Page 44 of Receiving His Mercy
This was what she wanted to avoid. She did not want to cry in front of him.
“Hush, Goldie. I know I messed up. I’m going to make it up to you, but first I just need to get you comfortable and settled, okay? Let me do that, all right? Just let me get you inside and protected.”
She should fight him, but she was all out of fight.
“And please, please, stop crying,” he begged.
“You just . . . you just caught m-me at a b-bad moment,” she told him. “I’m f-fine.”
“You’re not and it kills me that I’m partially to blame. But I’ll make sure you are. Where are your keys?”
“Handbag.” She realized that she still had hold of it and started searching through it until she found them. Then he walked to her door and she unlocked it. “N-need my b-bag.”
“I’ll get it for you,” he said in a surprisingly soothing voice. “Don’t worry.” He set her down on her couch and she wiped frantically at her eyes as he turned away. Moving so she was sitting rather than lying down, she quickly grabbed a tissue andtidied herself up. Then she reached up to make sure her hat was still covering the lump on her head.
Whew.
Now all she had to do was to get rid of this stubborn Neanderthal so she could just let go and cry without anyone as witness.
He returned with her bag.
“Thanks, Travis. But I really think you should go. I’m not in the mood for company.”
“Lucky I’m not company, huh?” He moved over to her and sat on the coffee table.
What was he doing?
He reached for her foot and she stared in shock as he slid her shoe off. Then he did the same to her other shoe. She was wearing her favorite pink slip-on sneakers. They were adorable with sparkly gemstones at the back.
Finally, he grabbed a cushion off the sofa and slid along the coffee table before placing it down next to him and resting her feet on top of it.
“You look like you need to get your feet up. You’re very pale. Let’s get that coat and hat off you.”
“No!” She shied back again as he reached for her.
He froze, putting his hands up into the air. “Hey, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You . . . you didn’t scare me. I just . . . I’m cold.”
“Cold? It’s warm in here.”
“I’m always cold.”
“I’m just touching your hand, okay?” He reached down and grasped hold of her hand. “Shit, you are cold. You need a blanket.” He grabbed the blanket that she kept at the end of the sofa and placed it over her.
Great. Now she felt bad for lying to him. Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie. She was always cold.
But he was also being so sweet it was killing her. She couldn’t handle Travis being sweet to her right now. She needed him to be an asshole so she could kick him out of her apartment.
And take some more painkillers.
Leaning her head back against the sofa, she stared at him wearily. “Why are you here?”
“Well, it wasn’t to set off a panic attack.” He ran his hand over his face. “Did you not recognize me?”
“No,” she said dryly. “Just saw a strange man sitting in front of my apartment door.”
“And that was enough to give you a panic attack?” he asked.
