Gabi glanced at Walker again and their eyes confirmed that nobody else was needed.
‘Don’t worry, Isabella,’ he said, adjusting his grip to hold Gabi more securely against his chest. ‘I’ve got her.’
The exhaustion finally hit her as they pulled into the driveway at Walker’s house. Walker parked and jogged around the car to open the door and lift her out. She could have walked, maybe, although her limbs felt like lead, but instead she twined her arms around his neck, giving in to being carried, and not just enduring it, but loving it. He felt safe. He felt solid.
He hadn’t left her side all the time they’d been at the hospital, while they waited, were assessed and, finally, were given the all clear. The boot was removed for good. Her leg was unveiled. It felt strangely naked after so many weeks of being covered.
Now, at his riverside house, he carried her up the stairs to the bathroom and only then did he lower her to stand on the bathmat. She stood, feeling the rug underneath her toes, the air around her calves, a strange sense of vulnerability at her damaged leg now being unprotected. Turning on the taps, Walker added a good glug of bubble bath that smelled of lemons and swilled it with his hand.
‘We need to get you warm– and clean of river water,’ he said, piling white fluffy towels on the chair. ‘Can you manage to get in on your own?’
She nodded, feeling torn and suddenly tearful. She didn’t want to be on her own. She wasn’t used to feeling so vulnerable.
‘Can you come back?’ she said. ‘When I’m in?’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Give me ten minutes. Let me grab a shower.’
Gabi was in the bath with bubbles practically up to her ears when Walker knocked and came in with a towel hung low around his hips. Gabi’s shivering had stopped; her body was relaxing, letting go of its fear into the warmth of the water. She felt recovered enough to appreciate the width of Walker’s chest, those flat, defined abs. Mind you, she’d probably have to be dead before she didn’t appreciate those. He sat on the chair opposite the bath and smiled ruefully.
‘Damn. I put far too much bubble bath in there for you,’ he said, deadpan. ‘Can’t see a thing.’
She laughed, delighted he felt similarly, and lifted a leg in the air. White suds slipped down her calf, her thigh and back into the bath. Walker stared and a muscle ticked in his cheek.
‘Someone’s feeling better,’ he said quietly.
‘Much, thanks to you. . .’ she said. Their eyes met and held.
‘Walker—’ she said.
‘Gabi—’ he spoke at the same time. Gabi smiled. ‘You go first,’ he said, sinking down to sit on the floor next to the bath, his back resting against the wall. The fact he was settling to listen relaxed her even more. He wasn’t going anywhere.
She took a handful of suds and watched them glistening in the light. The bubbles popped delicately, and she let them drop off her fingers into the water. Now the opportunity was here, where should she start? She knew it was time– and she wanted to do it– but this was a big thing. Opening herself up to him. She started with the obvious.
‘You’ve driven me mad the last few months,’ she said, and he laughed.
‘The feeling is mutual,’ he replied but she held up a finger and he raised his eyebrows, waiting for more.
‘Because you’re right,’ she continued. ‘I do push people away, hold them at arm’s length. I do try to do everything myself. Because I’m scared of getting hurt.’ He nodded and she exhaled slowly. It felt good to say it out loud. To admit how tightly she was coiled. ‘But I realised over the last few weeks that it’s not so bad to have someone to rely on. Someone to really trust. I’ve seen what Isabella and Etienne have and it makes me think that. . . maybe I do want someone who’s there forme.’
He hooked his arm over the corner of the bath and let his fingers trail into the water near her feet, listening intently.
‘The thing is, I’ve never wanted it before. I’ve always been too scared to dare.’
‘You? Scared?’ he teased.
‘Terrified,’ she said seriously, and he reached further under the water until he found her ankle, where he circled it with his fingers, pulling her leg closer to his side of the bath. She gasped. ‘That I’d like someone that much.’
‘I was scared too,’ Walker said. She murmured a denial, guilty still for ever calling him that, but he squeezed her ankle gently and shook his head. ‘It was true,’ he continued. ‘Until you came along and forced me to look back, I couldn’t look forwards. I was never thinking about tomorrow with anyone. I was trapped in the past.’ He tweaked her foot playfully. ‘And then this morning, when I thought you were starting something with Fox—’
‘What?’
‘I realised that I kept telling you to let people in, because I meant me. Let me in.’
‘Fox just took me to the hospital. . .’
‘He told me that afterwards.’
Gabi snorted.
