“It’s too late for you to be driving home, Doc.” I glanced down at my watch while speaking, like I didn’t already know it was three something in the morning.
“True, but I don’t hav?—”
“You can get a shower in the house, and some sleep. You can have the bed. I won’t fuck with you.”
She laughed. “I’m not worried about you fucking with me. I just don’t have a change of clothes and the last thing I wanna do is put you out of your space.”
“You ain’t because I want you in my space. Now stop being stubborn. I’m sure you can sleep in a pair of my shorts and a T-shirt while your clothes wash.”
She giggled. “You don’t like the word no, do you?”
“Not really, especially if that shit ain’t necessary.”
“I won’t even ask what that means. I will stay here tonight, but I won’t put you out of your bed. I’ll sleep on the sof?—”
“Nope.”
When we made it in, I handed her a T-shirt and a pair of my pajama pants, then showed her to the master bathroom while I opted to shower in the guest bathroom. This was a two-bedroom cottage, but the second bedroom had been turned into an office with a let-out. I learned this earlier when I gave myself the grand tour before dinner. The space was nice, but way too much house for just one person.
“You know,I’m not going to put you out of your bed, Hudson.” She stood in the doorway of the living room, rolling my pants up on her hips. I had just helped her start her clothes in the washer.
“I told you I wasn’t letting you sleep on this couch, stubborn.”
She shook her head. “And I’m not letting you sleep on the couch either. That’s a very large bed, there is enough space for both of us.”
I looked at her for a moment, noticing she was visibly nervous and started to pick at her fingers.
“You sure about that?”
“Yes, I am. We’re both grown. Now please come on.”
I laughed and stood to my feet to follow her into the bedroom. When I entered, I couldn’t help but watch her until shehad climbed all the way in. Then I cut the lights out and got into bed on the opposite side of her. It took a minute before I was comfortable, but once I was, I felt myself drifting.
“What did you mean earlier?” She was moving on the side of me.
I knew what she meant by earlier and it took me a minute to respond.
“I’m a professional football player, Greene.”
I felt her eyes quickly. “Like an NFL player?”
I nodded, turning on my side so I was looking at her as she was looking at me. Though it was dark, I could see her eyes via the moon creeping through the curtains. “Felt like that was all I ever wanted in life until I almost died on the field after they cleared me to go back on that very field.”
Her hand was on my cheek quickly, caressing it like she felt the weight of my words. Shit maybe she did, who knows?
“I’m sorry.”
I was thrown for a loop when she apologized. “For what?”
“That you went through that. That you had so many people around you that saw more fit in capitalizing off you than caring about you and your health.”
I leaned over and pressed my lips against hers. Then I pulled her body into mine, evicting space from between us. This was understanding and it was dangerous. So dangerous that it had been forged between myself and this woman I had only known for an evening. I didn’t even know her fucking middle name, yet I felt so fucking close to her.
When we finally parted, I found my way on my back, staring up at the ceiling. It was void of anything but a stilled ceiling fan. I pulled her closer to me and she laid her head on my chest.
“When I was eighteen, I went off to school, thought I knew everything. Arizona State. I was nineteen when I met Boris and twenty when I had Ethan. I was also twenty when I found outthat Boris was married with a family already but couldn’t pass up the chance to manipulate and use a naïve young woman. I was heartbroken and felt like I was losing my mind. Then it dawned on me, I wasn’t the one who’d messed up, he was, and I wouldn’t ever allow him to forget it. I blackmailed him into paying for my son’s childcare and anything he needed the entire time we were in Arizona while I was in school. Because I refused to come back here having nothing to show for my time, so I had to make it work. Then I graduated and walked across the stage with a three-year-old. I returned home and haven’t heard from him since.”
“Damn.”
