I’d warned him ahead of time and here I was the one wincing at the inevitable screech that was about to assault me. “Ainsley.”
Two hundred decibels for a rocket launch, right?
This was about to be a whopping two hundred and twenty.
She sucked in a quick intake of air, her eyes growing watery again. Her lips peeled back while she worked herself back up, a strangled noise simmered in her throat right at the precipice of her wailing again only to be cut off by the sound of jingling keys.
What the?—
I turned just in time to see Silas moving away from the door and heading over to us, a ring of his keys being held up in the air as he shook them gently. They clinked together in a soft array of sound, creating a pleasant chime.
“She’s not a dog, Silas.”
He squatted down next to me, one arm resting on his thigh while the wrist of his other flicked the key ring deftly. He held it up just high enough to catch Ainsley’s attention, her eyes locking onto it immediately. “Well, it’s clearly working. So, you’re welcome.”
This man...
“I’m going to take a stab in the dark and wager you’ve never been around kids before.”
“I’m around plenty of kids all day, every day at work.”
“That doesn’t count when they’re unconscious on your table.”
He shifted his gaze over to me. “I do my own rounds.”
“Yeah, and how often do you delegate the kid’s rooms to the nursing staff?”
His lip quirked up slightly, amusement trickling back into those sharp blue irises. “Only if they’re annoying me.”
“So, all of them.” With Ainsley being distracted, it gave me enough time to lean over and tap on her sound machine. The soft, peaceful noises of rainfall cut through the jingling, bathing the room in a hushed calm.
His fingers snapped around the keys, silencing them immediately.
“Mom will be here in the morning when you wake up,” I said, leaning back to smooth a hand over her forehead. Her lashes fluttered, one small sniff leaving her before she let them finally close.
Neither Silas nor I moved in the three and a half minutes it took for Ainsley to finally give in to her body’s exhaustion and let sleep take over. But the second her chest began to rise and fall slowly, we both quietly scrambled to our feet and headed out the door, slipping through the doorway as stealthily as possible.
I snuck my hand through the crack where I’d left the door open a little to flick off the light in her room, pulling it back out with a soft sigh of relief when no other sounds other than the noise machine could be heard coming from inside.
Using my shoulder, I nudged Silas back down the hall and into the living room. He went easily, his hand shoving deep into his pocket to stow away his keys while navigating throughthe destruction of what I’d left the living room in before taking Ainsley for her bath.
“Sorry about the mess.” Three weeks ago, I would’ve been absolutely mortified for someone like him to see any of this, to get a small little glimpse into the truth that came with raising kids—messy and unfiltered—that not many single people got to experience before taking the faithful leap into parenthood themselves.
By now, though, I figured there was no harm in being honest. My life with my sister and niece wasn’t going to be changing anytime soon and neither was the disarray and chaos that came with it. It didn’t seem like Silas was exactly running for the hills like I thought he would have by now and had surprised me with how unconcerned he’d acted back at the hospital.
I wanted to believe it was a good sign, that whatever this relationship between us was, wasn’t going to be done and over with in a month. I’d grown far too attached to this man to be okay with calling it quits before figuring out where he stood on the proverbial spectrum.
As much as I’d been worried about his potential indifference, all of that had been thrown out the window three hours ago.
Banning me from going out on calls by threatening to tie me up.
Who did that other than someone genuinely concerned?
He wasn’t the type to heavily invest that much in every other patient. I was a special case, and not simply for the fact of us sleeping together once before.
Things went deeper than that. They had to. I wouldn’t accept less.
Silas bent to pick up a few toys, examining them while I grabbed the empty bin over by the front window and set it down at his feet. “These are quite... colorful.”
