Page 23 of The Third Girl

He clears his throat. “Right. I’ll take care of it before I head to bed. That way we’re all set for tomorrow and don’t have to call in anyone else to help. I’m glad you reminded me.”

I nod. “No problem. I can do it, if you want.”

As soon as the words pass my lips, I sense the hesitation in Matt. His jaw twitches. “I’d prefer to handle it if that’s okay with you.” His gaze slides away from me again. “It’s not that I don’t think you can do it properly. I just need to see with my own eyes that it’s installed the way I want it.”

Oh.The pain radiating from him slams into me.The accident.Of course, he’d want to do it himself. I’m an idiot. Someone help me get out of this minefield of poor discussion topics. I touch his arm and give him a small smile. “It’s fine.”

“Thank you.” He exhales heavily as he leads the way back into the kitchen and begins to pick up the assorted items we abandoned on the table after we’d eaten.

“Matt?” I catch his attention as I fiddle with the baby monitor in my hands. “I can clean this up. You should go take care of the car seat so you can get some sleep before work.”

He stops what he’s doing, staring at me with a furrowed brow, his eyes curious. “Thank you for being understanding of my work schedule.” He stops to run his hand over his jaw. “I know this won’t be the norm every night because you’ll be arriving later, but… it won’t be weird for you to be here while I’m sleeping, will it?”

My brows arch in surprise. Maybe he’s the one who’s nervous. “No, it’ll help me get used to being here. I’ll probably read. I might even head to bed early.” My cheeks flush. “I know, I’m boring.”

His lips twitch at my attempt to make him smile, but he never quite manages to get there. Instead, he pulls at the back of his neck, and I can tell he’s sorting through things in his head. “I’ll be here until eleven thirty if anything should come up.”

“Okay.” I shoot him a smile, trying to put him at ease. This is going to take some getting used to for him. It must be difficult to have to rely on someone else like this. I turn to stack our plates and napkins from dinner and watch him exit the room out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t considered it before I told Matt that I’d help him—but I don’t think this arrangement is going to be nearly as hard on me or Sailor as it might be on Matt.

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