house somewhere and hearing only silence instead.”
She quietly began to sob again. He reached into his pocket to draw out a handkerchief. “It’s okay, it’s clean. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make it worse.”
Taking the handkerchief from him, she shook her head. “You didn’t. I’m sorry. I’m just a mess. It’s actually nice to talk to someone who understands. It’s only been two months and there are days that it feels like I’ll never feel normal again.”
He nodded with understanding. “For what you’re going through, that is normal. It really is okay. It’s just part of the grief. By the way, I’m Tom.” He extended an arm out to her and gave her his most charming smile.
She smiled shyly back at him, the tears in her eyes breaking his heart. He’d help her.
“Hi, Tom. I’m Caitlyn.”
“Listen I know this may seem weird, but would you like to go get a cup of coffee and talk some more? It really does help.”
She looked warily around the park. “I don’t know. I don’t really know you.”
“Smart girl, but I promise you, I’m not an axe-murderer.”
She hesitated a moment before nodding. Julie always told her classes that most attackers were people who seemed perfectly nice. It was amazing to him how trusting women continued to be, but he was going to help in the end, so that was okay. She was going to be number ten.
Chapter 31
As they taxied the airplane into the hanger, Chris turned to Colton. “I’ll finish up here and you can go over to Julie’s to pick up Penelope. It’s late and I know Pen needs to get to bed. They say these first few months of pregnancy are exhausting.”
Colton smirked at him. “Since when are you an expert on pregnancy?”
“I didn’t sleep much last night so I ended up messing around on the Internet for a few hours. I figured knowing what to expect the first few months during Pen’s pregnancy might be helpful.” He shrugged negligently.
“So, why weren’t you sleeping?”
“Normal stuff, nightmares.” And an amazingly sexy woman who’d visited his bed, driving him crazy. Chris pressed his thumbs into his tired eyes. He hadn’t gotten any more sleep after Julie had left the room and he was paying for it now. He didn’t understand what had brought on the change in her. Last night he saw glimpses of the Julie he’d known before, but the thought that she was in his bed simply because she felt sorry for him made him want to howl in rage and pain. He wanted her there because she wanted to be there. And, God, he really wanted her there.
The nightmare had still been too fresh to have a physical reaction to her while she was there, but flashes of her pressed against him tortured him in the most delicious of ways throughout the rest of the night. Getting a hard-on, he could still be thankful for the miracle of it, even if he had to deal with the blue-balls today. The one highlight of a perfectly miserable night.
Colton unbuckled from his seat and cupped Chris’s shoulder as he stood. “If you’ve got this, I’ll let Mick and you handle it and I’ll go pick up Penelope.”
“We got it. Thanks, Colton. It was a good flight.”
“It was. It will be even more enjoyable to do this though if you start getting some sleep. Flying tired sucks and it’s dangerous, too.”
Chris just gave a sharp nod, knowing he was right. “G’night.”
An hour later, Mick and Chris had finished with the plane. “Mick, I’m gonna go do some paperwork in the office. I’ll lock up everything when I leave.”
“Okay, Chris, g’night.”
Chris needed to wrap things up so that he could get home to Julie, but he just wasn’t quite ready to face her yet. Maybe if he wasted a bit more time here, she’d already be asleep when he got home. It was the coward’s way of dealing with her, but it was the best he’d come up with so far.
The problem was he wasn’t sure he could be strong enough to turn her away again. He knew for a fact he didn’t want to. He’d already decided that he wanted to explore this thing between them, but the last thing he wanted was for her to be there out of pity. Anything but that.
The draw between them was huge. If they gave into it, would it finally burn out? He knew he couldn’t have her long-term. That wasn’t fair to her. She