Page 30 of Follow Me
“Tomorrow night?”
She turned those blue eyes on him and he felt lost, helpless, reminded of why he’d fallen in love with her to start with. “Can you come over for dinner tomorrow?” she asked.
He forced the smile. “Of course. I…” He sighed. “I don’t want to assume.”
Mal caught his hands and squeezed them. “This is your home, too. In a couple of weeks, I might feel like I can handle the stairs at the apartment and you can sleep here and I’ll go there.”
He shook his head and hoped he wasn’t making a mistake. “Look, I’m going to put my foot down, okay? If we’re going to do this, I’d rather it be like this, not the other way around.”
But she smiled. “See?”
Confusion filled him. “What?”
“You stood up to me and I didn’t break.”
After dinner they cuddled on the couch to watch a few episodes ofSupernatural, because she’d fallen behind and wanted to catch up.
He couldn’t have said what he watched, because he spent the entire time focusing on the fact that she was in his arms again, snuggled against him.
Worried about her.
Later, when he was alone in bed in the apartment, he allowed himself to finally cry, tears of worry, of relief, of anger that whatever he’d done or done wrong or hadn’t done had brought them to this place.
* * * *
“So when can I add ye to the schedule, then?” Niall asked Kel on the phone Friday morning.
When Niall had called him, Kel had been downstairs in the office and working on processing pictures he’d taken at a photoshoot yesterday in Crystal River, at an old friend’s boat manufacturing plant.
Kel hadn’t returned until nearly eleven that evening. He’d slept like shit because he hadn’t seen Mal yesterday, just talked to her over the phone, and his mind had been filled with nightmares of what might happen if he wasn’t there to help her. He knew she’d had an appointment with Doug yesterday, but other than the men texting him that it went well, he didn’t know any details.
“Schedule?” Kel asked.
“To get ye in here in our office.”
“I thought we weren’t doing any joint sessions yet.”
“For a chat of yer own. With me or with Douglas, either one.”
He sat back in his chair and rubbed at his eyes. “I thought you were going to keep me updated over the phone?”
“I am, but ye need to come in to talk with us.”
“I’m talked out, Niall. Unless it’s a joint session for her, don’t waste time on me.”
Niall started to argue with him, but then Kel heard a phone ring in the background. “Hold on.” Niall answered the other call, apparently his office phone, and returned a moment later. “I need to go. I have a client waitin’ in the lobby. I’m not done with ye yet.”
“Talk to you later, Ni.” Kel hung up without waiting for a response.
He didn’t know what anyone expected him to say. Of course he’d sit through any joint sessions they wanted him there for with Mal, but his life was on hold until she was ready to move forward.
All he could do was wait for her and try not to get his hopes up too much.
