Gray Witch (Black Hat Bureau, #5)

by Hailey Edwards

“It’s not too late to run.” I locked my arms around his calf. “I would hold on, so it would be awkward, but you could try, and I would fully support that.” Then I sat on his foot, wrapping my legs around his ankles. “The thing is, I love you. So, it’s kind of your fault we’re in this situation. I want the best for you, and I’m not sure that’s me, but I’m also pretty sure I would viciously murder anyone who tried to take you, so…”

“You’re so sweet.” I kissed his cheek. “Every girl dreams of being the monster under the bed.” “I would prefer to be the monster in your bed.” “You’re not a monster. You’re too cuddly for that.” Which he proved after we gorged on fig and goat cheese pizza then passed out in a tangle of limbs.

“You’re not your father,” Asa said after a while of me staring down the road. The impact of those words coming from Asa, who feared that most of all, forced me to face him. “I love you enough to become something more terrible than I have ever been if I lose you.” “And you love Colby enough not to put her in the middle of what’s between us.” “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to.” I pressed my face into his chest and looped my arms around his waist. “I love her, so much, but you…” I tipped my head back. “I can understand why Dad did what he did in the moment. He didn’t want to live in a world without Mom. There was no world without her.” “You won’t make that choice.” He breathed me in. “You would never take that decision from Colby.” “I want to believe you’re right.” I turned when gravel crunched behind us. “But it gets harder every time I see your slacks lift and sculp your butt to ever imagine my life without that view.” Laughter crinkled the corners of his eyes, and he captured my mouth in a kiss that tapped his newest piercing against my teeth. “I never should have told you that.”

There comes a point where you must stop looking back on the person you were and judging the person you are by their standards. You can’t be two people at once. You’re either New You or Old You. There is no in between.