Chapter Thirty-Two
“You look like you’regetting tired, want to come lay down for a bit?”Hawkeye’s voice so close startled Delilah.She twisted in her seat to find him standing beside her.How had he managed to get so close without her hearing him?Still, she found herself smiling as she leaned closer.
“That sounds great.”She pushed herself to her feet and turned back to her new friends.“This has been so much fun, and I’d love to stay and keep going but Hawkeye is right.I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open.I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Andy said, “I’m going to hunt down Dagger.”Her eyes flicked around the room.
“No worries.You’re not the only one who’s tired.I will probably go lay down for a bit, too, though I’m sure I won’t be having nearly as much fun as you will.”Taylynn wiggled her brows as if that was supposed to mean something.Delilah just smiled and wrapped a hand around Hawkeye’s arm.
He nodded his head to Andy and Taylynn and led her down the hall to where the rooms were.He stopped in front of a door that looked the same as all the others.
“We are the fifth door on the left, after church.”Hawkeye pulled keys from his pocket and unlocked the door.Once they were inside, he tossed his keys on the desk then held up one hand between them.Dangling from one finger was a key ring with a single key.
She frowned, not sure why he was showing her one key.
“This is for you.It’s your key to our room.”
“Oh!Thank you.”She eased the ring off his hand and held it in her fist, not sure where to put it.Looking around for somewhere to keep her key safe, she noticed the bags from their outing this morning nearly covering the bed.
Hawkeye twisted enough to see what she was looking at.“Sorry.I forgot I’d put those there.I don’t know if you’re really tired, but if you are we can move them and deal with this stuff later.I thought you looked like you were overwhelmed and thought you could use a break.”
“I’m not sleepy, but I was ready to get away from the noise.I’m just not used to being in the middle of that much noise and chaos.”
“Noise and chaos.I hadn’t thought of it that way but that does describe the common room most of the time, especially with Taylynn and Andy out there.It will take some time, but you’ll get used to it.”He covered the hand still fisted around her key with one of his.“We’ll find something to make it easier for you to keep track of this but for now, you can hang it there if you’d like.”He pointed to the wall beside the door.She looked more closely and noticed there was a small nail sticking out from the wall about an inch.He was right, it was good place to keep them.Somewhere she would see them on her way out and grab them.She hung the ring on the nail first then turned to look at the bed.It was nearly covered in bags and she didn’t know where to start.
Hawkeye looked at the bed again.“I’ll make some space in the closet and dresser so you have somewhere to put things.”He moved to the closet and she went to the bed and grabbed a bag at random.She had to start somewhere and one bag was as good as any other.
Twenty minutes later, it was all dealt with and the bed was clear.She looked around, looking for something that needed to be done.Anything.She wanted to be busy to keep Hawkeye from getting upset and telling her she was lazy.Hawkeye isn’t Warren.He won’t do that.He’s not like that.She reminded herself.
“Hey,” Hawkeye hooked an arm around her waist as she headed for the bathroom to make sure she hadn’t left anything out in there.She turned to see what he wanted and was surprised when he brushed a light kiss across her lips.“I’m sorry if I made you feel like I didn’t want you, or as if I don’t trust you to make your own decisions.”He stopped and watched her for a moment then licked his lips and continued.“I wanted you to have a chance to do something if you wanted, to choose something or someone else.I just don’t want you to regret choosing me in five or ten years.”He looked away, turning toward the window.She looked in that direction but all she saw was a single cloud in the otherwise blue sky.“We don’t do divorce.Now that you’ve made your claim and Raven’s accepted it, it’s permanent.You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life, or mine.”
She didn’t understand why he seemed to think that was so terrible.She’d always assumed marriage, or claiming, if that’s how they did things here, was for life.It had been in Jericho, or at least it was supposed to be.She’d learned the hard way that it wasn’t, not really.
She laid one hand along his cheek and gently turned his head to face her.
“That works both ways.You’re stuck with me, too.What if you decided in a few months or a few years that I’m not who you want?What if you decide you’d rather party with the boys?I know there are women here, the ones who will have sex with anyone.I think I heard you call them mamas.Will you turn to them when you get tired of me?”
His eyes darkened as he watched her a moment then wrapped both arms around her and pulled her close.
