Page 69 of How To Not Need You

“Watch me.”

“Watch you?”

“Yeah.” I squeeze her hand. “Watch what I do. I’m not asking you to trust me overnight, Liv. I know that's not how this works.”

Her eyes stay on mine.

“I’ll earn it.”

Her eyes fill with tears as she searches mine to gauge my honesty and a tear tracks down her cheek before she can catch it.

She doesn’t wipe it away. She lets it fall. Then she moves.

One moment she’s sitting beside me, and the next she’s thrown her full body weight against my chest. Her face presses into the hollow of my neck. Her arms slide around my waist, knocking the air out of my lungs in the best possible way.

I wrap the blanket around both of us. My arms find their way around her shoulders, one hand cradling the back of her head where her hair falls loose against her neck. She smells like mango, and I press my lips to the top of her head and hold them there, just feeling the warm press of her scalp against my mouth.

We don’t need more words. Hades purrs from the armchair. The sound vibrates through the room, oblivious, the soundtrack to a moment he had no part in creating but somehow completes anyway.

I close my eyes. Breathe Liv in. Feel the rise and fall of her ribs against my chest, the way her fingers have curled into the fabric of my shirt like she’s afraid I might disappear if she lets go.

I wrap both arms around her and hold on.

Liv’s breathing eventually slows. Her fingers loosen in my shirt, but she doesn’t move away.

Neither do I.

I don't know how long it'll take her to believe me.

That's okay.

I meant what I said.

I’ll earn it.

Chapter

Thirteen

Liv

I never thought I’d be the kind of person who stands in another person’s kitchen and tells him it’s fine, go save the world, I’ve got the five-year-old.

Somewhere between Jake pulling his boots on and Tilly’s excited voice telling me that we should make slime, I realised that I am in fact, that person.

Hades has claimed the centre cushion of the couch as his golden eyes track Jake’s movement through the living room with bored disdain. I lean against the kitchen counter with my arms crossed and try to look like I am not having an internal freak out.

His phone rang five minutes ago, and I knew immediately something was wrong. He tensed and he turned away slightly with a lowered voice. My stomach had fluttered anxiously with all my preconceived worst case scenarios until I heard him speak.

“Really? That bad?” He had run his fingers through his hair anxiously as my mind absently wandered to wishing it was my fingers there instead. “Dammit. Okay. Yea. You know she is away.” He paused to listen to whoever was on the other end before glancing at me slightly.

“Hang on, I will have to ask.” When he pulled the phone away from his ear and covered it with one hand the flutter in my stomach turned into a whole storm.

“I am so sorry. There is a bush fire raging just out of town. I wouldn’t normally ask, but could you watch Tilly? Megan is at a conference this week.”

The words had come out in a rush and I felt such a twist in my chest at the thought that he trusted me enough to watch his daughter. Sure, we had been dating for nearly five months now, but solo childcare had never been a thing. Despite my initial gratitude at his show of trust, if I was honest with myself, worry was also there.

Sadly, my mouth and brain are NOT on speaking terms, so when I went to reply all that escaped was, “sure.” He gave me a sweet kiss, told the person on the line that he was on his way and here we are.