Page 40 of A Twist of Fate

Before I could overthink it, I jumped in my car and took off for my apartment across town. Baby steps. That was what I was capable of, and yet today I seemed to have shot off at a run, and the difference left me mentally exhausted.

When I arrived back to the studio and my apartment above it, Kane was there waiting for me. “What’s going on?” I asked him only to have him shrug his shoulders before he stood and appeared to work some kinks out of his back. “How long have you been sitting there?”

He smiled down at me then. “Not all that long. I was bent over a tattoo for three hours prior to coming up to wait on you. Didn’t realize you’d be gone so long or I would have just headed on out.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled as I pushed past him, inhaling that warm salty sea air scent that mixed with leather and clung to him like nature made the combination just for him. Once I was able to move past, I unlocked the door and held it open for him to join me inside.

“You went to the doctor with Anna today,” he stated as I shut the door.

“I did. How did you know?”

A bit of a blush bloomed across his cheeks then. “Your sister called down here. Thought you might need someone to be here for you when you got back. She wanted to do it, but had a rush order come through for a client.”

“Oh, that was sweet of her, I guess.” I smiled at him reassuringly. “You don’t have to stay because my sister thought I might need a babysitter,” I told him, trying to let Kane off the hook.

“Come on,” he told me as he grabbed hold of my hand and moved us to the couch. “Tell me about it,” Kane insisted.

I took a deep breath as we sat there, hip to hip, knees touching, and his warmth seeping into my body from all those places. “It was beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.”

“Did she find out what she’s having?”

“They couldn’t do the ultrasound today. The machine was broken or something. But they put the doppler on her and she got to hear the heartbeat out loud. We got to hear it.”

“How did you feel about that?” Kane’s voice was gentle as he asked the question. His left arm, that had been slung behind me on the couch, moved forward so he could play with my hair, pulling the silky strands through his fingers and letting them slip free over and over again.

“At first, it hurt.” I rubbed the spot on my chest just over my heart without thinking about it. Then I glanced up into his beautiful, ocean blue eyes. “It hurt so much because I remembered when Toby and I heard that sound together. It was one of the happiest days of my life.” I described the feeling I’d told Ever about earlier. How this immense peace just flowed through me. “It felt like he was there with me for a minute, telling me it was going to be all right. Is that crazy? Am I crazy?”

“I don’t think you’re crazy, sweetheart. My gran and my mom would both say that the spirits of those who have passed before us are still around, guiding us and making our lives a little easier. Maybe that’s exactly what happened today.”

“I knew he would be happy for his sister, and so I was too. Just that one little rush of feeling made it all better. It was the strangest thing.”

“Why do you look so sad then?”

A tear dropped before I could make it stop. “It’s hard not to be. No matter how I felt in that moment, the memories still leave me feeling empty inside.”

“It won’t be like that forever, G. I know it feels like it now, but look how far you’ve already come.”

“Thank you,” I whispered as I leaned in and laid my head down on Kane’s chest. “Thanks for being here, and for knowing that I would need to talk about it.”

“Told you, your sister called.”

“Yeah, but it didn’t have to be you.”

“Yes it did,” he insisted without any further explanation. We sat like that with my head on his chest as he played with my hair for what seemed like hours. Maybe it was hours, because I had apparently fallen asleep at some point. I woke to the feeling of floating in someone’s arms.

“What’s going on?”

“Just taking you to your bed, sweetheart. You fell asleep on me out there. Thought you’d be more comfortable in here.”

“Will you stay with me?” I don’t know why on earth I asked that question. I hadn’t spent the night with a man since Toby died. Part of me felt nervous about it, and slightly guilty. The other side of it was that I was lonely and needed the comfort of another human being with me that night.

“If that’s what you want, then I’ll stay.”

“I do.”

That’s how I ended up falling asleep, fully dressed, with Kane’s arms wrapped around me, offering a comfort I hadn’t even realized I’d been missing.

Chapter 15

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