Page 108 of Beat around the Bush
I relaxed a bit with his words. How long would I react like that to a door opening and not knowing who was on the other side?
“Is everyone okay in here?” the officer asked.
Lennon nodded. “We’re okay.”
“I’m Officer Harris. I just need to get her statement and then I’ll be out of your hair,” the woman said to us.
“Can we have just a minute?” Lennon asked her.
She gave a quick nod and stepped out, leaving the door open.
Lennon looked down at me, bringing a hand up to cup my cheek. “Are you okay to answer some questions?”
I nodded, feeling my eyes glass over as emotion clogged my throat. I didn’t want to relive what happened, but I knew that I had to.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” he said quietly.
His admission of his fear made full tears well in my eyes, but I shook my head. “You can’t get rid of me that easy.”
“Easy or hard, I don’t ever want to lose you. Are you sure you’re okay?”
My eyelids fluttered in a poor attempt to blink the wetness away. “I’m okay.”
His eyes searched mine before he leaned in to kiss me gently. He pulled back, then pressed a kiss to my forehead before turning and letting Officer Harris know she could come back in.
***
“What do you feel like for dinner?” Lennon asked as we entered his kitchen about thirteen hours later. They’d kept me to monitor everything, then released me around four p.m. the day after the incident.
I moved to slide out of my jacket, but Lennon was there in an instant, helping me out of it. He set it on the kitchen island as I replied, “Something easy.”
“Pizza?”
“Pizza sounds good. Italian supreme?”
Lennon made a face. “With white sauce?”
“What’s wrong with white sauce?”
He set his cowboy hat on the hook next to where he hung his keys. “Pizza should only be made with red sauce.”
“Okay, fine. We can settle on half red sauce, half white sauce.”
He grinned, satisfied with the compromise. “I’ll call the place if you want to get into some comfier clothes.”
I ran a hand up and down my arm, wanting nothing more than to get out of these jeans and into pajamas. I hadn’t got much sleep in the hospital and I was exhausted, but I was starving just the same, and wanted to be as close to Lennon as I could right now.
“I’ll be back out in a minute,” I said, turning to head to his bedroom.
I carefully undressed, thankful the pain meds were working overtime to keep the pain out of my side. I slipped into a matching set I’d left here a couple weeks ago. It was a light pink button up top with matching sleep shorts, which paired perfectly with my wool socks. Heading back to the kitchen, I found Lennon at the island with an array of ingredients in front of him.
“Didn’t you order pizza?” I asked.
He nodded. “I’m making homemade ranch.”
I slowly slid onto the barstool, craning my neck slightly to look at the ingredients.
I made a face at the large containers. “Mayo, sour cream, and yogurt?”
