Page 59 of The Merger

“I locked this when I left,” I mumbled and stuck my keys back in my purse.

Stryker straightened up. The dopey stupor disappeared, and he pushed past me. “Stay here,” he commanded and entered the apartment.

I wasn’t stupid. Stryker was at least six foot four and built like a linebacker. If there was someone in there, he was the one out of the two of us who could face them, even inebriated. I heard him curse and a bunch of stuff clamor to the ground. Rushing in after him, I saw him standing in the middle of chaos.

Boxes were left opened and half packed everywhere. “I don’t think Waverly even brought this much stuff.”

Stryker bent down and grabbed something out of the box. “This seems more your style than hers.” He held up a metal peacock statue with blue and green glass embedded in the tail.

“That bitch! Evie got that for me after Gracie was born.” I took the bird from him and clutched it to my chest. As I went to put it back where it belonged, I noticed more and more of my things missing.

I tore through the boxes and noticed a lot of my things mixed with random things of hers. A growl tore from my throat. “I’m going to have to go through all these boxes and see how much of my stuff I can salvage.”

He moved behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “We,” he said.

“What?” In my head, I was trying to go through what my place looked like before Waverly moved in. I guess if I forgot I had something, then I could live without it, but I shouldn’t have to.

His fingers pressed into my muscles, working out the knots that started forming when I saw what my sister had done. “We, Sabrina. You don’t have to do this alone. You don’t have to do anything alone from now on.”

Usually, I’d have pushed back, but I was suddenly tired. Not having to do everything on my own sounded incredibly appealing. For the first time, I allowed myself to melt into him. Fully clothed at least. Somehow, this made me feel more vulnerable.

ChapterTwenty-Two

Sabrina

“Make it go away,” Stryker groaned, and covered his face with my pillow.

I sat on the edge of the bed. “I can’t make the sun go away. But I have coffee.” Setting his cup down on the nightstand, I reached over and pulled the pillow off his head.

He sat up, scrunching his face at the offending light spilling through the blinds. I watched his muscles bunch as he reached over for his coffee. His dark eyes found me over the rim of his mug. “I’m not so hungover that I won’t take advantage of the way you’re looking at me right now.”

“Promises, promises. But first you need to shower because I could light the fumes coming off of you on fire. Then I need your help sorting the boxes of crap Waverly left.”

We spent the rest of the day going through the chaos my sister left behind and figuring out what was missing. There were a few things, but thankfully nothing I couldn’t replace. The fact I didn’t live lavishly worked in my favor. Once we were done all of Waverly’s things fit in two boxes.

“That’s the last one,” Stryker said as he set a vase I found at a flea market down where I’d had it.

“How did you know where it went?” I asked.

Slowly, his head came up and I was struck speechless by the intensity he always had when he looked at me. “Haven’t you realized by now? I pay attention to everything about you.”

“You really do. No one else seems to see me.”

If a smile can be sad, his was. “I know, but to be fair, I’m not sure you always want to be seen.”

I dropped down on the couch. “I don’t think that it’s because I don’t want to be seen.”

He joined me, and his body turned toward mine. Every fiber of him was listening to me. It wasn’t just that he paid attention, which I was starting to accept, but he wanted more. “Then tell me. Open up to me.”

I took a deep breath. “I think it’s because my mother made me feel like who I am was never good enough for her. I was just part of a life that she left behind. A reminder that for a while she was a bored housewife and not the glittering socialite she is now. I’m not flashy like Waverly. Bringing me around meant she had to acknowledge her once humble beginnings.”

His hands took mine. The rough calloused palms scratched against my skin in a way that felt comforting. “I’m sorry she treated you that way. I want nothing more than to shout to everyone that you’re my wife.”

I ducked my head. Receiving compliments was hard for me. I didn’t have a self-esteem problem exactly, but I didn’t trust people to be in my life for me. The only people who were in my life were in some way related to me. They might not have started out that way, but it was only stubbornness that brought Evie and Jana as close as they were. Neither of them would accept a surface friendship with me.

With his free hand he tipped my face up so he could look into my eyes again. “You’re thinking too hard again. What is going on?”

Pausing to think, I chewed on my lower lip, until he pulled it free. “Don’t hide from me anymore,” he whispered.