“I guess so,” she quips with a half-smile as she takes a small step closer to me. “I’m sorry too. I might’ve overreacted a bit,” she says to the dirt as she kicks an imaginary rock. “With the whole brake-checking thing. You’ve got great brakes.”

We share a quick chuckle before silence fills the shrinking space between us. I don’t know who reaches out first, but suddenly she’s in my arms and, however she got there, I’m grateful. I clutch her to my chest and gently kiss the top of her head. She squeezes my waist and buries her face against me with a relieved sigh.

“Seriously, you should tell them all to fuck off. Especially Patricia. I hate that chick,” I hum into her ear.

“I know.” She giggles into my chest. “I just can’t.”

I hold her in the silent darkness. Something broken is healing. She lets out a contented moan and I take it as my cue.

“Okay, let’s go.” I plant a kiss on her forehead and pull her along to the truck with an arm over her shoulder. “Now you get to help me find the damn keys.”

She curls into my side as I pull back out onto the road. I slip my fingers in between hers, the connection somehow vital to surviving the night. We are quiet on the drive back, but I don’t mind the silence now.

I’m tired enough when I pull up to Elizabeth’s building that I let the stupid valet take my keys. Elizabeth doesn’t bother asking me to come up. She doesn’t have to.

She opens the door to her apartment and I guide us back toward her bedroom. She lets go of my hand and steps to the end of the bed. Keeping her eyes locked on mine, she slowly undresses. It’s intimate. She’s showing me all of herself. Standing completely bare in front of me, she says a single word.

“Stay.”

It’s part command and part plea.

As if there’s anything in the world that could pull me away from her right now. I don’t answer with words. I peel off my clothes and toss them in a pile next to hers. She takes my hand as she climbs under the covers, pulling me down next to her. I curl into bed beside her and pull her dainty body against mine, holding on to this special woman as if my life depends on it.

“I’ve got you, Goose.” I keep myself awake until I’m sure she’s asleep, wanting to know she feels safe.

Holding Elizabeth is better than anything I’ve had in a long time. It’s what I’ve always imagined coming home could be. I drift off to sleep to the music of her soft snoring.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Elizabeth