All They Need - By Sarah Mayberry Page 0,90

humbling display and found that he was looking at her with a fierce, undeniable intensity.

Everything that lay unspoken between them was in his eyes. His love. His commitment. His passion. Everything that he wanted for them, all his hopes and dreams.

Her breath got caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat for long, unblinking seconds.

Then he looked away and the moment was gone.

But she knew she hadn’t imagined it. She knew that what she’d seen had always been there, sitting beneath the easygoing smile Flynn had offered the world—and her—during the past few months. A feeling of dread engulfed her as she pasted a smile on her face and listened to Flynn make small talk with his parents.

Flynn loved her. He wanted to share his life with her in every sense of the word. Five weeks ago she’d thought—she’d hoped—that she’d struck a deal with him, that they could continue on as they had been, spending time together, their friendship deepening, without her having to give up any of her hard-won freedom or security.

But Flynn wanted more. He wanted everything. He wanted love and marriage and babies and growing old together. He wanted everything she had to give, and he wanted to give her everything in return.

She took a step backward, overwhelmed, as always, by the thought of trusting another person in that way again. After years of not protecting herself, she’d learned her lesson too well and she had no idea how to let anyone in. How to let Flynn in.

She realized that Flynn and his parents were talking, that Flynn had asked her something. It took her a moment to play it back in her head and understand that he’d asked if she was hungry. She said yes because it was easier than saying no and listened as he asked his parents if they wanted anything, then she found herself following him out into the corridor.

“Are you okay?” he asked as they approached the elevators.

“Yes,” she lied.

They bought muffins and coffee from the cafeteria and returned to his mother’s room. After half an hour the doctor appeared to check on her and Flynn peppered him with questions until he was satisfied that he understood the situation. She could see the tension leave his body as he slowly came down from the adrenaline high of the emergency and started to accept that his mother was going to be okay.

By the time noon rolled around, Patricia was sleepy from all the painkillers she’d been given and Flynn decided to leave so she could get some sleep. His father wouldn’t hear of leaving her side, so Flynn promised to return later in the afternoon. They walked out of the hospital into a slow, steady rain, Mel’s sense of dread growing with every step.

Now that they were alone, now that the crisis had passed, the feeling of impending doom that had dogged her for weeks seemed to swell until it was filling her chest. There was no way she could pretend that she hadn’t seen the raw devotion in Flynn’s eyes when he looked at her. She’d kidded herself for over a month, but there was no way she could deny the depth of his emotion anymore. He loved her. He’d said it to her last night when he thought she was asleep. He loved her and he wanted to share his life with her.

In her head, a clock was ticking as she waited for him to stake his claim, to demand that his needs be met as well as her own. To destroy the fragile balance they’d somehow achieved—or, perhaps, faked—for the past month.

It seemed impossible to her that he wouldn’t say something. She’d seen the look on his face, seen the intensity of his feeling. It was undeniable.

He didn’t say anything during the drive home, however, and she grew more and more tense with every passing moment, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“I might swing by the supermarket and grab some bread for lunch,” he said. “The cupboard’s pretty much bare at home.”

Inside her head, she wanted to scream. She wanted to grab him by the shirt and shake him until he said what needed to be said. She wanted the impasse to be acknowledged, she wanted the disaster to arrive, she wanted to confront it head-on so she could start to deal with the enormous hole he would leave in her life.

She sat stiff and cold beside him as he pulled into a parking spot at the local