Page 30 of Forever Fallen

He peered in the oven to see that the casserole was bubbling nicely… and yanked open another drawer.

A junk drawer.

Bingo!

There were several old packs of matches – and grabbing one, he headed back upstairs to start Sophie’s bath. Filling the tub, he twisted the lid off the bubble bath… and felt his chest clench as he recognized the scent.

This smelled just like Sophie.

He’d breathed the faint sweet vanilla and sandalwood scents when he hugged her on the porch, and again when he’d held her on his lap. He thought it might be an air freshener or candle in the room… but no. He flipped the cap off the body wash and realized it was the same smell.

Heavenly.

Ryan added a capful to the bath and started lighting the candles – only to hear the door downstairs open.

“Hello?” Sophie called out. “Ryan?”

“Up here…” he announced and grimaced as the match burned down to his fingertips. He quickly lit another and set the wick on two more candles on fire before the same thing happened.

Rolling his eyes, he started another match and heard her footsteps on the stairs.

“What are you…Ohhhh no,you don’t!”Sophie began, and he smiled at the anger in her voice. “You aren’t fooling me! I see that the bathroom door is open and hear the water running. I’m not even going to fall into…wait!What’s that smell? Are you using my bubble bath, girly-man?”

He smiled knowingly, lighting the last candle – and turned off the water.

Getting to his feet, he exited the bathroom… only to see Sophie immediately slap her hands over her eyes in understanding. He chuckled, knowing she expected to see him in a towel or worse since he’d shocked her this morning.

Truthfully, he’d surprised himself at his own reaction to her.

The stunt had crossed his mind suddenly, remembering her words claiming she was shy… and that he wasn’t – because he wasn’t. When you shared barracks with ten to twenty other men? You were bound to see more of a person than you ever wanted to… and everyone was built the same.

The body was just a shell that housed who he really was.

A lonely guy.

“I’m dressed,” he said, watching her, and saw her crack her fingers before putting down her hand from her face.

Gosh, she was entertaining and made him smile…he thought silently.

“Well, that’s new,” Sophie retorted glibly and cocked her head to the side. “I heard the water running. Is something wrong? I don’t know how much more I can handle today… just please tell me that a pipe isn’t broken, the toilet hasn’t fallen through the ceiling, or that the tub isn’t leaking.”

“None of the above,” he smiled. “C’mon.”

“Should I be scared?”

“Absolutely,” he retorted, rolling his eyes.

“Ryan…”

“Sophie, can you trust me for a second and please come here?”

She slowly walked up the remainder of the stairs to the landing, standing about ten feet from him.

“If the boogeyman jumps out, there’s a spider, or some other nightmarish event in the bathroom… I’ll probably snap, and it’s a long fall for you to the first floor, buster.”

“Duly noted,” he replied, his smile growing wider.

He was going to have to thank Armadillo wholeheartedly because the more skeptical Sophie was, the more he realized that no one had ever done anything like this for her.

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