**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Puffy Eyes and Dinner**

~Zella's Point of View~

I didn't stop to think.

The moment I heard Brynn's voice outside the door, I was already off the counter, across the kitchen, down the hall, and into my room, the door closing behind me, before I'd even finished deciding to move. I leaned against it in the darkness, pressed both hands to my chest, and listened to my own heartbeat doing something completely irrational.

She wasn't dressed to receive company.

I grabbed the first t