Page 175 of Altius
“Wait, wait. There’s nothing wrong with me, but… I just got off the phone with Chantal.” I fought to keep my voice somewhat even as I broke the news. “She wants us to avoid each other until after my appointment next Friday.”
“What do you mean? Like, no sex or kissing—”
“We’re not—we’re not supposed to be in the same room. At all.”
A wounded pause, a shuddering breath, and then he said in a low, hoarse voice, “That’s four days from now.”
“No,” I exhaled with a wince. “It’snextFriday.”
“But that’s…”
Given his away meet and my spending the weekend at Cal’s, it meant we’d be separated for a full fourteen days.
“Two weeks,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. If this is what it takes to get you a proper diagnosis, we have to do it.”
“But I don’t want you to suffer. I can have Cal or Kelsey bring over some of my clothes—”
“Where are you?” he asked, the sound of a door slamming echoing in the background.
“Fieldhouse parking lot.”
“Stay right there.”
I huddled closer to the steering wheel, listening as the pace of his footsteps increased, almost running by the time he rushed through the side door of the gymnastics building.
When his gaze locked onto my car, he broke into an all-out sprint, his desperate breaths pouring into my ear, turning the ache of our impending separation into a stab of pain.
Wyatt skidded to a halt in front of my hood, not daring to get any closer.
Breathing hard, sweat dotting his brow, the bitter wind plastering his shorts against his trembling quads, I wanted nothing more than to pull him into the car and crank up the heat.
“I just—” he started, but his words got caught on a grizzled breath. “Just needed to see your face.”
“We can video chat and text. Nothing changes, Wyatt, it’s just… It’s just a few days. Not a big deal. We can pretend each other’s out of town.”
He nodded, studying my features with something akin to reverence. The same way he looked at me in bed each night before taking me in his arms.
Our reunion was nothing short of a miracle, and we both knew it.
And to be forced apart again so soon, knowing Wyatt was just across the hall, grappling with the symptoms of his waning syndrome, knowing my touch could provide instant relief…
Unspent tears pounded against the inside of my head.
The fading light highlighted the perfect symmetry of his face—my gloriously stunning scent match.
“We waited ten years, right?” I said, choking on the forced lightness in my voice. “We can do two weeks.”
“Yeah, we can. We will.”
Wyatt took a step closer, fingers resting on the black hood of my car. The blue of his eyes was so intense it took my breath away.
“Because I love you.”
We stared at one another, enraptured, infatuated—and in despair.
My heart thundered in response, beating solely for him at that moment, overflowing with the emotion I’d devoted a decade to denying, but I couldn’t speak. Could scarcely dare to breathe.
