He responded a few seconds later.

Cannon: I have the day off. I’ll bring groceries and meet you there.

It was settled; I had a dinner date with Cannon in forty-eight hours. Now I just needed to figure out what I was going to say to him.

• • •

You would have thought I had all the time in the world to plan what to say to Cannon when I saw him, but you’d be dead wrong. Somehow two days went by in a blur, and now it was Friday—time to face the music. Cannon had texted when I was leaving work to say he’d gotten to my place early and let himself inside.

When I arrived, I was surprised to see the front door was left open, not unlocked but actually standing ajar. I hurried inside, looking around to see if anything was out of place. The door to Cannon’s room was shut. I imagined, given his long hours at the hospital, that he might be napping.

As I made my way down the hall, I smelled smoke and paused. Not sure what was going on, I knocked on Cannon’s door. With no response after a few seconds, I pushed it open. A can of gasoline was at my feet, blocking the doorway, so I reached down and picked it up, setting it out of the way as my brain scrambled to make sense of what was going on.

A candle was burning just inches away. The edge of Cannon’s blanket was smoking as the candle’s flame licked at it. He was lying there asleep, unaware of his treacherous surroundings.

Confused, I bent down and grabbed a book of matches lying on the floor, then the candle with the intention of blowing it out, but it was already too late. Flames had caught the edge of his blanket, which was now smoldering, and clarity hit me at once.

Michelle had been back.

I screamed Cannon’s name, my voice echoing in the small room.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Cannon

After making our statements to the police, Paige and I were exhausted, both mentally and emotionally drained. She stuck close to me throughout the ordeal, and my protective nature, the need to keep her close, flared inside me. With her tucked close to my side, we surveyed her place. Thankfully, the damage was minimal. The fire had barely caught, only really ruining the blankets on my bed before Paige came home and found me passed out from lack of sleep.

She paced the living room, ringing her hands. I sensed that her home was the last place she wanted to be right now.

“Do you want to go out? Get something to eat?” I asked, running my hands up and down her arms. I hated that she’d been put through this. Hated my history and long list of unstable exes.

Paige nodded. Neither of us felt like cooking, but we were both hungry, it seemed.

I drove us to a nearby pizza place where we sat at a booth with paper plates of greasy pepperoni pie. It was about as far from a romantic first date as you could get.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

We’d barely spoken in the hours since she’d come home. The shock and potentially devastating consequences of what could have happened were weighing on us both. If I hadn’t woken and the fire had spread, that gas can at the door would have ensured my demise. I didn’t want to think about that, though.

When the police had asked if anything unusual had happened lately, Paige mentioned that Michelle had stopped by looking for me just a few days ago. Knowing that solidified in my mind exactly which of my exes must have done this. I gave the police a thorough description of Michelle including her car, where she lived, where she liked to hang out, everything. Allie had been right—I should have filed a restraining order back when Michelle broke into my apartment. I never imagined she’d up the ante like this.

“I guess you were right,” Paige said, setting down her half-eaten slice and wiping her hands with a paper napkin.

“About what?”

“Being a god in bed and women falling in love with you.” She looked down as she said this, and I wanted more than anything to see her eyes in that moment.

I wanted to believe she was talking about herself, but I knew she was talking about Michelle. “You broke the curse. Guess I should say thank you for that.”

This time she looked up and her eyes met mine, but I hated what I saw in their depths. She looked so unhappy. I wanted more than anything to make that sadness go away, but all I could offer her was a smile. Paige returned the gesture, but her own smile was sad and didn’t reach her eyes.

“I don’t want to leave things weird and unfinished between us,” I said.

“How are things supposed to be now, Cannon? I don’t see you for two weeks, and then your psycho ex shows up out of nowhere. Allie’s still pissed at me, and . . .”

When she paused and let out a shaky breath, I reached over and squeezed her hand. It had been a traumatic day, and I didn’t want to push her.

“I’m just tired, Cannon.”

I nodded. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”

Chapter Thirty

Paige

Days slipped past and I fell into despair. The moment I saw Cannon lying on the bed with the flames dancing so near, was when I knew for certain I loved him. A deep, aching love that wasn’t going to go away.

I wished I’d been bold enough to tell him about that night he’d pledged his love for me. But what would it change between us? Yes, I loved him too with all my heart, but I wouldn’t be the one to hold him back.

I hated myself for not confronting him the second I had the chance. I hated myself even more for searching for job openings in Denver on my lunch break at work. I knew things were over between us, but that didn’t stop my brain from fantasizing about what it would be like to start over, to move to a new city, to explore things for real with Cannon.