Page 42 of Dark Love

“Nope.” I can all but see her sipping her tea with a self-satisfied smile on her face. “Your father says hi. We’re going to watch a game now, then head to bed. We’ll see you soon.”

“Bye, Mom. Love you.”

“Love you too. Try to make some friends while you’re at it.” She clicks off before I can respond.

If I stare down at my blanket-covered feet for long enough, can we just pretend this never happened?

“Your mom seems nice.”

Vex used the word nice in a sentence. Why does it scare me more than him using it to describe my mother? “She’s anything but nice. My father loses every argument.”

Vex laughs. “Seems to me he won this one.”

“But he wanted to golf.”

“When a man has the choice between golf and the woman he loves, golf is never winning.”

That’s so romantic. Do men really think that way anymore? Instead of responding with something cheesy, I put my phone back in my purse. “Your cookies! How could I have forgotten your cookies?”

“What?”

“Your ‘thank you’ cookies. I forgot all about them. They were the whole reason I came to your club in the first place.”

“You brought me cookies?”

“What you did that night… how could I not make you ‘thank you’ cookies?”

His hand flexes around mine.

“All of this is… well, I get that it’s way more than a thank you cookie event, but I need you to know how much I appreciate all that you have done for me. I don’t know… I don’t know how I would have handled all of this waking up in a hospital… scared, alone, and confused.” Tears slip out. “Thank you is not enough, but I need to say it anyway. Thank you for taking care of me.” It’s a long moment before I can bring my eyes back to his inscrutable ones.

Is he regretting his decision to bring me here? Maybe I should go home?

“What kind of cookies did you bring me?”

“Chocolate chip. You said they were your favorite.” Why can’t his face be a bit more expressive so I can figure out what he’s thinking?

“And what did you choose for nuts?”

He remembers the conversation! “I added my favorites, pecans and caramel chips.”

“Well then, let’s taste them.” Vex holds out his free hand to me.

There’s no way I’m going to mention that I already taste-tested a few of them. Lifting the heavy tin out of my purse with one hand is a challenge.

Vex takes the cookies from me staring at the kittens and flowers on the outside of it for a long moment. He uses our joined hands to hold the tin steady while he lifts off the lid, pulls away the paper, and lifts a perfect cookie to his mouth.

Does he like them? Sometimes I get too fancy with things, and a simple cookie would have been better.

“You win.”

“What does that even mean?”

“You’ll figure it out.” Vex clicks the game back on as he eats his cookies.

***

I don’t want to wake up, even though the sunlight is peeking through my closed eyelids. Just a few more minutes. I cuddle into my pillow… It’s not a pillow. The firm heat… My eyes pop open as the last few days flood back.

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