ask, cocking a brow.
“I feel like laying down and digesting all this food,” she says, rubbing her belly and making me want to touch it.
“There’s bound to be something good to watch on that wall of a TV in there,” I remark as I start to clear away the plates.
“You like old movies?” she asks.
“They’re the only kind worth watching,” I tell her without having to think.
“They made everything better back then,” I add, making myself sound a hundred and two, not forty-two.
Forty-two.
“Katelyn, how old are you?” I ask her point blank.
“Twenty-one. Why?” she asks. “Does it matter?”
I crease a frown and shrug. “Nope, just wondered.”
Wheeling the food down to the kitchen, I remember being twenty-one. Seems like a lifetime ago, because it is.
I mean, it was. Her whole lifetime ago, I was a younger man who had the world at his feet. Or so I thought.
I don’t mean to but I slip into a strange reverie. The same feeling I get when I think about what could have been, what should have been.
If I’m honest, I have to admit I’d be curious to know how my life would’ve panned out if I hadn’t had the accident.
But then again, if I hadn’t lived my life as I have, right up until yesterday, would I have met Katelyn and still claimed her as my own?
I shiver at the thought of the answer being no.
Grateful when she distracts me by calling out from the bedroom. “Drama or romance?” she asks, and I know she’s teasing me.
I think all old films have an element of romance in them, even the serious ones.
“Romance of course,” I call back, knowing it doesn’t matter what we watch, as long as she’s here with me, safe and happy. Full of food and… Well. Full of everything I plan to give her too.
Transplanting food to keep onto plates, I wheel the dirty dishes and scraps out the door again, that’s someone else’s job.
By the time I lock up and blow out the candles we don’t need anymore, I yawn and scratch my own stomach.
Ready to settle down and-
But it’s too late.
I ease the remote from her limp hands, gently tucking her legs under the covers before turning the sound way down.
I leave the movie playing, whatever it is she wanted to watch.
I spend the time I have left awake watching her sleep. Sliding myself in next to her I keep my eyes open and on her as long as I can before dreams filled with her take me away.
I know I’ve never slept so easy and so soundly.
The love of my life finally mine. Asleep where she belongs, right by my side.
Chapter Seventeen
Katelyn
Before I even open my eyes I know it’s late. Two days in a row I’ve overslept now.
I wonder if this is gonna be a thing now, it’s so unlike me. I’m always in bed by ten and up at six. Always.
Thing is, I’m not worried about it. Never felt better either.
I can sense Wes isn’t in bed, but I can feel his warmth still behind me.
Almost wanting to stay asleep, I only open my eyes when I have to know where he is and what he’s up to.
My phone’s by the bed and I check the time. Wow. I really have slept in late.
Breakfast is looking more like lunch.
Missed a couple of calls too. Nothing that can’t wait.
But that starts to bug me once I start to really wake up.
Nobody calls me, like nobody. Ever.
Especially twice on a Sunday morning.
Weird.
I try to ignore it and lay still, willing myself to get up and be full of energy.
The pleasant ache between my legs and in my limbs making me curl a smile as I recount the details from last night with Wes.
Where is he?
Starting the day with mystery isn’t my idea of fun, and I have to decide which bugs me worse not knowing where Wes is or not knowing who called me?
I groan and snatching my phone up I swipe it to see who called.
One number I don’t know and one from Professor Bernstein.
I feel a jolt in my stomach like I’ve been caught. Found out.
Guilty.
Sitting up and then actually deciding to just get out of bed, I call out for Wes, sure I can almost hear him from somewhere.
He’s out on the balcony, pacing as he talks into his phone.
He’s wearing a robe that’s hanging open, and I can’t help but admire the view.
If I’m guilty of anything right now, it’s of being madly