‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘All I mean is, stop focusing on what other people are doing or saying, okay? And consider that you could talk to someone.’
‘Aye, I could do.’
‘And do stuff that grounds you a bit, makes you enjoy life. What grounds you these days?’
He shrugged. ‘Same as always.Surfing, family, friends, home.’
‘There you go. And you have all these things.’
‘You.’
Carli nearly grabbed his face and kissed him. He was such a beautiful soul.
‘I actually do talk to someone,’ he said, running his thumb across the ornament again. ‘A “professional”.’
‘You do?’ Okay, this was massive.
‘Yeah, I do. When Rafe died, I gave everyone at the company a chance to talk to a grief counsellor and decided it would be hypocritical if I didn’t do it myself. I’ve got a lot to work through, but it does help. Wow! I’ve never talked to anyone about this. Before Rafe died, I chatted to him about my dad’s diagnosis, but my brothers are so far away that we kind of lost that a bit. Although I had a good chat with Sean the other day. And Jamie and Cal are pretty wise.’
‘Well, that’s great.’ That was enough for Carli for now. She was proud of him for opening up to her at all. Niall might feel emasculated for talking about his mental health, but that wasn’t how it worked for her. And if he was seeing someone, then that was a huge hurdle already scaled. To seek that help took strength. And she needed Niall to be strong, for her, but, of course, for himself.
‘By the way,’ she said. ‘You talking about all this: Do you know how sexy it is?’
‘Okay, now you are joking?’
‘You reckon?’
‘You’ve always been a bit strange. But look, if there are no more questions, your honour, can you come here, please?’
She moved to him and he wrapped his arms around her and blinked down at her.
‘Now,’ he said. ‘You go upstairs and have a nap and abath to make sure you’re rested and warm. And when you’re done, I’ll be here all sexy and waiting.’ He winked.
‘You’re not wrong about sexy. I’m so tempted to skip the nap and bath.’
‘Careful with your teasing, Cass. Get your arse up those stairs before I carry you through to that bedroom and tear those clothes off for you.’
‘Niall, you do know I might never ride you like a cowgirl.’ Carli threw in one extra caveat.
‘Okaaay! That’s fine. Can you ride me like a yoga instructor?’
‘Maybe. Holding his hand, she walked backwards towards the stairs, reluctant to let go of him. ‘I’ll give you a private naked yoga class.’
‘If it’s anything like that yoga class the other day, I may never recover.’ His fingers tingled on the tips of her own.
‘Oh, don’t worry, you’ll find it’s very therapeutic.’ She blew him a kiss and took to the stairs.
Chapter 23
Niall
Several hours later, Niall was lying on the couch staring at the fire when Carli appeared in the doorway.
Naked.
Fuck!
‘Woah, Cass!’ He shot up.
