He knelt next to her, scooped her up in his arms, and turned so he was in the corner, and she was cocooned in his lap.
She didn’t even have time to protest. “Tinker?—”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You get it all out?”
Well…she’d been getting there until he asked. Now, tears filled the corners of her eyes again, and she shook her head.
“Yeah.” He kissed her head again and pressed her face against his neck, tucking her head under his chin.
He held her while she cried like a baby. He was far gentler with her than she’d been with Will.
Tinker didn’t say anything, just kept his arms firmly around her.
She remembered telling him the night of the barbecue, sometimes you have to bear hug him and let him cry it out.
An involuntary laugh escaped. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked.
“I think I just needed to cry,” she said. “Why are you here?”
“Olivia called me. Said you were upset, and she didn’t know what to do. Thought you were crying because of her.”
“No,” she said.
“Me?” he asked.
“No. At least…not entirely.”
“But partly.”
“A little bit, but not the main reason,” she said honestly.
“Let’s start there. ‘Cause I don’t like that I’m any part of a reason you’re crying. What’d I do?”
“It’s not?—”
“You’ve been honest with me up ’til now. Don’t start lying.”
Abby opened her mouth to ask about Melanie’s mom but wasn’t even sure how to bring it up without sounding like a jealous psycho, especially if she had no right to be jealous. Instead, she asked, “What are we? What are we doing?”
“How do you mean?” he asked.
“Are we dating? Are you my boyfriend?” She dropped her hands to her lap and picked at her cuticles, too embarrassed to raise her head and look at him.
“I’m too old to be anyone’s boyfriend,” he said.
Abby stiffened.
“But.” He lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I told you I wanted to see where this goes, so if you need to put a label on it, then yeah. I’m your boyfriend.”
A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, and she melted back into his embrace.
“But if you gotta introduce me to people, tell them I’m your man. Boyfriend makes me sound like a teeny bopper boy band member.”
Her man. A warm gooey feeling ran through her.
“Okay,” she whispered.
