She put a tentative hand on his shoulder. “Do you want some tea?” she asked, the lack of empathy she’d shown in her anger holding her back from showing more affection. She’d been an ass, and it embarrassed her.
“No. I just came down to see if you were still here.”
“I’d planned to stay the night, like you did for me.” As she said the words, the reality of what Levi had been trying to say sank in. There was something whack about wanting to share your partner’s disease, but that wasn’t what Levi had been trying to say. At moments in his marriage where he’d struggled with empathy and compassion for his wife, he’d fantasized about an extreme solution. Just another version of dreaming of winning the lottery or hoping the floor will open up and swallow you when you’ve made an ass of yourself or wishing the person tailgating you on the highway will be late to work. Not that you want any of those things, really, but the fantasy fills an immediate emotional need.
“Oh. Thank you,” he said.
“And I’ll make you dinner. ’Cause I appreciate when you did that for me.”
“Chicken soup?” he asked, both his eyebrows rising when he coughed.
“I hear that’s what’s best for a flu patient,” she answered with a smile.
“And I’ll complain when I’m sick of it.”
“Fair.” She looked at Levi with his watery, red eyes and sleep-sick messed hair. “And it wasn’t easier dating someone who was also positive. Maybe he understood the havoc the meds can wreak on your stomach, but he didn’t seem to have any sense that I might have a different relationship with my disease than he did.”
She put her hand on his upper thigh, where she’d wanted to put it earlier, when her mouth had gotten ahead of her brain. His thigh was warm, and the muscles under her hand were hard. She’d underestimated him. Or overestimated herself and not stopped to think before talking and acting. The same things that usually got her in trouble.
“Really, you are much better at understanding me than Enrique ever was.”
He shrugged. “I worry, sometimes.”
And that seemed to sum Levi up completely. His stoicism and constant scruff protected a heart that felt so deeply that she was often in awe. That he felt those emotions for her sometimes brought tears to her eyes, even if she was sick of people worrying about her.
“Well, don’t worry right now. Right now, let me take care of you.”
“I’m not very good at letting people take care of me.”
“I know.” She stood and held out her hand. His skin was warm—too warm—as he slid his palm into hers. She planted her feet and pulled, helping him off the couch. Levi leaned on her as they walked into the kitchen. He collapsed into a chair and buried his face in his arms while she heated up a can of chicken soup for them both.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
AFTER THEY WERE both recovered from their fights with the flu, the pattern had been set. They weren’t living together, but they weren’t living apart, either. If Mina was the one who was out late, then as soon as she’d parked her car, she slipped her key into Levi’s door, brushed her teeth in his bathroom and slid into his bed. If Levi was the one out late, then he came to her house. When they were both home for dinner, negotiations just seemed to work themselves out.
Tonight, after Mina shook her toothbrush in Levi’s sink and crawled into his bed, she would fall asleep immediately. Maybe even as soon as her head hit the pillow. Between work and Levi, she was doing too much, and she didn’t want to give any of it up. Which basically meant she felt like she could barely keep her eyes open every night. The plus side was that she slept like a rock, even if she wasn’t getting enough of it.
She shed her clothes, then grabbed her pajamas from the floor next to Levi’s bed and pulled them on. He shifted a bit when she lifted up the blankets and crawled in, but as soon as she pulled the covers back over herself, his arm came around, and he was pulling her in close to him. She wondered if he sensed how tired she was lately. He gave her sideways glances sometimes when she yawned but hadn’t said anything.
Well, he was tired these days, too. Working all day and then going over to Brook’s house and either helping her pack or helping Dennis with repairs.