“Hey,” he said, and I kicked my boots off and rushed to him. I threw my arms around his broad shoulders and pulled him tight, and our hearts beat, chest to chest.
“Hey,” I said.
Blake rubbed a circle on my back. “You okay?”
“It was kind of a hard day,” I said, then squeezed him closer. “Is Casey home?”
“Running errands, I think,” he answered, and something about the pressure of his chest against mine, and the slow rub of his hand between my shoulders, and the fact that Casey wasn’t there when I wanted him to be, it was like it pulled a cord in my chest and I fell open.
I gasped in a breath. Blake squeezed me closer, then pulled his head back. “Hey, hey, what’s up?”
I smiled. My eyes were leaking tears, but back home, with Blake there and knowing Casey would be back soon enough, I felt safe again. “I’m fine,” I said, then brushed a kiss across Blake’s lips. “I’m better now.”
He kept his forehead pressed to mine as his steady gaze held my eyes, then stepped back. “Come on,” he said. “Let me make you tea, and you can tell me what’s up.”
