The Other Side of Us - By Sarah Mayberry Page 0,102
something inside him and he’d never repair it.
He clicked his tongue and nudged Strudel gently. “Come on. Let’s go back to bed.”
Strudel heaved herself to her feet and followed him to the bedroom. She did her usual circle routine on the mattress before settling with her head resting over his feet, her big brown eyes watching him solemnly.
He closed his eyes, unable to bear her steady, loving regard. He didn’t feel very lovable right now.
His thoughts roamed as he lay in the darkness. To Flinders and back, but always circling around Mackenzie. Wondering what she was doing. How she was feeling. If Patrick had stepped in to console her.
Oliver hadn’t heard from her since he’d sent the letter. Which was the way it should be. He’d spelled out in no uncertain terms why he’d left and why it was best that he’d gone. There was no way she could fail to understand that she was better off without him.
Heartily sick of himself, he reached for his iPod and called up a playlist. He listened to the heartfelt lyrics of Crowded House and Paul Kelly and Peter Gabriel and consoled himself with the notion that maybe he’d get a decent song out of all this.
Pretty thin gruel.
The street outside grew noisy as the day started—car doors slamming, engines firing, the roar of the garbage truck. He contemplated getting out of bed, but there was no great rush. Rex didn’t want him back at the studio for another few days, since there was still time left on the freelancer’s contract.
Oliver had nowhere to go, no one expecting him, nothing to do. If he wanted to, he could stay in bed all day thinking about how he’d missed out on something amazing because he’d met Mackenzie at the wrong time and place in his life.
A car door slammed, followed by a single, low-pitched bark. Strudel stirred, lifting her head. She blinked, cocked her head, then leaped from the bed in a show of athleticism worthy of her pre-knocked-up days. Tail wagging furiously, she scrambled out of the bedroom and toward the front door.
He was still staring after her in bemusement when the doorbell rang.
Well, that explained Strudel’s antics, at least. Although she wasn’t normally so attuned to visitors.
He got up and grabbed the pair of jeans he’d flung over the end of the bed last night. He had a fair idea he was a far cry from his usual groomed self—unshaved jaw, bed head, stained T-shirt—but anyone who called this early could take him as they found him.
Strudel was whimpering and scratching at the door when he joined her, so excited she was trembling.
Then he opened the door and found himself looking into Mackenzie’s intense blue eyes. She scanned him head to toe a couple times, then a slow, tremulous smile curved her mouth.
“You’re alive, then. That’s a good start,” she said.
Mr. Smith was at her feet, enjoying an intense sniff fest with Strudel. Oliver tried to find something to say but his mind was a blank.
Mackenzie solved the problem by stepping forward and slipping her arms around him. She lay her head on his chest and held him tightly, her eyes closed. She felt so right, so good against him that he couldn’t stop himself from returning the embrace. She turned her head and pressed a kiss to his chest, her arms tightening around him even more.
After a long moment they both loosened their grip and Mackenzie took a small step backward and laid her palm along his jaw.
“How are you? Are you okay?” she asked.
There was so much tenderness and compassion in her touch and her voice that he was embarrassed to feel the prick of tears.
“I’m fine.”
Her gaze searched his intently. “Are you? Really? Because I’m not. I miss you like crazy. I think about you all the time. I want to know what you’re doing, how you’re feeling. I want to be with you.”
His heart did something weird in his chest, banging against his rib cage as though it wanted out.
“Mackenzie...”
“Don’t tell me that you don’t feel the same, because I know you do. I know you feel as connected to me as I do to you. I know you’ve been dreaming about me. I know you love me, Oliver, because I love you so much it hurts.” She blinked away tears.
“Don’t cry,” he said.
He couldn’t stand to see her unhappy. Especially when he knew it was his fault.