As she woke up more fully, she started to feel decidedly unsafe.

Panicky, even.

She hadn’t ever woken up with Sawyer. It hadn’t been possible when they were teenagers, and friends with benefits, especially a friend with benefits who had custody of his teenage sister, didn’t do sleepovers. So they’d spent six months sleeping together but not sleeping together.

She had spent six months telling herself that she could do the friends-with-benefits thing. That she could have some fun, then hightail it out of town with a full bank account and an intact heart.

Had she been kidding herself?

This was a bookend. The first bookend had been that day on the roof.

This was the closing bookend. The end.

Today, like on that day, she was panicking. But unlike then, she wasn’t angry. She didn’t have anyone to blame this time but herself.

No, this time, she was sad. So sad, she was afraid she was about to start crying.

Very slowly, she started to inch herself out from under Sawyer. He continued breathing deeply. She reached for her phone on the nightstand. It was next to his—and there was a notification on his.

She hadn’t been trying to snoop.

Well, she hadn’t been trying to snoop until she saw it was a text from Law. Jake and I fixed the pink stripe on Eve’s canoe.

What? Her canoe? What? That was as much of the text as the preview notification would let her see.

“Hey.” Sawyer. She set the phone down and turned. Her adrenaline was surging, but he was yawning, so she didn’t think he’d seen her messing with his phone. He reached for her, but she sprang off the bed before he could make contact.

“We should get going!” she said, hearing the high weirdness in her tone.

“Why? I’m off all day.”

It was Friday. He’d taken off specifically so they wouldn’t have to hurry home.

Reasons Eve Had to Get Home Right Now

1. She had to go into the Pink Room of Pain. She had to finally face it.

2. No. She had to face herself. So she could decide how brave to be. How much she was willing to upend her life. How twisty she could stand to be.

That second entry was so many items, and she’d just jumbled them all together. Her list-making skills were breaking down.

“I was hoping we could talk,” Sawyer said. “Among other things.” He wagged his eyebrows.

“I have to get back!” she practically shouted. She had gone from sounding a little weird to sounding totally unhinged.

“Why?”

“I have to talk to Maya!”

“Now?”

“Yes! It’s important.” It had been a line to get them out of here, but as soon as it came out of her mouth she recognized it as a true line.

He sat up. She had alarmed him. “Use my phone.”