Page 112 of Single Dad Dilemma
A couple hours passed.SportsCenterflickered on the TV, not really doing a good job of distracting me from any of this. But I couldn’t focus on anything worthwhile, and probably wouldn’t for as long as she was under this roof with me.
It was dark outside, finally late enough that it was acceptable to go to bed. As I turned off the lights, a noise came from down the hall.
I paused to listen and heard it again.
It was Lily, and when I strode quickly toward the room, I heard her shout someone’s name. I didn’t pause to consider the ramifications, simply opened the door to wake her.
She was already sitting up in bed, her face flushed, chest heaving, her hair tangled, and her eyes wide and frightened.
I crouched next to the side of the bed, reaching out to lay my hand over hers. “Are you okay?”
Her breathing came quickly, her eyes still clouded with sleep and terrorized confusion. I pressed my fingers along the underside of her wrist to check her pulse, watching her face carefully as I counted the beats.
“Barrett?” she whispered. Her chest glistened with sweat, as did her forehead.
“I’m right here.” I ran my palm up her arm. “You had a nightmare.”
Even though she was clearly still disoriented, she nodded, but her face crumpled, the first tear slipping down her cheek. She dashed at it with her hand, still breathing unsteadily.
“What can I do?” I asked. My chest ached with a force I’d never felt in my entire life, a bruise that spread over my entire skin, a hurt with her name on it.
She turned to me, eyes wide in her face, tears spilling over her cheeks. “Will you stay with me?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lily
The moment the words were out, I could breathe. A sweet rush of oxygen filled my lungs when he didn’t hesitate.
I couldn’t bear to be alone, not for another second. Sadness could be held at bay for only so long before the dam broke, and what I needed now was his steady, quiet strength to hold me together.
Silently, Barrett stood and pulled back the covers as I shifted to the side. He peeled off his sweatshirt, which left him in a thin T-shirt and the gym shorts he must’ve changed into after I escaped to the bedroom.
His scent—warm and masculine, like clean skin and musk—filled my head as he eased into the bed next to me, settling his arm underneath my pillow.
Then he waited.
Waited forme.
My ribs shook as I tried to hold everything in, only the quiet tears escaping down my face giving even the slightest hint as to what lurked underneath.
“Come here,” he said in a low voice.
My chin trembled, and he gently pulled me down into his arms, folding one behind my back and the other tight around my waist. I pressed my face into his chest and let the first sob escape.
His hands moved up and down my back as he let his chin rest on the top of my head.
“I’ve got you,” he said quietly.
And he did.
To feel wanted by him was something heady and dangerous. But this ... this could crack my world open. A devastating consequence I hadn’t seen coming.
It had been countless days, months, years since anyone had held me this way. I wasn’t sure I’deverbeen held like this. Like he was keeping me tethered to Earth. I gripped his shirt in my fists and let the tears come.
He didn’t ask me why. Didn’t ask for anything I wasn’t ready to give.
Because I knew if he did ask, he’d want nothing less than my entire heart. He deserved that too. Someone who could give him a future. Who could love him with reckless, wild abandon and not expect him to change who he was.
