“I need a shower,” she whispers as her fingers fumble with my belt buckle. My pants come off, and she doesn’t even blush when she sees just how hard I am for. Instead, she presses a kiss on my chest, her hands rubbing around to my back. Then, I hear a gasp as she spins me around.

“Murph, you’re bleeding!”

I nearly forgot about the gashes from the glass on the ground at the wreck. I spin around to see the dried blood along my back. It’s not as bad as Savannah’s thinking, but she pulls me toward the water like I’m the one who needs the tenderness.

We’re careful with the wrap on her wrist and the butterfly bandage on her head as I lean her head back to lather up her hair. Washing her feels like a ritual, taking care to be gentle as I rub my soapy hands across every inch of her body. It’s just our naked bodies against each other and the hot water rolling over our skin, washing away the blood. It’s washing away far more than that.

She looks up at me with such sincerity, her eyes telling me stories they never told me before. On her tiptoes she presses her lips against mine, and I cup her chin to pull her closer. There’s a stinging feeling behind my eyes that takes me by surprise. The last tear I shed was for Theo, and I swore it would be my last.

Now, Savannah can have them all. When I watched that car roll, I was convinced I would never have this moment. Suddenly, everything that had value before means nothing. My pride. My quiet, solitary life. My business. They burned up in that fire, and I don’t want any of them back.

“You look me in the eye now,” she says quietly.

I grit my teeth and pull her closer. Time could never erase the way I treated her before, how I used her, disregarded her feelings, pushed her away, but I can. I can erase every one of those bad memories with good ones.

There are a million things I want to say, but she quiets them with a burning kiss on my mouth, stroking her tongue against my lips and easing herself inside. I’m open, all hers. When I feel her rub herself against my leg, I wrap my hands under her ass and hold her against the wall as I slip inside.