“Hmm?”
“You’ve been up here awhile. Are you… okay?” She leaned against the doorframe, her stunning red dress clinging to her curves.
No, I’m not fucking okay.
“This is the first time I’ve been up here since you left me.” My voice was all coarse and heavy. “I wasn’t prepared to see… all your stuff gone. It hit me that this is real, that you want to end this.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.” I pushed up from the bed, the moisture in my eyes unshed. “I can’t sleep up here though. You can take the bed. I’ll stay downstairs.”
“Connor, don’t be silly. You don’t fit on the couch.”
“I’m not sleeping in our bed alone,” I snapped. I rummaged through one of my drawers, then tossed her an old college hoodie and a pair of boxer shorts.
“Here, sleep in those.”
She caught them and chewed the side of her lip as her brows furrowed even more.
“I really think you should—” Laney started.
The power went out.
Awesome.
“Do we have a generator?” she asked, her voice nearing me. “Do you have your phone on you? I can’t see.”
“No generator.” Add it to the list of things I said I’d do and didn’t. “Come here.”
I reached for her hand and found it in the dark, then gently moved her toward the bed.
“Let me grab clothes and a toothbrush. Then we can head downstairs. We should sleep by the fire without heat running.”
She snorted. “That settled our argument pretty easily.”
“That wasn’t an argument, Laney.” I felt my way around the bathroom, grabbing what I needed before shoving sweatpants and a hoodie under my arm. “Hey, hold my hand when we go downstairs.”
“I can go down by myself, you know.”
“Sure, you’re an adult, but humor me.”
The answering silence lasted two seconds before she took my hand for the second time that night. The responding butterflies in my stomach would’ve been laughable if it weren’t for the turmoil in my love life. I guided us down the stairs with the light of my phone.
“We can set up a bunch of blankets near the fireplace.”
“We’ll be okay, right?”
We reached the bottom, and I tossed my stuff onto the counter before placing my hands on both her shoulders and looking at her. The shadows caused by my flashlight only made her worry stick out more. I wanted to remove any inkling of a doubt, make her smile, protect her, kiss her.
“We’ll be okay. I’ll make sure we’re okay, I promise.”
“How do you know?” She swallowed so loud her throat clicked.
“Because, baby, we have a gas fireplace, which means we have heat. The pantry is stocked. I have a ton of clothes for additional warmth too. We’ll be safe.”
Before I could stop myself, I kissed her forehead. Then I moved toward our living room. I could feel the cold seeping in with the absence of heat.
“When I get the fire going, want to grab some sheets and cover the bottom of the doorway?”
