Page 23 of Come to Me

He sucked in a breath, turning his attention back to the stars. “Personally.”

She wanted to kick herself for making it seem like she was bringing up his interference that morning.

"You know.” She placed her hand on his arm in reassurance. "My folks won't hold your opinions against you. You were just trying to help. They know that. We were under a lot of stress even before Tate’s mom died."

Patrick gave a half-smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "It's not always easy to turn off the part of me that analyzes and diagnoses. It’s a good fallback point when I’m uncertain of my surroundings. I understand that I overstepped. Sometimes people just need someone to listen—not a counselor."

Her heart warmed at his acknowledgment. "That's all any of us can do sometimes—listen and be there for each other."

A silence settled once more, and Micki vacillated about whether to leave him be. "It's not just Tate we're worried about," she confessed. "The resort's been having a hard time too. We're barely making ends meet these days. That’s why you caught my dad trying to carry wood down to the dock. Thank you for that, by the way.”

“Of course.”

"It seems like no matter how hard we work or what we do... it’s not enough." Her voice wavered slightly as she spoke her fears aloud. She cleared her throat. “Any way, it works both ways, you know. If you have something you need to unburden yourself with, I can listen.”

Silence filled the night air between them, and Micki was about to give up and let him be alone with his thoughts, when he said, “You work and work, and then it’s gone.”

Was he talking about her or him?

“And the only solution is to do something you don’t want to do.”

“What don’t you want to do?” she asked.

“I don’t want to be a corporate CEO.”

To be honest, it did sound boring. Micki shifted, turning to face him fully, wanting him to know he had her attention.

"I avoided that path, but now I’m under pressure to follow it since I’ve failed in my work, and worse, my sister.”

Her heart ached at the pain in his voice. Micki stayed silent, giving him space to unravel his thoughts.

“I liked my work…but after everything with Julia.” He scraped his hands over his face. “How many others did I miss?”

“Isn’t it harder to see the problems of our loved ones than in people we don’t know? That whole forest through the trees thing?”

He shrugged. “Even here, I can’t seem to get it right.”

“What? Are you talking about Tate? I think you’re spot on with him.”

“But I offended my hosts. I’m still not sure what the hell I was supposed to do when you and I were talking earlier. And then there’s the fact that I have no clue about how I should spend my time here. I came here to escape my life for a while and ended up causing more problems."

"That's not true." He was wallowing and she wanted to stop him.

He glanced at her then, a rueful smile playing on his lips. "Do you spend this much time with all your guests?"

The question caught Micki off guard, and she felt her cheeks flush with heat because while she looked out for the guests, she didn’t usually give as much attention to them as she was giving Patrick. "No. But you... you seem like you needed someone."

"I don't need your pity." Patrick abruptly broke eye contact to look back up at the sky.

"It's not pity. I just want to make sure you're okay because you seem... off kilter."

"And the kiss? Did you do that out of pity too?"

She pursed her lips. “No. I already told you, I don’t go around kissing our guests. Well…there was Ricky Childress when I was fourteen, but that was a summer thing—the point is, the kiss had nothing to do with you and your pity party.”

“You’re not helping.”

She let out an exasperated groan and sat up. "Life is hard, Dr. Andres. You, of all people, should know that from your job."

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