Page 45 of Keep You Close

“I like her, King.”

There was a beat of complete silence before Kingston let out a loud laugh. Head back, eyes crinkling, having a good old time.

“Ohh,” he sighed after, still grinning. “This must be so uncomfortable for you,” he said, shaking his head.

“Thanks, man,” I said.

“Look, I get it. She’s gorgeous. She’s sweet as hell. I’m just worried that she’s gonna fall for you, you’re gonna get well, and then you’ll leave her. Crushed. But if you think there’s a chance that you might want to hang around to be with her…” he trailed off, choosing his words, “Then I’m really happy for you, Atlas.”

With that, we dropped it.

I got inside.

And overthought that shit until, eventually, I passed out.

CHAPTER TEN

AJ

I kept myself busy enough that I didn’t really have much time to think.

Until, of course, I was stuck in a locked doggy daycare overnight with Samson snoozing on a big bed a few feet away, and nothing to occupy my time after I already cleaned the entire facility and restocked the back room.

I tried to put on the TV, but I couldn’t seem to focus on it.

So, yeah, I was left with my thoughts.

The ones that kept circling back to him.

I’d handled the other thing that had been weighing on me.

After some researching, I found there was no way to track my phone just from the number, so I blocked the one that had been giving me a stomachache.

With that solved, all that was left was the Atlas situation.

I’d managed pretty well with avoiding him. Though, admittedly, I was running out of excuses to be out of the house. And it was all starting to feel really silly.

I figured this one last overnight shift would let me get some perspective, then slowly start to let things go back to… normal.

Luckily, Atlas needed less actual assistance now. So there wouldn’t be a lot of situations where I would need to touch him, and therefore further complicate my feelings for him.

That was the rub, though.

Even with all the space, the interest and longing were still there.

I still wanted him.

If I were being completely honest with myself, I wanted him more than ever.

Absence and the heart growing fonder in action, I guess.

Even with the distance I’d been putting between us, he’d found ways to be good to me.

He made up the coffee pot and set it to turn on right when he knew I would wake up. He scoured the house to find the puzzle piece that had gone missing, making it impossible to finish my current puzzle. He made sure to always get me my favorites when he ordered snacks or groceries.

God, he even left me little notes with scribbles in the margins I left him, telling me about the new visitors to the bird feeder, or how a squirrel got himself into the feeder once, then lounged on his back, double fisting the bird seed until he was so fat he almost couldn’t get back out of it afterward.

“Ugh,” I grumbled, rubbing my hands against my dry, tired eyes.

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