Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(7)
Author: A.L. Jackson

His teasing turned serious. “But you have shit to take care of, and I’m not going to be the one who stands in the way of it.”

I nodded in acceptance, in understanding of this good heart that I was sure Jared still didn’t understand himself. “Okay. But for the record, you dragging me back to my room sounds like a really good plan.”

My heart had begged for him. Whispered and pled for him. But God, did my body ever ache for him.

He chuckled through a groan, and a grin danced all over his flirty mouth. Chills slipped down my spine with the expression that lit on his face, with the affection that played in his blue eyes as they played across my face. He caressed my cheek with his thumb.

“Baby, I’m going to be making love to you for the rest of my life. Don’t worry about it. Go to class now, and to work. You can be sure I’ll make it up to you later.” His voice dropped low in suggestion, his promise resonating deep in the pit of my stomach.

I quirked a brow at him. He wasn’t helping things.

“Go,” he commanded through a closemouthed kiss.

“Fine . . . I’m going.” I hefted my bag up further on my shoulder. Tipping my chin up, I met his eyes when I stepped around him to open the front door. I paused in the threshold, caught in the million emotions that seemed to be fighting for dominance in him. Those emotions flitting through him had to be a mirror to my own.

I think we both got it. Neither of us really knew anything beyond the fact that he was here.

Last night, our discoveries had all been too deep, revelations that changed lives. Shaped them. We hadn’t gotten into details or plans, and I had no idea how we were going to manage all of this. How our lives would merge. Become one.

But as I stood there staring at him, I knew they would.

“I’ll be thinking about you,” he promised.

“Me, too,” I whispered. I stepped out into the day and shut the door behind me.

Sunlight shined down, fall’s warmth a caress to my skin. Yesterday when I’d left for class, the sun had stood so much the same, though it had felt completely different. It’d cast the promise of its rise and then fall, just another lonely day that would give way to another lonely night. Never had I imagined when I climbed into my car yesterday that my life was hours from being rocked, that once again, Jared’s return would come as something I couldn’t fathom.

An upheaval.

But this was a disturbance I’d been praying for.

I lifted my face to the warmth of the sky. Thin ribbons of clouds rode on the breeze, sweeping out in slow waves.

Thank you, I said, so low it could not be heard.

Jared’s mother, Helene, slipped into my mind. And I thought maybe . . . maybe she, too, was filled with joy. Maybe I had been heard.

I knew this was the way Helene would have wanted things, for Jared and me to be together, that she’d seen something between us long before either Jared or I could understand what the bond we shared as children really meant. I crossed the lot to where my white Corolla was parked in its spot.

I gasped when arms wrapped around me from behind, then melted when Jared buried his face in my neck. He spun me around and pressed me up against the cool metal of my car door. His hands were on my face, in my hair, slipping down my sides before he brought them back up to force me to look at him. “Thank you.” Desperation poured from him, his hold increasing as he stared down at the shock I felt lining my face. “Thank you for believing in me, Aly. For getting me.”

A lick of fear flashed across his face. Or maybe it was remorse. He swallowed hard, and his voice hardened with strain. “I’m scared to think of where I’d be right now without you.”

The fear that flashed on his face coiled in my stomach. Because I didn’t know where he’d been. I had no idea where the last three months had taken him. How far or how low.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“You’re here with me now.” I had to believe that was all that mattered.

He grimaced. Gripping my face, he leaned down and kissed me, hard and demanding. There was no soft affection, none of the playfulness from upstairs. This was a seal. A branding. He jerked back. A storm raged in the blue of his eyes. “Don’t think I can’t see all those questions brewing in your mind, Aly. And I may not have all the answers right now, but we are going to figure this out. Do you hear me? I promise you that.”

And I saw it all there, the torment that plagued Jared, this beautiful man who had lost direction, the one desperate to find his way home.

“I’m not scared,” I promised.

A sad smile wavered at his mouth.

The only thing that scared me was I knew he was.

• • •

Anxiously, I glanced at the large, round clock hung high on the wall. My exam had gone as well as expected, if not better, and my lunch shift here at the cafe where I’d worked for the last two years had kept me busy. Still, the day had passed too slowly. Hours crawled by. Seconds . . . minutes . . . each willed away because I just wanted to see Jared’s face.

I needed to see him again.

Feel him.

Be reassured that it was all real.

It was like the moment that I left him staring behind me in the parking lot this morning, Jared’s fear had chased me. Caught up to me.

How the hell were we going to do this?

All I’d wanted was for him to come back.

I guess I’d never really thought beyond that, to what would happen when he did.

What I saw was clear. A family. Jared and me and our baby coming together like a picture of our pasts, the way Jared and I had been raised in houses full of love and support and encouragement.

But how distorted had the idea of family become for Jared? How much of it would be too painful for him to bear?

There had been no deceit when I told him I believed in him. I did, because I believed in the love that shined from him.

Maybe our family was something we would have to define for ourselves.

Finally, three o’clock rolled around, and I stuffed my apron into my bag after I finished up my side work. My stomach knotted in anticipation. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

“Someone’s anxious.” Clara, one of the other waitresses at the cafe, interrupted my restless thoughts. Even though we seemed an unlikely pair, mismatched, she’d become one of my closest friends. Older by almost ten years, she was loud, bold, a single mom who never hesitated to speak her mind.

A tease lifted her brow, and she smirked at me from where she tallied her checks for the day. “You’ve been skittish and fighting both a grin and a grimace since you walked through the door three hours ago. Care to tell me what’s going on?”