We both had a good laugh and by the time we reached the front door, Seth was considerably more relaxed than he’d been when weentered. He looked around the parlor and then reached over to the side table and grabbed a picture off of it. The picture had been turned over when we’d come in so I hadn’t seen what it was of but when Seth flipped it over, I was surprised to see it was a family picture and I was in it. My heart seized up at the relaxed, happy expression on my face. Seth handed the picture to me.
“There’s another one just like it at the other house,” he explained.
I nodded as I studied the photo. Trace had his arm around me and Seth was standing slightly in front of me, his smile wide. “Thank you,” I said, my heart suddenly in my throat. Seth’s fingers drifted over my cheek as he lifted my face so he could look me in the eye. He kept the contact brief.
“Thank you,” he whispered. And then he leaned up to brush his lips over mine. The kiss was quick and chaste but it rocked me to my core. Seth went out the front door and waited for me to catch up and then locked it behind us. He seemed physically worn out as we reached the car and truthfully, I was feeling the same way.
“How about we call it a day?” I said as I went around to the driver’s side.
Seth nodded but didn’t say anything. But the relief on his face told me that even if we hadn’t exorcised all of his demons, we’d made a pretty good start.
Chapter 18
Seth
“Seth, wake up.”
I didn’t want to open my eyes but only because I was afraid if I did, I’d find out everything had been a dream. And the feel of Ronan’s fingers on my skin would be a figment of my imagination.
“Okay, buddy, have at it,” I heard Ronan say and I thought he was talking to me until Bullet’s wet tongue swiped over my face. He managed to get in a few more licks before I escaped his reach and luckily Ronan kept him from jumping on the bed. I wiped at my face with the edge of the blanket before opening my eyes and then felt my heart stop when I saw Ronan sitting on the side of the bed, his backside pressed against my hip and his arm braced on the other side of my body so he was hovering over me.
“What time is it?” I managed to ask, though my voice sounded way too high.
“Six ‘o clock,” Ronan said.
Hell, I’d been asleep for more than four hours. And that didn’t even include the time I’d been passed out in the car after we’d left the Mercer Island house. The only time I’d woken up on the ride home was when the car had rolled onto the ferry, but I hadn’t managed to keep my eyes open for very long. I had a faint memoryof turning my head to face Ronan as he sat behind the wheel and him reaching his hand out to stroke my face, but I couldn’t be sure if it was real or just my desperate imagination.
“You should come eat,” Ronan said. Where my voice was high and pitchy, Ronan’s was deep and husky and in that moment I didn’t give a shit about food. I sat up and felt an almost giddy rush of joy when Ronan didn’t move. My position put our bodies only a few inches apart and it would be so easy to lean in and take his mouth. When Ronan’s gaze shifted to my lips, I knew he was thinking the same thing.
The kiss back at the Mercer Island house had been an impulse I couldn’t contain, but I’d managed to keep it brief so that Ronan knew it was my way of thanking him for the gift he’d given me. No, the visit to the house hadn’t fixed everything, but I hadn’t expected it to. But what I’d gotten out of the encounter was exactly what I’d hoped for…a chance to revisit the life I’d had and start putting the rest behind me.
I’d been sure the second I’d stepped up to the front door that I wouldn’t be able to go through with it, but Ronan’s voice in my ear, his hand warming my ice cold skin, had made it easier to turn the key in the lock. And it had all been my choice. I could have turned around and gone back to the car and Ronan wouldn’t have thought any less of me. I knew that without a shadow of a doubt. And on the occasions where I had needed that nudge forward, Ronan had given it to me.
I wished desperately that I could do the same for him. Because for every layer Ronan seemed to strip from me, his own past became more and more of a blur. I’d had tiny glimpses today when he’d told me about medical school, but what he’d shared had been like a pebble being thrown into a lake…look away for even a second and you miss the ripples.
Trace had never told me anything about Ronan’s childhood and at thirteen, I hadn’t given it much thought. But two words today and the way he’d said them had me realizing there was so much to Ronan that I didn’t know and it likely wasn’t good.
My father.
“Come on, get up,” Ronan murmured before he pushed himself up. “I don’t make my famous spaghetti and meatballs for just anyone.”
Ronan avoided my gaze as he left the room and I didn’t manage to take a deep breath until he was out the door. I reached for my cell phone on the nightstand as I got out of bed and grimaced at the sight of several missed calls and texts from work. A glance at the switch on the side showed it had been turned to silent mode. I sent Ronan a telepathicthankyoubecause I definitely would have gotten sucked back into work stuff if I’d heard the phone going off. And even though I was still feeling emotionally drained, physically I felt a little better.
I’d managed to change into a pair of sweats and a T-shirt before collapsing on my bed after we’d gotten home and Ronan had urged me to lie down. Under normal circumstances, I would have been happy to leave the comfortable clothes on but wearing the too-loose sweats around Ronan just wasn’t a good idea so I swapped the sweats for a pair of jeans.
The smell of garlic reached me long before I entered the kitchen and I briefly wondered if I would have to play the same game with Ronan that we’d had to play with my mother regarding her cooking. But one look at Ronan in my mother’s apron as he tasted what I assumed was spaghetti sauce and the thought fled my mind completely. The apron had been a gag gift from my father but my mother had gotten a kick out of seeing the shocked expression on his face every time she wore it so it had quickly replaced the pretty, flowery one she’d bought for herself years earlier.
“Come taste,” Ronan said as he glanced at me and held up the wooden spoon expectantly. “What?” he asked when he took in what I assumed was my stunned expression.
“Nothing,” I said quickly, though I couldn’t take my eyes off the curvy woman’s bikini clad body covering the apron. “Nice,” I said as seriously as I could as I looked Ronan up and down.
“Fuck off,” Ronan said, though there was no actual anger in his voice. “I just did laundry.”
I laughed at that which earned me an irritated look. I quicklygrabbed the spoon and took a taste of the sauce. “Wow, that’s good,” I said.
Ronan nodded knowingly. “Can you get the garlic bread out of the oven?”
And so it went. It was dinner, plain and simple. I had no idea if we were friends, lovers, family…and in that moment, I didn’t care. Whatever we were, we just enjoyed each other’s company. I still did most of the talking but it was a role I was happy to take on for as long as Ronan was willing to listen.
