Torn [SHAWN MENDES]

~50~

Shawn opened his eyes and was momentarily blinded by the steam of sunlight caused by the gap between the blinds and the window frame. For a split second, he closed them again to avoid the discomfort, but then his sleepy brain woke up and made the connection between bright sunlight and morning. He'd fallen asleep and was still at Taryn's.

"Fuck!" he said loudly as he got out of bed and quickly started pulling his clothes on.

Taryn sat up, feeling both groggy and satisfied after staying up half the night with Shawn. "Oh shit! We fell asleep?"

The last thing either of them remembered was snuggling after the fourth time, which was probably around two in the morning.

"I'm going to tell my mum and dad that I drank too much and crashed at Brian's," he said as he buckled his jeans. "Hopefully they'll buy it."

He'd lied again, this time telling his folks that Brian and his wife invited him over for dinner so he could spend time with their two kids. Two nights ago he stayed in with his parents and watched a movie while Taryn worked, but in general he'd been gone a lot. It was getting increasingly difficult to make up reasonable excuses for why he wasn't at their house.

She got out of bed and went to the closet for her bathrobe. "You're an adult, not a teenager. Relax. They aren't going to ground you or take away your phone."

He pulled up the zipper on his fly. "That's true. I just hate being yelled at."

"Can you stay and have coffee with me?"

"I suppose a few more minutes won't hurt," he grinned.

They went downstairs to the kitchen. Shawn opened the door so Hen could go out, though he stayed inside since several inches of snow had fallen overnight.

"Here you go," Taryn handed him a mug of black coffee. "I don't have much in the way of breakfast, but I've got a ton of Christmas cookies, though they are starting to get a little stale." She opened a tin and showed him.

"We have the exact same cookies at my folks' house."

"I had your mum and Aaliyah over for a cookie exchange and slumber party. That's when they invited me to Christmas Eve."

He popped one of the powdered sugar coated teacakes in his mouth and chewed it. "Who knew that my marriage would end because of a chain of events starting with some cookies."

"I'm pretty sure the chain of events started when we saw each other again at Earl's service," she corrected him.

"Well if we're getting technical, it all began when I showed up at The Good Luck Lounge expecting to see your mom, but instead there was this stunning redhead behind the bar."

She laughed. "I was positive that you were going to be an asshole. You surprised me."

"We fell for each other hard, didn't we?"

"Too hard."

He set his coffee down and walked over so that he could embrace her. "Don't say that, baby."

"There's no denying that our lives would be simpler if we'd never met."

"I was in a pretty dark place when you came into my life, and I don't even like to think about how much further I would have spiraled downward if you hadn't helped me see that I wasn't a monster. Maybe your life would be simpler, but I think I'd be living in hell."

Taryn reached up and held his face in her hands, feeling his morning stubble under her fingers. "You saved me, too, remember? I didn't mean to imply that I wish I'd never met you. It's been hard, but loving you is the highlight of my entire life." He opened his mouth to speak and she placed her hand over it to stop him. "You don't have to say I'm the highlight of yours. I know Piper has that honor and I wouldn't want it to be any other way. Seeing you as a dad has only made me love you more."