I hum a little as he works, a few bars of an Adele song.
He stops. “You want to sing a little louder for me?”
My sigh pulls a laugh from him.
“Please?”
So I really belt it, letting my voice ring out around us, like I might if I were alone.
He sighs. “Your voice is incredible. You could be famous.”
“I wish.” I sigh when he pushes into the muscles around my shoulder blade with his free hand. “Don’t get used to it, though. I told you I don’t like serenading people.”
“I don’t get it, though,” he says. “You’re not shy. If I had a voice like yours, I would never stop singing. I would order that way at restaurants. Sing at the top of my lungs in the grocery store.”
“You think that.” I laugh. “It’s awkward. This lady I used to work with had a decent voice, and she used to sing on the labor and delivery unit all the time. To the babies, to the moms. The secondhand embarrassment was crushing.”
He chuckles. We finish washing then I hand him one of my big, fluffy towels for drying. I wrap my hair in another.
“I think women have the right idea with their fancy bath products,” he says. “This towel makes me feel like I’m floating on a cloud.”
“Right? Totally worth it.”
He trails after me into the bedroom. His gaze burns into me as we get dressed, me in my pajamas and him into the clothes he was already wearing.
“Sorry I don’t have anything else for you to wear,” I say. I recline on my bed, and he settles next to me.
“That’s okay.” He turns to me. “Kendall.”
“Yeah?” My heart pounds.
“Can we talk now?”
I nod. My fingers grip the comforter under me.
“You disappeared,” he says softly. “This week. I feel like you were avoiding me.”
“I’m sorry. I’m terrible at this kind of stuff actually. I know I’m outgoing, but I have a hard time talking about, you know.”
“Feelings?”
I swallow. “Yeah.”
“I’ll go first, then.” Grant turns my head toward him, so hecan look me in the eye. I squirm. “I want you to know exactly where I stand here.” He inhales. “I’m falling in love with you.”
That word, love, drops into my chest like a rock. My body grows heavy. I know, deep down, that I’ve sailed past infatuation into something more serious. I can’t get the words out, though.
“Grant,” I say instead. My voice cracks.
“I know. I shouldn’t say that. But I think about you constantly. I want you all the time, to the point I’m distracted from everything else. I love everything about you—your brain, your sense of humor. How good you are at so many things. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” His voice lowers. “I’ll never want another woman like this.”
My breath stalls. My God, I’ve never had anyone talk about me this way. It’s like he has a direct line to the most jagged parts of me and he’s soothing them with the sweetest things I’ve ever heard.
“Grant.” My eyes water. “I don’t know if this can work. No matter what we feel.”
“But why can’t it? If we both want it to, I mean?”
“What about the stuff at work? With Dr. Gambill?”
