“I don’t know what the look was, but I’m sorry it upset you,” Tinker said.
“It scared me.”
Tinker stiffened under her. “How?”
“I thought you were going to ghost me again.”
She felt the tension ease out of him. “Because of a look?”
“Because of a look and because you left.”
“I’m not going to ghost you again, Abby. You had every right to be angry with me. I shouldn’t have tried to step in. I was going to call in the morning and apologize for making the night harder on you. We really didn’t mean to keep Will up.”
“I know,” she said.
“Have you talked to anyone about what’s going on? A therapist?”
She sighed. “Not yet. It’s one of those things I keep meaning to do, and it keeps falling down on the list of priorities.”
“You need to make an appointment,” he said firmly. “It’s not healthy to pretend everything is okay when it’s not.”
Abby looked at him again. “Do you go to therapy?”
He gave her a half smile. “We’re required to at TLC. Monthly check-ins. More if we had an especially difficult job.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Paige is big on mental health. She had a couple of friends who struggled hard with PTSD.”
“Huh.” They lapsed into silence. Her eyelids grew heavy and the lengths between blinks grew longer each time.
“Abby.” Tinker’s voice rumbled softly in his chest.
“Hmm?”
“You asleep?”
“Almost,” she admitted.
“Why don’t we get you in bed?”
That didn’t sound like fun at all. She was comfy. But it was late, and Tinker probably was not comfy. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “Okay.”
She blinked and sat up, letting out a jaw-cracking yawn.
“Yeah. Let’s get you to bed.” He patted her thigh.
Abby realized how short her shorts were when she stood. Tinker ran his hands up the outside of her legs until he reached her hips and applied pressure to move her back.
“I need some room to get up,” he said.
Oh. Yeah.
He stood and gathered her into a hug, cocooning her again. They stood like that for several seconds. Abby breathed him in. The faint traces of his aftershave or cologne lingered. Something deep and woodsy.
Tinker kissed the top of her head. “Come on. Bed.”
She nodded and led the way out of the closet. Padding over to the bed, she tossed the sham pillow to the other side, pulled back the covers, and got in.
