Chapter 18

With my promise came the attention from Gray I so desperately craved. We rang in my twenty-second birthday in June and his twenty-eighth in August, and the summer had been almost perfection. I never knew what to expect from him-he kept me on my toes, but always kept me interested. I had thought I'd struggle not to burn the candle at both ends. It's all I've known since Will died, it was how I kept the demons away, but Gray had filled the void I expected to seep into my daily life. It was odd to have time to hang out with him or my friends and not experience guilt for compromising my career or my education.

I watched him in awe-the way he moved, the way he held himself-I loved all of it. I could stare at him for hours, but invariably he always caught me and gave me a hard time about stargazing. I'd respond with an eye roll and move on to something else. Tonight was no different.

"Are you committing my body to memory, Bird Dog?"

I'd been gawking at him from the couch after he got