He took my face in his hands and searched my eyes as if he knew I wasn’t telling him the whole truth. But instead of calling me out, he merely wiped my tears with his thumbs and kissed my forehead. “It’s okay now,” he murmured against my skin. “I’ve got you.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, resting my cheek against his chest.
He tucked me in closer. “Zellie, no more apologies,” he insisted. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
I wasn’t so sure. It seemed like a damn big imposition to be living off of his kindness and generosity and waking him up at all hours.
“Well, I’ll try not to keep waking you up by screaming like a banshee and falling out of bed,” I assured him.
He pulled back enough to grin down at me, a wicked twinkle in his eyes. “So, does that mean you plan on spending a lot of time in my bed?”
My cheeks burned, but a thrill of desire made me shiver. “I suppose it does.”
A slow smile curved his lips. “I like the sound of that.”
He kissed me, long and slow. I savored every moment, clinging to him, not wanting to draw away from the safety of his arms. But later as we lay together, the sunlight streamed through his bedroom window, inching closer and closer to his bed as the time stretched on, and something told me this perfect peace couldn’t last, that I should be suspicious of something so beautiful. Nothing good in my life except Henry had ever lasted.
“I should go,” I said, an ache in the center of my chest growing as I spoke the words. “I need to get Henry from June and Earl.”
“Why don’t I get him while you get ready?” Whit suggested.
I rolled over to face him. “Ready for what?”
He propped himself up on his elbow. “I’d like to take you and Henry out to breakfast—and Addie, too. They’re thick as thieves it seems. Maybe go down to River Street if you haven’t been yet.”
“Whit, you don’t have to do that,” I insisted.
His brows came together in a frown. “Do what?”
“You don’t have to take us out, spend money,” I said. “It’s okay if we just keep things between us.”
“Ah,” he said, nodding. “You think I’m trying to buy your affections by ingratiating myself with Henry and spending money on you.”
I shrugged. “I just…I want things between us to be genuine.”
His expression instantly became aloof.
I covered my face with my hands with a groan. “Damn it. Now I’ve offended you.”
He heaved a sigh. “No, not offended. Zellie, I have a shit ton of money. It’s ridiculous, really. But what good is it if I can’t make the people I care about feel special?” He pulled my hands away. “You deserve to feel special. Will you let me prove that to you?”
I studied his handsome face, still not daring to believe that someone like Whit was lying there beside me, that he truly cared about me and my son and that I wasn’t just a piece of ass that he’d cast aside when someone better came along. After all, one night—and morning—of incredibly passionate make out sessions did not a relationship make.
But he seemed sincere.
I nodded. “Okay.”
Sometime later, he walked me to my door and kissed me so tenderly I felt adored for the first time in my life. Already missing him, I watched him walk back to his apartment, waiting until he reached his door and turned back to offer me a smile. Just then, a cloud must’ve passed over the sun for the shadows in the hallway grew darker, briefly obscuring him so that he was a mere shadow himself.
And then he slipped inside his apartment, and the cloud lifted, bright morning sunlight spilling into the hallway once more.
I shivered, the moment feeling like a warning that something dark was waiting just outside the periphery of my understanding. But I shook it off and entered my own apartment, relieved to find that the heaviness that had been there the night before had lifted.
I hurried to get ready and was just strapping on my sandals when the apartment door flew open and Henry came running in, a bright smile on his face.
“Good morning, Mama!” he said, hurrying to me to throw his arms around my neck in a tight hug.
“Good morning, baby,” I said, kissing his cheek and brushing his curls out of his eyes. “Did you have a good time with Ms. June and Mr. Earl?”
