Page 87 of Dubious Match
Hollis’ head drops back as she laughs, and I bury my nose in her exposed throat, breathing deeply. She no longer smells like the hospital, the scent of chemicals and bleach washed away. It’s like that all clung to her scent while she was laying in that bed, and I fucking hated it.
“Eat,” I insist, moving her back to the stool and sitting beside her.
Taking a bite of my food, I chat with her when I hear my phone beep loudly. Lurching up quickly, I cross the kitchen to pick up my phone. Nova is outside at the gate looking a little panicked and I immediately hit the button.
Shit. I always have the phone in my damn hand. I need to just give her a clicker for the gate so she’s not waiting on any of us. We did it at first because Nova was still a stranger, and then later we kept the system as is since it was nice to know when she was home.
I don’t want her to feel as if she can’t get into her home. In my eyes, it’s hers for as long as she wants it.
“Nova is home,” I murmur, walking back. “It’s been a few days, I forgot I needed to have my phone on me.”
“Why hasn’t she been back?” Hollis asks. “Is there a boyfriend or girlfriend?”
My matchmaker.
“Not that I know of. She’s been with a client who was having a difficult birth,” I explain. “Brice says that he saw her while he was in the waiting room at the hospital.”
“Oh wow. I hope the mom is doing okay with the baby,” she says.
“Me too. I’ll be right back. I want to check in with her,” I explain. Brushing my lips over her temple, my steps quickly turn into a jog so I can catch her.
What’s dumb is that I have a clicker to open the gate. Digging through a basket at the front door, I find it and slip out the door without my coat, though I make sure it locks behind me.
I’m thankfully wearing shoes, and I jog across the yard, the light dusting of snow crunching under my boot as I run. Waving at Nova, I make sure she sees me so that she doesn’t run me over. I can tell she hesitates before she stops, and finally the window opens.
“Yes?” she asks. Her voice sounds funny, and I frown as I see that she’s trying to hide in the van.
“Roll down the window all the way, please. I want to talk to you without a pane of glass between us, and I need to give you something,” I say.
I hear a disturbing gasp before the window is rolling down the rest of the way, and I see that her eyes are red and puffy. There are tears rolling down her face, and I gape at her.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, worried. Shit, her client! “Did something happen to the mom you were with this week, Nova?”
“No,” she sniffles, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, it’s so…dumb.”
I can tell it’s not dumb, and now I’m worried that I did something without realizing it.
“Can you tell me?” I ask
“The gate. It usually opens right away, and when it didn’t, I started to… panic.”
Nova is gulping in huge breaths and I sigh as I pull open the door wide.
“I fucked up, and I knew it the second I wasn’t going to get to the phone in time,” I tell her. “You didn’t do anything wrong, I did. It’ll never happen again.”
A huge shudder runs over her body as she tries to talk herself down. I don’t know a lot about her, but a blind man could see that I triggered her.
“It won’t?” she hiccups.
“Nope. I should have done this before, but we like knowing when you come and go, even if we don’t always see each other,” I explain, pressing the gate opener into her open hand. “Now, if we’re all busy, you open the gate yourself. I’m so sorry, Nova.”
“Don’t be,” she says, shaking her head. Her hair is up the way that Hollis’ is, and I have to admit she looks a little like her. “This is my bullshit. Thank you for the key to the gate, it’ll help my ghosts I think.”
“If you ever want to talk about it, we have booze and are good listeners,” I say. I really want to hug her. God, I’m kicking my own ass for making her cry.
It doesn’t matter that I didn’t do this intentionally, when she first moved in as our tenant, we promised there would always be someone by their phone, and that person is typically me, even if I’m at a meeting.
The thought that something happened to make her this scared about being locked out makes me pissed off for her as well.
