“I’ve seen him on social media,” I said about the brother who was just a bit older than her and Seph. “Is he a vet?”
Payton tipped her head up to the sky, letting rain fall on her with her eyes closed. “He is. He’s at London Zoo now, but he travelled the world before and put stuff on YouTube and Instagram. I think he’s at the point where he’s received used panties in the post but we ignore all of that because he’s an ass.”
I realised there were tears mixed in with the raindrops. “Payton, are you okay?” I was fairly good with people but I wasn’t a mind reader. I saw she needed to get out of the waiting room and needed some space but I wasn’t sure why.
Her laugh was choked. “Yeah, I’m just relieved. I don’t cope well when I’m not in control and when I got the message that it was an emergency…” Her face scrunched up slightly as she tried to hold back the tears.
I stepped towards her and pulled her into me, the top of her head barely up to my shoulder. “She’s fine. Your niece is fine. All’s well and you don’t need to think about what could’ve happened, because it didn’t.”
Her hands wrapped around my back, warming my skin. “I know. I’m sorry you had to see me like this. I’m not a wuss, really.”
“Why would crying make you a wuss? Why would being worried make you anything other than strong? I don’t get it,” I said quietly, holding her a little tighter. She felt good in my arms. She was soft and warm and smelled of cinnamon and spices. But I’d asked her out on a date and she’d said no, and I wasn’t one to keep asking a woman. Whatever I felt had to be platonic.
She nuzzled into me. “I don’t know. Please don’t tell my family I got upset. They’d worry.”
Now I understood. She was protecting them, or she thought she was. “They might guess anyway. Let’s get something to drink before you go back to see your niece.”
“Thank you,” she said. “And I am sorry for calling you an ass. You’re turning out not to be.”
I laughed quietly, still holding her. “I can be sometimes. I’m male. It’s part of our genetic programming. You good for us to head to the café?”
I felt her nod against me but ignored it. I’d spent only a few hours with her but I could tell she needed more time to hide so I pulled her closer and started to feel her shoulders relax. I inhaled her scent and wondered why this didn’t feel awkward: me holding a woman I barely knew.
One of her hands came up to my shoulder and she held on, resting her head against my chest. Looking down I could see her eyelids opening and closing slowly as if she was just waking up.
“I don’t want to say thank you again,” she said.
“Then don’t,” I murmured. “And there’s no need to move any time soon. Especially now the rain’s stopped.” There was even a glimmer of blue sky.
“Are you being a creeper and enjoying having a woman pressed up close to you?”
The humour in her voice told me that she was starting to feel better, happier.
“You’ve said no to a date, so I’m taking what I can get,” I said, keeping my voice light.
She head-butted my chest lightly. “I need to sort my shit out before I go on any dates, Owen.”
“That’s fine. Just tell me when you’re ready to dip a toe back in the dating pond and I’ll lend you a hand. Let’s just get a drink now and you can go meet your niece,” I said, starting to release my hold.
“I forgot her present,” she said, sounding sad. “I know; no one else will have remembered but…”
“They’re in my car.”
She looked up at me. “What?”
“When you were on the phone to your brother I grabbed a set and got them bagged up. They’re in the car.”
She continued to look blankly at me.
“TheHarry Potterseries—you wanted it for the baby. If you don’t like the editions I picked then that’s fine, I can change them…” I wondered if I’d hugely cocked up. “Or if you changed your mind about what to get—”
I was silenced by her lips pressing onto mine, her arms thrown around my neck. For about a second and half I was still, my brain trying to process what had just happened, then sense kicked in and my hands grasped her waist and my mouth took control of the kiss. She tasted of coffee and cinnamon and her lips were soft and gentle and responded so easily to mine. She felt like a life buoy in a deep sea.
Then the rain started, this time harder and wetter and those were words I wanted to use to describe something else. We broke apart, her hand immediately going to her face to touch her lips.
“Don’t apologise,” I said. “Don’t.”
“Okay. It’s raining. Should we get that drink? Then maybe go to the shop to see if they have wrapping paper and tape?” I saw her swallow her anxiety.
