Page 91 of Someone to Watch Over Me

He puts his arms around me and draws me in close to him. “I’ll be very closely watched, and I’m willing to change everything about my life if it means staying healthy so I can be with you for so many years, you’ll wish I’d drop dead.”

“Tom! I’ll never wish for that.”

“Never say never.”

“I am sayingnever.”

“I’m so, so sorry to have done this to you. I wish I could take back every burger, french fry and pizza I ate that clogged my artery. I wish I’d paid closer attention to what happened to my dad, so I could’ve been more proactive with my own health. And more than anything, I wish it hadn’t been you who came home to find me in distress.”

“I’m so glad I was here to find you, even if it was traumatic.”

“I’d never want to be the source of more pain for you when you’ve already had way more than your share.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Sure it is, but from here on out, I’m all about healthy living. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do, and I want to be here for all of it.”

“What do we have to do?”

“Romantic dinners, a ton of great sex, lazy mornings in bed, long hikes in the woods, lots of cool trips, and maybe someday, when the time is right, we’ll have a baby together. Then maybe we’ll like that first one so much, we’ll want another one.”

I’m laughing even as tears wet my cheeks. The life he describes sounds like paradise.

“Where in the world have you always wanted to go but have never been?”

I answer without hesitation. “London.”

“Don’t hold back on me now.”

More laughter. “I’m a freak for the royal family and all things British.”

“Then we’ll go to London as soon as we can.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. Whatever my love wants.”

“Sometimes I feel like this is all a dream, since the night we met up in that bar where I’d hardly ever been before then.”

“It was fate. Or maybe it was your Jim, bringing you someone who could love you and care for you the way he did.”

“I’d like to think he had something to do with it.” I remember something right then, something that’s been buried in the deepest recesses of my memory, overshadowed by the trauma that consumed our lives in his final years. “I told him about you once.” I struggle to piece together the details. “We were out to dinner one night talking about people we’d crushed on in high school and how we’d been convinced then that no one would ever notice us because they didn’t.”

“Point of order. Yours definitely noticed you.”

Smiling, I say, “I didn’t know that then.” He’s gazing down at me with tenderness and affection that soothes my anxiety. For right now, he’s here, he’s healthy and he’s mine. “It’s funny to think that maybe Jim knew exactly who to send my way.”

“I almost drove by the bar that night. I was late getting home, starving and didn’t feel like cooking.”

“I’m so glad you didn’t drive by.”

“Even with all this widow-maker business?”

“As long as you don’t make me a widow any time soon, it’s all good.”

He holds me tightly. “I’m sticking around for a good long time because I’ve finally got Lexi Nelson in my arms. And nothing has ever been better than that.”

My mind ismuch calmer after my talk with Tom. The rest of me, however, is abuzz with anticipation of the rip-roaring love affair he’s promised me as soon as he’s allowed to partake in such things. It’s amazing to realize that when Tom and I first connected, the thought of having sex with anyone who wasn’t Jim—even the former man of my dreams, Tom Hammett—was still unimaginable.

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