her fingers through his. “Please come upstairs with me. My bed is big enough. We don’t have to do anything, but I want to sleep with you. I want to wake up later and make you a breakfast that won’t be anywhere near as good as what you would normally make. Please. I need to take care of you today.”
She meant every word. It was a need deep inside her. She would have lost something if he’d gotten in his truck and driven away. He might have come back, would almost certainly have honored his promises to her. But something fundamental would have changed between them. There would be a distance.
He brought her hand up and put it over his heart. “But you’ll still dump me at the end of this.”
“I . . . I don’t know what happens when this week is over, Zep. I thought I did, but maybe I don’t. I do know that I’m planning on leaving. Maybe not in the next few months, but definitely in the next year. I don’t want to hurt you, but I also don’t want you to leave.” It might be selfish of her, but it was true.
He brought her hand up and kissed it. “All right.”
She led him upstairs to the bed she’d never shared with anyone. She pulled off his shirt and helped him out of his boots. She unbuckled his belt and got him down to his boxers before tucking him in. There was nothing sexual about it, but the emotion she felt went deeper. Intimacy. This was even more intimate than the shower they’d shared because she wasn’t trying to get anything from him. She wanted to give.
She texted her mom and turned off her ringer before getting herself ready. When she got into bed beside him, she rolled to her side.
“Is this a friendly sleepover or can we cuddle?” Zep asked.
She moved against him, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his chest. “I would like a good cuddle. I didn’t mean to treat you like a joke. I don’t think you’re a joke.”
His hand smoothed over her hair. “You’re the only one who matters. That’s what I figured out. I don’t care what anyone else thinks of me. But you’re different.”
“I’m different?”
She heard him yawn. “Knew it the minute I saw you. Knew you would change things for me.”
She was about to ask him how, but she felt his breathing settle into the rhythm of sleep. She lay there for the longest time wondering if she’d changed things for the better or the worse.
chapter seven
Zep woke up to the smell of bacon.
All in all, it wasn’t a horrible way to start the morning, but then he remembered what had happened the night before.
He forced himself to sit up.
He was in Roxanne’s bed, but it wasn’t a forever thing. It was a “Hey, we’re here for a week, why not work out some stress?” thing.
It still hurt and he wished it didn’t. He wished he could take what she’d said, process it, and move on.
She was going to leave and he would be left alone to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, which would probably involve hanging out with friends who were all getting married and being that weird guy who’s always around but doesn’t truly have a place.
The funny thing was this general sense of discontent hadn’t hit him until he’d met her. He’d been content that he’d done what he needed to do and helped out his family. But then he’d met Roxanne and realized what not making something of himself was going to cost him. It was going to cost him her.
He slid out of bed and checked his phone. He had a couple of texts from his friends wondering where he was since he hadn’t been at The Back Porch for two nights in a row. It reminded him that he had a schedule and it wasn’t exactly filled with stuff to do.
He missed Luc. For the first years of his nephew’s life, he’d seen that kiddo every single day. Then Sera and Harry had gotten married and they’d moved out to the B and B. Now he was lucky to see him once or twice a week. He hadn’t realized how much being around Luc had made him feel like he was doing something important.
The phone rang and his mother’s number came up. It was past noon, so at least she’d waited