Page 97 of Outlier
And Mike was a good man. He would do it; I knew that. He would care for me. But wouldn’t he eventually resent the fact he didn’t have an equal partner? Resent that I wasn’t normal?
I blinked and took a few stumbling steps back, away from the commotion inside, then I turned and ran back to my car. I sat in the back passenger seat, staring at the house for a long moment, trying to make my decision.
“Shall we go now, Vicky, love?” my driver Richard asked gently.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, please,” I said in a small voice.
Just then, Blake came flying out of the front door, which was slammed after him. Blake’s nose was bleeding, but he got to his feet and kicked some of the stones on the driveway before stomping to his car. But before he opened the door, he caught sight of me watching him. He tilted his head to the side as a nasty expression came over his face.
“Freak,” I saw him mouth at me before he flung open his car door and sped away from the house.
A week later,I blinked at the figure waiting on the pavement as we pulled up outside my house. He was so beautiful, my heart actually hurt, and I was finding it a struggle to take a breath in. I thought that Mike had given up with the whole walking me from my car to the door thing. You couldn’t really blame him—I’d totally ignored him every time he did it, and more often than not, I had my headphones on anyway. But when he stopped showing up, there was a small part of me I wouldn’t admit to that was disappointed.
“You okay, love?” Richard asked, eyeing Mike with suspicion. I knew Richard had been worried about me, and I knew he blamed Mike for breaking my heart, so seeing a larger-than-life Mike in all his glory outside my house again wasn’t going to go down well. “Want me to hang around?”
“I’m fine, Richard.”
“You always say that,” Richard snapped, surprising me as I reached for the door handle. “And Iknowit’s not the truth. Iknowyou’re not fine. I’ve been your driver for ten years. I care about you.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, I didn’t think that?—”
“I know you didn’t think. You don’t think that I notice how much time off I get? You don’t think I notice when you buy my wife an entire nursery full of furniture after you overheard her crying on the phone to me because she didn’t think we were prepared for the baby?”
“Um… I tend to see problems and try to fix them. I don’t mean to?—”
“Yes, well, you’re good withother people’sproblems. Not so much with your own. If I need to get out of the car and punch that big bastard in the face, I will.”
My eyebrows went up in shock. Mike was at least double Richard’s size. “It’s okay, Richard,” I said softly. “And thank you for… er, thank you for caring about me.” I reached over and gave Richard a very awkward pat on the shoulder.
When I opened the door, Richard shouted, “Watch yourself!” at Mike, who didn’t even flinch. He just gave my driver a small salute, which looked like a gesture of respect.
“Er… hi,” I said to Mike as I climbed out of the car, and Richard pulled away. “What are you…? I mean, what are you doing here?”
Mike took a deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest, looking extremely uncomfortable. “I know you said to stay away,and I was going to give you more time, but then I found out that you went to your family’s house, and I…” He swallowed, uncrossed his arms, and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m just worried. I don’t want you around those people, Vicky.”
He wascaringfor me again. Worrying about me. I suppressed a deep sigh. He looked wretched. His bloodshot eyes had dark circles under them, and his face was drawn and stressed.
“I won’t see them again, Mike,” I told him in a firm voice. Mike needed to stop worrying about me and get on with his own life. “Margot’s seen to that.”
I took a step towards him, and his whole body went on alert. My voice was soft when I spoke again.
“You don’t have to worry about me anymore.” I reached up and put my hand on his chest simply because he was there, he was so big and strong, and his woodsy scent was all around me.
I felt the muscles bunch under my hand as he stared down at me.
His eyes flashed, and his jaw clenched tight.
“Vicky,” he breathed, hesitating for only a moment before those huge arms closed around me, and suddenly, I was surrounded by everything Mike.
I let myself have those few seconds. A few more moments I could file away and bring out, over and over again, when I was alone, just like I’d done for the last week since Margot told me what he’d done, and since the fog had lifted.
I breathed in his shirt as I melted into him.
“God, baby, I’ve missed you,” Mike said as he kissed the hair on the top of my head. “I’ve been out of my mind with worry for you. I couldn’t believe you went to those people again. And I know you’re not eating right. Ollie told me that?—”
I pulled away in a sudden movement, taking a few steps back.
There he was, worrying about me again. Wanting to look after me, tocare for me.
