that I’d changed my mind and asked him to stay. As it was, I forced myself to look brave and confident. I’d gotten through the first two months after Jonas died without anyone here to help me. I could do that again.
Just because I was thirty weeks pregnant and a hormonal mess didn’t mean I’d fall apart the minute he left.
Those were the lies I told myself.
“I hate leaving you here when I know reporters will be prowling,” he said as he wound up his charging cable and put it in his bag that sat beside me on his bed.
“Nick has it under control. Besides, with you off in the big cities, they’ll be less interested in me.”
“We hope,” he hedged as he pushed my hair behind my shoulder.
“I’ll do my best to be as uninteresting as possible.”
“We still don’t know who sold that photo to the magazine. Someone who probably lives on this block made a killing off of exploiting you.”
I blinked in surprise, rewinding over the past couple days. Gemma had confessed to me. I’d come home. I’d overheard Sean talking to Randy and I’d forgotten all about Gemma. “I never got to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
I took his hand in mine. “It was a coworker of mine. She wasn’t being malicious, she was just”—I sucked in a deep breath and let it out as a sigh—”desperate and opportunistic.”
He closed his eyes, digging his thumb and forefinger into his eyebrows. “I wish I could be surprised by that. But it’s just as often the people you know as the people you don’t.”
“At least I don’t have to wonder anymore.” It was true I was glad to know, but I was also exaggerating the silver lining aspect, hoping he would worry less.
A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “Looking at the bright side, huh?” He moved to his desk, refocusing on what he needed to pack. He must have found something or thought of something that made him pause abruptly, and my body tensed in response, bracing for impact. Then his shoulders fell. It was like his muscles melted, and all the tension drained away. He slowly picked something up before turning back to me. I expected to see something in his hands, but his fist appeared to be closed around nothing. He walked over to me, and it wasn’t until he was raising his hands over my head that I saw the necklace dangling in front of me.
My eyes stung, seeing that infinity sign swaying in the light of the sunset coming through the window.
“This is how much I love you.” His voice was husky as he said it, and my eyes darted to his as he settled the chain around my neck.
Tears clouded my eyes before one silently slipped down my cheek. “You kept it?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
“Of course. I wore it every day until I came here. Then I worried that seeing me wear it would not make you happy, so I put it away.”
I wrapped a hand around the infinity just like I had on countless occasions years ago.
His finger ran over the chain where it rested on my neck. “I hope it can give you the same comfort it did before, but maybe with a little added love from me.”
I tipped my face up to look at him. “Thank you.”
The planes of his face all softened as he looked into my eyes. “You’re welcome.” He bent and pressed a kiss to my mouth, pulling back before it could go anywhere truly earth shattering, then went about his business as if the air around us weren’t charged with tension and attraction.
I think we were both holding back, both waiting to be sure that this path ahead—the one that involved him and me together—was one we were willing to forge. While I was terrified to let him leave, I was also anxious for his departure because I had a sense—a premonition almost—that when he came back, everything would be different.
♪♫♪
The shock that rolled through me when I pulled up to my house and saw a car parked in Sean’s spot nearly took my breath away.
For some reason, I had it in my head that Sean’s half of the duplex would remain empty, awaiting his return. There wasn’t supposed to be a new person in Sean’s house. It was supposed to remain a shrine to the hope of our relationship or something equally preposterous.