“I haven’t no, not yet. I thought I’d show you first. Plus, Nikki went up to her to do some work.”
“She should be resting, not working.”
“How is she?” I asked gently.
He shook his head as he blew out a breath, “Her blood pressure is sky high; she goes dizzy every time she stands and her hands, feet and ankles are huge. The doctor put her on bedrest after the casino opening. She’s at risk of Pre-Eclampsia, so I daren’t let her out of my sight at the moment.”
“I bet she hates that?” I rubbed his arm in a show of sympathy. I knew how much she loved her job as Roman’s publicist. I’d be a nightmare if I couldn’t work.
“You could say that. She hates that she’s being made to rest. She can do most of her work from her bed, but then stress doesn’t help.” His shoulder lifted, “I’ll be the bad guy if that’s what it takes, as long as they’re both healthy, I don't give a shit. They’re all that matter to me. Screw work.” I looked away to Gav, he leaned against the counter picking at some bread. As Roman spoke about the baby, my first instinct was to rest my hand on my belly. I didn’t in case one of them saw me, I didn’t want to give it away through my own crazy emotions, instead I swallowed past the lump in my throat; I was such a wuss these days. A gruff cough scraped the back of my throat as I glanced back at Gav again. God, he had no idea what was coming.
“Hey, why don’t you go up to her and show her these? It might cheer her up a bit.”
A small smile formed on my lips, and I nodded excitedly. I couldn’t wait to see what she thought. I shuffled them altogether in a pile and left them both to whatever they had to do. I climbed the stairs in no time and found Paisley’s bedroom. I heard voices from behind the door where I heard Nikki and Paisley talking. I didn't want to knock and disturb them but then I heard Nikki say something I never thought I’d hear. As I kept an eye out on the corner of the landing, I listened closely, I didn't want to be caught snooping and listening to stuff I shouldn’t be, but I couldn’t tear myself away.
“Do you think he loves her?”That was Nikki. Her voice edgy like she was upset.
“Karen?”Paisley answered but paused,“Who knows, you can’t tell anything with Gav. I’ve known him since we wereteenagers, and as much as we disliked each other, I didn’t miss what happened around school. He never got close enough to anyone for there to be anything emotional, he was always so shut off.” She hesitated again, “But honestly Nik, I think there is something there. He’s, he’s different when she’s around.”
I smiled at that. It was just what I needed to hear. It wasn’t love but it was something.
“I think I love him.”My heart stopped momentarily when I heard Nikki’s reply. Did he know that?
“Oh, Nik. You don’t love him, not Gav. I think you feel something for him, you two have had a strange relationship from the moment I stepped foot inside that suite to work for Roman. But I think you need to let him go. Let go of whatever you two had. Start again. Go back to being friends, the friends that I’m used to hearing insult each other, because the atmosphere right now is awful.”
“Yeah…”
“It’d never work, sweetie. You seem to bring the worst out in each other, and I’m not the only one to notice.”Paisley said.“You do need to talk about it though.”
I felt like a stalker, standing here listening, but it helped in a way, now though, I had to tell him about the baby, and I had to tell him I loved him because if I didn’t, I might never get another chance. I hugged Roman’s pictures against my chest and crept away. I took the stairs with soft steps and slowly, with my mind whirring, made my way back to the kitchen.
Roman and Gav were sat on opposite sides of the island as I re-entered the room. “What did she say?” Roman asked cheerily.
“I’m just gonna leave them here for her. She sounded like she was busy with Nikki, I didn’t want to disturb them...they were talking. It sounded serious.”
“What were they talking about, babies?” Gav sniggered, just being his normal self, but I couldn’t shake the joke off. I slapped the pictures down on the countertop.
“I don’t know, Gav. I didn’t stick around.” I huffed and moved toward the sliding door, stepping out onto the patio.
My arms wrapped around myself and stood by the pool. There was something soothing about water. How could I not recollect what I’d heard them talking about? Nikki telling Paisley that she thought she loved Gav played on a loop in my mind.
Was I coming between them?
Should I walk away from him… I asked myself all these questions, but they all had the same answer, the same resounding no. I didn’t split them up, I just seemed to come along at the right time, or wrong time, however it was looked at. I couldn’t be blamed for that. I was just overthinking.I had a bad habit of doing that, my mom used to say that all the time.
Then I remembered Paisley’s words, and they bore more weight than Nikki’s, that’s what I had to hang on to. He acted differently with me. I’d thought this myself, but to hear it from someone that’s known him so long made me feel so much better. He had to know the truth.
As I was thinking about going back inside to grab my purse, Gav came up behind me and hugged me, his hands covered mine and for just a minute or two I let him hold me. I sagged in his arms, my body melted against his, I felt so safe, but I was nervous, and scared. He always held me so tightly, and more than ever, I relished in it. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry I snapped.” He shrugged but smiled, shaking off my weird mood. “I have to get home.”
“Why?” his lips tickled the shell of my ear as he spoke.
“Because I have things to do. Work to catch up on still.”
His lips connected with my neck, “Ok, maybe I’ll see you later?”
“Course.” I turned my head slightly towards him and captured the corner of his lips. “I’ll text you later.” I forced a smile and lifted our joined hands to my lips. “By the way, maybe you should talk to Nikki.” He released my hand and turned me to look at him.
