“I’m going to test out the shower really quick.” He went to double-check the locks on the door, the clamp, and peeked out of the window. He drew back and nodded, once again to himself. Rose was starting to like the habit. As if he was constantly in a conversation with himself, and winning.
“Here, come keep me company,” he added.
Rose felt her eyes widen but he merely explained by picking up the other chair. He walked it over to the bathroom and set it down just inside of the doorway.
James came back for a change of clothes, a towel he had also had the mind to pack, and then he came for her.
“I know you’re strong and fearless and can handle anything thrown your way, but what we went through tonight got to me, and I’d feel a whole lot more comfortable if we could stick together for the rest of it.” He outstretched his free hand. “You don’t have to do anything but sit and listen to me chatter.”
If it had been anyone else, she would have laughed at how ridiculous the request was. Yet, Rose took his hand. A moment later, she was sitting in another old wooden chair, facing the bed, the rest of the bathroom behind her.
True to his word, he started up the chatter quickly.
Rose listened enough to know she wasn’t needed for it. He talked about Mr. Donahue and another client. Then he was talking about his trip he’d taken once to the mountains.
Rose floated in and out of the conversation long enough to catch a few points.
He liked the mountains and snow.
He liked hiking too but preferred to bike.
There was a breakfast shop he’d been to and it was nice.
He liked breakfast, especially omelets.
He’d never made an omelet for anyone other than his parents before.
He thought it might rain in the next few days.
When the shower cut off, she wasn’t sure if she had missed anything else. If she did, James didn’t fault her for it.
He dressed in silence behind her. When he was done with that, he reached around and patted her shoulder. She turned and looked up, up and up at him.
Gold with green and brown, all dancing around together in his eyes.
He asked a question, and she nodded in answer.
It wasn’t until she was bent over, her head against the lip of the sink, and warm water running in tandem with his fingers over her hair, that she realized what he had offered.
James Keller, the giant who had broken a man’s nose like it was nothing, gently washed out the last of her earlier bath’s soap from her hair. And when the job was done, he kept on going.
Without one word between them he brushed her hair out and patted it dry. A new change of clothes came next. They weren’t hers but Rose couldn’t find time to care. When that was done, the distance between the bathroom and the bed blurred. Warm hands led her along it and then she blinked, and that warmth had turned into a sea of flannel around her.
Somewhere, in the back of her mind, Rose knew she had finally broken down. Just as she knew that, during the entire conversation in the shower, she had been staring at the lone bed in their room.
She shouldn’t be this close to James, a stranger. She shouldn’t accept his help or pity. She shouldn’t endanger him or the things he loved all for her mistake. Sheshouldn’t have let him get close. She shouldn’t let him get closer.
Yet, when the time finally came for the lights to go out, Rose couldn’t be bothered to care when the space next to her in bed was filled with by a man she’d just met a little over a week ago.
Because there was one thing Rose knew to be true more than all the rest.
James was warm.
And, to her, that was enough.
Chapter Twelve
The window unit might have looked old, but it worked more than fine. James felt the coolness on his face and his arm that had found its way on top of the quilt. It was the first thought he had once he had woken. The second was, despite the obvious chill in the air, parts of his body beneath the sheets were unusually warm.
