Page 21 of Fragile Love (Fragile 3)
“Hey,” he said in a deep, smooth voice, startling her.
“Well, hey.” She scanned his body. “Andrew okay? I heard you two talking and decided not to bother you.”
He walked close to her and put his hands on her hips. “We were talking about you, actually.”
“Me?”
Her smile was infectious and spread to his own lips. “Yeah, about how successful you are.”
“Stop it!”
“He’s taking a nap now. I figure we should let him rest and wake him up later for dinner.”
“Sounds good.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. “What should we do until then?”
Cayden looked around. “It feels like forever since we’ve been here. I wonder if we should christen it—again.”
Lillian licked her lips. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”
THE NEXT AFTERNOON was the type of quiet that only the fall can bring. The cats were sleeping, per usual, but this time Cayden had joined in. Lillian had been getting work done on her computer, and when she took a break she went looking for Cayden and found him asleep on the couch, feet propped up on the ottoman and phone in one limp hand. One of the cats was curled on top of his stomach and the other against his legs. He, of course, had no idea that she stood there, smiling at the s
ight, glad that Andrew was resting and recovering in the next room, before she quietly went outside for some much-missed quality time with her book.
He slowly woke up after about half an hour, surprised to see that the phone had not fallen out of his hand. He unlocked it and saw the email he had been in the middle of writing to a client back in Los Angeles. Giving himself a minute to fully wake up, he typed the rest of it. Neither of the cats showed any sign of waking up. Black Cat was drooling a little.
He sent the email and opened his texts. There was only one unread one, much to his delight. It was from Katharina.
Hi, handsome. How are you?
Everything is fine, he typed back. Lil’s friend is okay. He’s here at her house now. She’s taking care of him until he recovers.
Katharina typed back in an instant. Her friend? I thought it was her brother?
Cayden wondered how to explain it simply. He’s not a blood relative. They’ve known each other since they were kids. He’s like her brother.
He could see on the message that Katharina started to type, then stopped, then started and stopped again. A voice recording came through. “This is easier,” she said. “I was wondering when you are coming back. My gym misses you, and so do my friends. Please tell me it will be soon.”
I just sent an email to a client about coming back, he responded by text. He didn’t like talking into the text app. Looks like I’ll be coming back to the city for a few weeks. Home on the weekends, I guess.
You have a lot of clients here. Do they all want you to find replacements?
Most of them, he replied. It shouldn’t take long, but we’ll see how it goes. It’ll be good to come back. I don’t want to commit to the gym here until everything is taken care of over there.
Tell me as soon as you are back. I miss you.
Cayden winced. He knew Katharina talked like that to everyone, but it still made him cringe. Will let you know. See ya, he typed back, not sure what else to say.
In the other room, he heard one of Andrew’s crutches fall onto the floor. Gently pushing the cats aside, he walked down the hall to see if Andrew needed help. He was sitting up in bed, taking a long swig of water.
“Lil and her water,” Cayden laughed.
Andrew nodded and swallowed. “I’m not complaining. Is she around?”
“I don’t know. I’ll go find her.”
“It’s okay. She’ll show up sometime.”
“Nah, I need to find her anyway. I’ll send her in here.” He walked away, listening for any noises in the kitchen or her work area. Everything was silent.
