“Sick how?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat, and suddenly there was no stopping the words from tumbling out. She wantedhim to know so he could tell her everything would be okay. “Parkinson’s.”
Lock cursed and tugged her into his hard chest. For a moment, she was still. She hadn’t been hugged by Lock in so long, and it was everything she remembered it to be.
Two heartbeats of stillness, then she gave in and wrapped her arms around his waist, letting his warmth envelop her. He was all strength, and she absorbed that strength.
“I’m sorry, C. So damn sorry.”
The first tear fell, then another. Silent tears that sank into his shirt, linking them together.
Lock knew how much her father meant to her. He was her only family. He was and had been her entire world for so long.
She cried about her father’s diagnosis. About the unfairness of it. About the time she’d lost with him over the last two years, and about every hard moment she knew was coming.
Lock just held her, not uttering a single word, like he knew she needed his touch more than his words.
When she finally pulled away, his hands remained on her hips.
She touched the wet patch on his shirt, tracing it with her finger. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize.” He stroked her hip with his thumb, and she couldn’t step away. It was like she was stuck. “What can I do to help?”
Once upon a time, she would have thought that he was the only thing thatcouldhelp. His touch. His deep, gravelly voice telling her everything would be okay.
“Nothing.” The whispered word felt painful to release.
A hurt expression crossed his face, and he didn’t even try to hide it.
The hand on her hip slipped up to her waist and his head lowered, his warm breath brushing her sensitive skin. “Let me in, Callie. Lean on me.”
She opened her mouth to tell him again that he couldn’t help her. That the days of her leaning on him were in the past, but then he turned his head, and his eyes burned into hers.
His warm breath skittered over her lips as he whispered, “I still love you.”
Her breath caught, emotion welling in her chest, pressing more tears to her eyes. “But love isn’t supposed to hurt, Lock. Ours did.”
It hurt her in its absence.
Another flicker of pain on his face, this time deeper, shading his eyes to navy. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“I wish sorry changed the past.”
His head lowered, his forehead touching hers. “I don’t deserve you…but I’m too selfish to leave you alone.”
His mouth hovered over hers before pausing. It was like he was waiting for her to push him away. Or maybe for her to step back. To run from this.
She did nothing. She remained so perfectly still she wasn’t even sure she was capable of moving. Then his lips touched hers. A light kiss. A graze of lips against lips. But she felt it everywhere. It slipped through every limb, beating life into her.
His lips swiped hers again, and that kiss…it thrust her back two years. To a time when life made sense. When she hadn’t been touched by loss and pain.
When Lock was hers.
Lock hadto remind himself to breathe. Because her lips were too warm, and her skin too soft, and everything about her too damn consuming.
Every day for two years, he’d thought about this moment.Dreamedabout it.Cravedit.
She reached up and cupped his cheek, and that one touch lit a fire inside him.
