm of a teddy bear her mother had given her. Any other concern vanished behind my need to comfort my daughter. “Sorry, but I better go get her. She’s afraid of the dark, and she needs to sleep or she’ll be a brat in the morning.”

Jared withdrew his hand, nodding as he looked over his shoulder at Maya’s small figure. “Of course, go.” He paused before his blue eyes looked up at me in the dimness. “Good night, Simon.”

“Thanks. And… sweet dreams,” I muttered before I turned away from the draw of his gaze. It was surprisingly difficult, but Maya was sniffing and getting more upset by the second. I rushed over to her, scooping her up in my arms. “Hey, baby girl. What are you doing out of bed?”

“Noisy,” she whined, reminding me of my guilt.

“Sorry, sweetheart. Let’s get some rest, okay?”

“Yeah.” Her head drooped forward to rest against my shoulder, and my heart swelled as I hugged her close. Maya seemed as exhausted as I felt, and she was half asleep before I even got her back to her room. I made sure both of the nightlights were still on before I kissed her forehead and tucked her in.

I only half-closed her door, just in case, before I headed back to my room. Bear whined again as I came back in, and I couldn’t help but let him come up on the bed with me. We settled down together, his warmth comforting, but not enough to help me sleep. I reached for the surface of my bedside table, only to pause with a horrible realization that had me laying down with an aggravated sigh.

I’d stubbed my toe and been loud enough to wake Jared and Maya—but even with all that, of course, I had forgotten my glass of water.