Page 145 of Under the Waves

And it was true. I couldn’t see any other future for me than this.

One of these days, my mother was going to kill me.

I knew it deep down in my bones.

Letting my head fall into the crook of his neck, I hid myself away from the world.

From him. From myself.

Jasper just tightened his grip. He didn’t let go.

“You can, Wellsy. I know you can. Just for a little bit longer, okay?”

I couldn’t even look at him.

“I’m broken, Jasper. I’m broken and I don’t know how to fix myself anymore.”

“I’ll help you put yourself back together again, Wellsy. You don’t have to do any of it alone. Not anymore.”

His words…I didn’t deserve them.

I didn’t deserve him.

“Why are you h-here, Ridge?” I sniffled, shuddering and gasping for air as my cheeks began to dry out and my chest became a little lighter.

He answered immediately. “You needed me, Wellsy.”

“I didn’t think, I just ran,” I admitted.

“You ran to me,” Jasper added.

I didn’t have any strength to disagree. To fight him.

I was so damned tired of fighting him.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why I came?” I whispered against his neck, closing my eyes as the sound of his heartbeat fluttered against my skin.

I wasn’t used to people caring about me.

To people sticking around for me.

“That’s not important right now,” he answered, wrapping strands of my hair around his finger and coiling them. “Youare, Wellsy.”

“I’m sorry,” I admitted, exhaling a heavy breath.

“What for? There’s nothing to be sorry about, Wellsy.”

“I’m taking up space in your life that you never offered to give. I don’t want you to have to deal with all my burdens too.”

All my words rushed out of my lips before I could stop them.

“Wellsy…” He sighed, gently brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear as he cupped my cheeks. “You can take up as much fucking space in my life as you want to. Hell, take all of it. I want all of your problems, il mio stupido. Ti voglio in ogni lingua, in ogni futuro. Poppy…I wantyou.”

My heart was thundering in my chest.

His eyes locked on mine. They were glassy and red, no doubt like my own, but they were also full oflove. Jasper was smiling at me as a tear dropped down his cheek, and without thinking, I brushed it away like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Brushing his hair from his eyes, I let my hand linger, cupping the side of his face as I whispered, “You can’t possibly mean tha—”