Page 62 of Nave
I wasn’t trying to be some sort of martyr.
I just knew that there was nowhere comfortable to sleep at either Kit or Ariah’s homes and that they’d insist I take the bed because I was a guest and because I was pregnant. I didn’t want to put anyone out.
Plus, I figured the girls would figure out the solar panels sooner or later. They seemed capable of fixing anything. They both handled power tools better than any man I’d ever known.
Then in charged Nave. For the first time since the whole woods incident, he wasn’t being weird and hesitant. He walked in all take-charge and no-nonsense.
And, well, my panties damn near melted.
Because Nave’s command didn’t come from wanting to control me, but from wanting to take care of me. There was a huge, monumental difference.
As mixed up as I was in my mind (let alone my body) about that kiss and everything that followed, I was all too happy to have a man like Nave whisk me away like some knight in shining armor.
“What’s this?” I asked when he set a plastic container on my lap after he had Edith attached to her seatbelt in the back.
“My father made lunch. And he gave me extras for you.”
“You talked to your dad about me?”
Maybe it was silly, but my heart felt a thousand times bigger at the idea.
“I did. I hope that’s alright. My parents aren’t people who will tell everyone your business.”
“No, it’s fine. I mean, everyone I’ve met so far knows I’m pregnant now. It’s not a big deal. And everyone is going to see that in the next few weeks. Did you have a good visit?”
“I did. It was just what I needed, actually. They’re great.”
“I’m not at all jealous.”
“I’ll share them with you.”
He didn’t mean itlike thatbut try telling that to my heart as it fluttered at the idea of having grandparents for my baby, at having a caring partner. The kind to sweep you off your feet at the first sign of danger.
“You’re an only child, right?”
“Yeah. But with all my cousins, it didn’t feel like it.”
“It really felt like it for me.” My mind flashed back to the soul-deep loneliness, to the afternoons after school when I would sit outside by myself with no one to play with, no one to talk to.
God, it was no wonder I settled for someone like Ben when all I’d ever known was neglect and indifference. To that needy younger version of me, his obsessiveness would have felt like attention, like love.
If only I knew then what I knew now.
Nave’s hand reached out, grabbing my thigh and giving it a squeeze. “Sorry the people around you didn’t know how to love you. That’s not fair.”
The moisture flooded my eyes, making me turn to look out the side window as I frantically tried to blink them away. Because little me needed to hear that so badly. It wasn’t that I was unlovable. It was that the people around me didn’t know how to love me. Hell, they didn’t even know how to love themselves or each other.
Even when I was composed, Nave’s hand stayed reassuringly on my thigh. I knew all he was doing was offering support. But, yeah, you try to tell my suddenly overactive sex drive that.
I’d tried to blame the new libido on changing hormones. But the fact of the matter was, Nave had just reawakened something in me that I’d all but forgotten existed.
And having his hand on the bare skin of my thigh, just inches from where the aching need would wake me up at night, had desire surging through my system as I thought how easily his hand could drift upward slightly, could put an end to the need that had been clawing at me almost since I’d seen him again.
But the next thing I knew, we were turning into the clubhouse driveway and his hand was slipping away so he could cut the engine and start to collect my things.
I squashed the disappointment as I grabbed Edith and followed Nave into the clubhouse.
It was surprisingly quiet, making me turn to look at Nave with a question in my gaze.
