He bent his head and kissed me.
He smelled like leaves and rain and Dair, and tasted like heaven, so I kissed him back.
Who could blame me?
When he broke it, he said, “Ye can share what ye want. Ye can hold what ye like. I ken who my Blake is. I love her, she loves me. From here on, that’s all that matters.”
Oh God.
I was not going to cry.
Regrettably, my eyes did not take direction.
So I shoved my face in Dair’s neck and wept all the way to the bathroom.
I was lying on my back on a heating pad on my bed.
Dair was lying beside me, on his side, up on a forearm, his thumbs moving over his phone screen.
I’d had my bath, my whisky, my pain pills, and yes, Dair had undressed me and set me in the tub himself. He’d then gone to get the other stuff from Christine, along with my book, and made me stay in there for a full hour, coming in occasionally to add more hot water so it would never go cool.
And yes.
The man hadn’t even let me reach to the faucets of a bathtub to warm up my own bath.
Therefore, by the time he decided I was done, my back was feeling a whole lot better.
Even though I insisted this was the case, he toweled me down and brought me panties and pajamas, helped me into both, and then he took me to the heating pad.
As in, carried me.
Where I was now.
I heard the whoosh of him sending the text, he twisted, put his phone on the nightstand, and came back to me.
“Talked Mum down from disowning me, though to do it, I had to promise we’d be at her dinner table for Sunday supper.”
My brows went up. “Sunday supper?”
“Aye. We’ll fly up Saturday night from Dublin.”
Um…
“Dublin?”
“I’m calling a match there Saturday. You’re coming with me.”
My eyes narrowed. “I am?”
“Ye are, lass,” he stated blithely. “We’ll fly out Friday from Bristol. Fly to Edinburgh Saturday night. Have dinner with Mum and Davi Sunday. And if ye need to be here, we’ll load up Sorcha and drive down Monday.”
“Have it all planned, do you?” I asked.
“Well…aye,” he answered like my question indicated I had a screw loose. “In the meantime, you’re resting that back.”
“It’s just a tweak, Dair. I’m fine,” I dismissed it.
In answer, his hand came to my face.
