faced me. “How are you holding up? You look tired.”
“I am. But I didn’t want to fall asleep until you came back.”
Oh God, that smile. I felt like crap right now, but if that was the price for him to smile like that after the day he’d had? I could deal.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I knew she was in good hands.”
I didn’t point out that I hadn’t actually had to do anything, thank Christ.
Instead, I gently tugged him closer. “Listen, is there anything I can do? I mean, I know there’s nothing either of us can do to make her migraines magically go away, but what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Like, is there something I can do to make things easier for you? To help you out? Anything?”
“Jase.” He wrapped his arms around my neck and kissed me softly. “You let us crash at your place instead of going home. You’ve done more than you think.”
“Still, I—”
He shut me up with a gentle kiss. “You’re good.”
“Okay. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
Devin smiled. “I will. Now why don’t we get some sleep? I think we’re all about ready to crash.”
“Good idea.” I glanced toward the living room. “She really will be more comfortable in the bedroom once the sun comes up, but I don’t want to wake her up.”
“Better to wake her up now than let the sun do it.”
“You, um…” I hesitated.
He met my gaze, eyebrows up. “Hmm?”
I swallowed. “You want me to carry her again? So she doesn’t have to get up?”
He glanced toward her, then me again. “You don’t mind? I would, but I haven’t been able to since she was eight or nine.”
“I don’t mind at all.”
Chapter 30
Devin
Dallas didn’t feel great the next day—hangovers sucked—but she was functional enough to go to school. I felt bad sending her when she wasn’t a hundred percent, but the school’s attendance office was on my ass, so neither of us had much choice. I dropped her off a few minutes late for first period, and got myself to work just late enough to get a growly look from my boss. He didn’t actually say anything, but I had no doubt it would be added to the reasons I really wish I could fire your ass list.
I kept adding to that list all day, too, because I couldn’t focus. My head was stuck on last night. On yesterday, really.
So now Jase had seen one of Dallas’s migraines play out. He’d witnessed how quickly an outing could be derailed and turned into long hours of migraine mitigation with little to no warning.
How did he feel about that? What did he think of the whole thing? What did he think about us now?
Damn. This was the part that usually sent people packing. Haley and I had differing views about how to approach it from this point. She thought I should just let it ride and let a partner figure out if they wanted to stick around. Maybe I’d just been dumped too many times, but I was more inclined to have an uncomfortable conversation and see where things landed.
“You know that’s a good way to push someone out the door who might stick around if you give them time, right?” Haley had said after another one of my exes had bailed.
“If that conversation is enough to shove them out,” I’d reasoned then and still reasoned now, “then they weren’t going to stay.”
“But maybe giving them an ultimatum isn’t the way to go.”
“It’s not an ultimatum. I just need them to know what they’re up against, and if they’re not interested… well…”
“Tell me how that isn’t an ultimatum.”
Haley and I agreed on most things, but this was one place we’d never seen eye to eye. She thought I was too aggressive about it. I thought she didn’t know what she was talking about since she’d already been married to Nick once Dallas’s symptoms had shown up. This wasn’t something she’d ever had to deal with except as a spectator.
And maybe she was right. Maybe it was an ultimatum. But after enough people had slammed the door in my face, I didn’t apologize for coming out and asking the next one if they were going to do the same. At least then I could catch the door before it hit my face.
The question was when to have that conversation. It was a tough line to walk—having it too soon could scare off someone who wasn’t into me enough to consider any kind