Page 54 of Salvaged Heart
Anders breathed in deeply, almost like he was grounding himself. “Well, he did say we would get them back early this week, right? The call was expected.”
We both knew that if the test results had shown nothing unusual, a ‘call me back’ would have sufficed, but neither of us said it.
“What time?”
“Four.”
He nodded and ran his fingers through his hair, pulling it back into the band he had wrapped around his wrist. It had grown so long over the last few months, but not long enough that all the pieces could be contained inside the man bun he was trying to create. Loose bits stuck out the sides at awkward angles. I swear his hair had a mind of its own.
“Whatever the outcome, yeah?” He parroted the words back to me from our last trip to Dr. White’s, his tone confident but his face unsure.
“Absolutely.”
He stood quickly, brushing off some of the grass that stuck to the back of his shorts. “We should get some things around the house done.” Apparently, he didn’t have plans to hang around and speculate on the cryptic message the Doctor had left. “Isn’t Margery coming at the end of this week?”
Ugh, he was right, and I’d almost completely forgotten. Margery had been relatively hands-off throughout the project. I’d only called her a couple times over the past three months for approval on a few items. But we were running out of money and almost over on our original timeline, so she insisted on seeing the work completed before signing another check. I thought she would be happy with the progress. The house looked incredible and shouldn’t take much longer. But the overwhelming partof me that wasn’t ready to see the project end was already cataloging all the suggestions I could make for further upgrades. Reasons Anders and I could stay just a little longer.
I groaned, forcing myself to stand and roll out the dull ache sitting in the same position against a lumpy tree trunk for so long had caused in my shoulder. “When did you become the responsible one?”
“I guess you’re rubbing off on me.”
There was an easy joke to be made there, but Anders had already turned to head back up the hill to the manor. The blissful calm I had been experiencing earlier evaporated with each step he took away from me.
26
ANDERS
“This sucks.” Beck pouted from where he stood at the counter, cutting up lettuce for tonight’s dinner.
Having a fully functioning kitchen again had been doing wonders for our diet, not that either Beck or myself knew our way around it. That hadn’t stopped him from making a better effort, though. It turned out Dr. White’s summoning was little more than him taking the opportunity to rip into me about my poor nutrition and need to increase my weight. While my blood work had come back showing nothing majorly wrong with me, it had shown I was deficient in several essential vitamins and anemic. So, Beck being Beck, he had taken it on as his personal mission to order in a heap load of fresh fruit, veggies, lean meats, and protein supplements. All of which I had just finished putting away.
“I know, but it’s for the best.” Margery was flying into town tomorrow to check on the progress of the house in person, and the last thing either of us needed was her reporting back to Laurel that Beck and I were sleeping together. A concept that still boggled my mind even weeks later.
“I don’t like being your dirty little secret, Anders.” He muttered, but his tone was playful.
He knew as well as I did that this was non-negotiable. While she was in town, we'd agreed that it was best for Beck to return to his room. The thought of sleeping apart from him left something sour and bitter in my chest. Even before things had grown sexual between the two of us, Beck had been sharing my bed for weeks. He had become a source of comfort to me, one I wasn’t sure I could sleep without. But I had to remain firm for both of us.
“It’s just three days.” I reminded him. “She will be gone before you know it, and I’ll make your patience worthwhile.” I shot a wink at him. One I knew would drive him crazy.
“You bribing me with sexual favors over there, Anders?” He cocked his brow, biting down on his lip. I wanted to walk over there and pull it out from between his teeth with my own. There was something about the way he said my name that turned me molten.
I held back and settled for a chuckle instead. “I’ll go drag your stuff upstairs while you’re finishing that,” nodding to the peppers he was now dicing.
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes dramatically. “But I’m going to keep you up all night to hold me over.”
Don’t threaten me with a good time. “I can handle that.”
I turned and left the room, feeling Beck’s steamy gaze focused on my ass as I went. Another laugh slipped from my chest, this one not out of amusement. It was out of the pure need to let some of the unbridled happiness overflowing in me out before I exploded. Things were so good between us.
We had been trying to keep things casual and undefined, but it was a losing battle. I was head over heels for him, falling a little more each day, and the way he looked at me told me he was feeling the same. One of these days, we would need to talk aboutit. About where we were headed after this renovation ended. But the reality of it didn’t matter. The truth was, I would follow him to the ends of the world if he’d let me. Beck was changing my life, each day I spent time with him. There was no way I could let him go.
I took the stairs two at a time, desperate to return to his orbit as quickly as possible. The air mattress was still shoved in the corner of my room, a thin layer of dust collecting on the top of it from disuse. I bundled it up with his sheets, which I had to shake out, a few clothes, and his cell phone charger. Last, I grabbed one of my t-shirts from the dirty clothes hamper, thinking maybe he would sleep in it while we were apart. The thought of him inhaling my scent while he drifted off to sleep made me glow inside.
I was a mess.
Arms now overflowing, I made my way up to the third floor, kicking open the door to what had once been Beck’s room with the toe of my boot and dropping the items in a heap in the corner. I folded his clothes neatly on the bench window seat before pumping up the mattress and slipping on the sheets. I tucked the bedding in neatly and plugged his phone charger into the outlet at its side. The room looked cold and empty. I could imagine him staring at the ceiling while I lay directly below him in my room doing the same. Neither of us would sleep. Maybe I could sneak up after Margery went to bed.
I made my way to the door to head back downstairs, turning slightly to hit the light switch on the way out, but something caught my eye as I stepped back into the hall. A floorboard to the left of the window lay poking up slightly. I would have missed it if the late afternoon sun coming in through the window hadn’t hit it just right.
