All Chapters of WHEN ASHES FALL: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

It was a home I shared with Dylan.It didn’t feel right, bringing Smith there.Smith: Ha!Me: Send me your address. I’ll see you at 11.Hours later, while I was sitting in the living room of my townhouse, I pulled up the photo I had posted earlier and checked who had liked and commented on it.Rose had left an emoji.I continued scrolling and saw Smith’s name.My heart started to pound.He had liked the picture.He had followed me, too.I clicked on his profile, my finger hovering over the button to follow him back.Right before I pressed it, my attention was dragged away when I heard a sound from the kitchen.I hoped it was Dylan coming home early.I waited.One second, two seconds.Nothing.Slowly, I glanced back at the screen, my finger still in the same spot.I wasn’t sure why I was even contemplating it.I hit Follow.Then, I immediately got up from the couch and went over to the ottoman to get my purse. Once I found my keys inside, I placed them in the bowl on the table in the e

“You work through the night and in some of the worst parts of town. You don’t get to choose when you can and can’t write back to me. You pick up that goddamn phone, and you let me know you’re all right.”“I couldn’t.” Her voice turned sharper. “I had blood all the way up to here.” She pointed at her elbow and then said, “And I didn’t want to get it all over my phone.”I’d caused the snappiness in her voice, not the patient.But I just wanted her to understand what tonight had been like for me.“I’ve been texting you for hours, Alix. I can’t imagine you were covered in blood that entire time.”She was quiet for several seconds, her thumb sliding up and down the glass. “Dylan, I don’t think you have any idea what I do for a living. The lives I’m responsible for. The duties I have to perform on a minute-by-minute basis.” Her expression softened. “I can’t just pause in the middle of inserting an IV or stop performing CPR to answer my phone. I’m out there to save lives, and that’s all I’m

He’d followed me.And, now, he was directly in front of me.In my space.Taking all of my air.“There’s something about you, Alix …”I was frozen.I wasn’t even sure I was breathing.“What is it?”He gazed at me.He didn’t even blink.“I don’t know, but I can’t seem to get enough of it.”When I broke contact to look at the ground, he stepped forward, and I felt his hand on my face.I heard myself gasp again.It was so quiet.And so loud inside my head.I didn’t pull his fingers away.But I lifted my chin.That was when I heard his exhale again.He was fighting something.I knew it had to do with me.I watched as he pushed through it.As he moved closer.As his other hand lifted in the air and landed on the other side of my face.“Smith …”“Don’t stop me.” His voice was filled with so much passion.His neck bent toward me.His mouth was now inches away.I should wiggle out of his grip.I should take several steps back.I should tell him I couldn’t do this.But I didn’t.Because I wante

She was sweet with a heavy dose of shyness. Mysterious and compassionate. The most gorgeous woman I’d ever kissed.But what made her so unlike the others were her eyes.They were older than the twenty-something years she’d been alive.They’d seen moments that were unforgettable.So had mine.I could tell nothing could shock her anymore.We had that in common, too.The women I’d been with thought they could handle a guy like me.That was until I woke them during one of my nightmares.Until they learned how dark my life had been.I would never allow them to see either, so I would end things after the first few days.That wasn’t the case with Alix.Instead, I was pulling her in.Because, when I looked into those stunning eyes, I saw someone who would understand me.Someone who had experienced pain.Who still felt it.And that scared me right down to my fucking core.I shook my head, taking a drink from the Tito’s and soda I’d poured a few minutes ago, and checked the temperature of the c

I turned toward her, putting my back to the Stop sign. “What do you mean?”“You were supposed to go to Smith’s house for dinner tonight, so what excuse did you give him?”Dinner.Tonight.Smith.Fuck.“You didn’t cancel with him, did you?”“It started thundering and …” I was sure my expression said everything that I didn’t. I stared at the ground, wondering what he was thinking and what I would say to him. And then I slowly glanced up. “He was cooking for me.”“You have to fix this.”“I know,” I whispered, but I was almost positive no sound had come out at all.Twenty-NineDylanTwo Years and Three Months AgoAlix had refused to call into work, so we didn’t go to Maine over the long weekend.Because she’d been off for twelve hours, which was how long she spent in the guest room, and then she’d worked for two days straight, I had gone almost three days without hearing her voice.But we texted nonstop.And I could tell she was trying to respond to my messages as fast as she could.She’d