Page 17 of Watch Over Me

Eddie snorted. "Unlikely. My place is here." He gestured towards his screens. "Everything else is a bonus. I'm simply trying something new."

"You are going to be careful, though, right?" James couldn't help asking.

Fortunately, Eddie gave him a small smile.

"Yes. I have no interest in putting myself in dangerous situations. I'll leave it to you, guys."

"Good. That's good." James hesitated. "Arewegood?"

Eddie held his gaze for what felt like forever and something in James wanted to run and hide, but this, here, fixing things between them, was too important, so he stayed in place.

"Yeah," Eddie said at last, quieter than before. "Yeah, we're good."

The relief of that nearly took James's breath away.

All was right again.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Eddie rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. He was still reeling from the day and everything that had happened.

He couldn't find it in himself to stay angry at James, though, especially after such a surprising confession.

"I was worried."

"I thought you might get hurt!"

How could Eddie not melt at that? Especially when it was coupled with those eyes, and that face, and…

He appreciated James's apology, though, and the way he took responsibility for what he'd done, owning up to it instead of offering excuses or telling Eddie he was the one exaggerating. It was a nice change in comparison to Eddie's past experiences with calling people out on their bullshit.

Then there was a moment when he thought… He thought that something might happen. James would lean in, or maybe Eddie would, and they would finally kiss. He'd pictured many variations of that scene in the past—the two of them, after hours, alone in the room…

Still, it remained nothing more than a fantasy.

James cared about him, that was clear, but he seemed to care as a friend, not someone who's romantically interested in him, and Eddie needed to accept that, once and for all.

He also needed to control himself better, because he'd almost slipped up and admitted more than he wished to. Thankfully, he recovered quickly. He did care about everyone at KRK, after all. He just cared—and worried—about James more than about the others.

Rubbing his eyes, Eddie groaned.

Get it together.

He'd spent most of the day feeling sorry for himself, but there were also reasons to be excited. He was looking forward to taking on a new challenge and enjoyed the time he'd spent with Jeremy and Martinez, who hadn't once made him feel like he was in over his head. They'd treated him like an equal and a partner, which was exactly what he needed after yesterday's afternoon with his family and James's morning stunt.

It sucked that the people close to him still had so much sway over how he felt about himself. He'd worked hard to leave that behind, and yet, every once in a while, one of them would say something and Eddie's insecurities would come back to haunt him.

He'd definitely made progress in that over the years, but the balance was still off, apparently. Getting advice from others was one thing. Betting his own self-worth on whether or not somebody would approve of him and his choices was another.

Eddie sighed. He was over-exaggerating again and he knew it. He didn't have it that bad. While his family was what it was, he'd known that for a long time now and learned to deal. And James had apologized and explained himself.

So Eddie really needed to relax and let it all go, because tomorrow was the first day of his new assignment.

A glance at the clock told him it was past one in the morning.

With a groan, he closed his eyes, hoping to catch at least a few hours of sleep.

He was going to need it.

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