Page 63 of Come Back for Me
Then my thoughts move to how I don’t really seem to be in a rush to move back home either. Connor has been nothing but sweet and thoughtful. He’s always doing little things with Hadley or making sure I’m okay. Then there’s the way he looks at me, heat and want in his eyes that sends currents through my body. Just like the night we met, there’s chemistry that hasn’t ebbed.
I think about how, on the other side of the wall, he’s sleeping. What would it be like to go through his door instead of mine at the end of the day?
It’s a thought I shouldn’t be entertaining at all.
I huff and rise out of bed, tug on an off-the-shoulder sweatshirt and head out to the kitchen. Maybe moving around for a few minutes will help me settle and get some sleep.
I go to the fridge, grab the milk, and pour a glass. I stand there, hands on the counter, wondering how this is my life.
When I turn around, I nearly drop the milk when I see a profile of someone in the darkness standing in the doorway. Fear grips me so tightly I can’t draw breath. I open my mouth to scream, but the voice stops me.
“It’s just me,” Connor says quickly, hands up in the air. “You’re okay.”
“Jesus Christ, I almost had a heart attack.”
I thought it was Kevin waiting for me, watching me, ready to drag me back to my house and finish what he started.
Maybe Hadley isn’t the only one who is still not okay.
“Sorry, I heard something and came to check.” He steps into the room.
My heart is racing so fast that I clutch the milk jug, trying to catch my breath. “I was thirsty, and I thought I was quiet.”
He moves slowly until he’s standing in front of me and then gently pulls the milk from my clutches. “I hear everything, I blame it on years of being in the military and sleeping in half measures. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I wish I could say he doesn’t scare me, but in so many ways he does. He’s the man I find myself thinking of during the day. The guy my daughter wants to be around. And if I’m truly honest with myself, who I want to be with too.
I have never felt as connected to someone as I do with him. It’s as though the time we spent apart only had us growing closer together.
Which is crazy.
Can two people belong to one another without ever actually being together? Can you love someone without knowing them? I’ve always believed in soul mates, and standing here in front of him, I can’t deny that we’re something . . . more.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I say instead of responding to his declaration.
“Why not?”
Because I was lying in bed, wondering about you and why I can’t seem to leave.
“Just a lot on my mind.”
Mostly him but a lot about Kevin also. I got the court date today, and I’ve been struggling with it. I’m not ready to talk about what happened again. I feel like I finally got to the point where I’m not living it each day, so dragging up all those emotions in front of the court is daunting. Not because I don’t want to see Kevin go to jail for what he did but because I don’t want to have to go back to feeling like I did in the days following his arrest.
“Because we have a date?”
A date? We have a date? My chest tightens and I rack my brain to see when I agreed to that. “We do?”
“For the trial.”
I mentally slap my hand against my head. Of course he meant the damn trial and not us. We’re not dating, we’re . . . avoiding the fact that we have feelings.
I’m a poster child for mental health right now.
“Yeah, I knew what you meant. It’s just late, and I’m tired, but the trial date is good. I mean—that we have one and it’s five months out. I’m ready for there to be a resolution and...”
And your lips are so close.
I can feel the heat of your body as you stand so close to me.
