Today, however, she did not feel robbed and there was no decision to be made. She used her extra time wisely and basked in the glow of the night before. Not only had Josh shown up at the dance—which felt like her very own rom com movie moment—he had also told her that he loved her. That he was in love with her.
And she’d told him the same thing.
The talk that she and Carly had, came to mind, and she realized that she’d worked her way through all of the lessons. She’d taken the first step of admitting she was a virgin and telling him that she wanted him to be her first, even though she couldn’t see how to get out of the forest. She’d asked for help when she’d gotten a flat tire. And she’d told Josh her feelings so that he knew he was loved.
That lesson wasn’t one she’d needed to learn because she’d never doubted that she was loved. She’d grown up knowing her mother and sisters all loved her very much. But when Josh started talking about her building him up to something he wasn’t and the possibility of her getting bored and leaving him she realized that he didn’t know how loved he was, so she told him. That was it. It wasn’t about him saying it back to her, but she was really happy that he had.
She turned her head and studied Josh’s face as he slept.
He looked so peaceful with his eyes closed as he laid on his back with one hand above his head. She wished he could find the sort of peace he had when he was sleeping like this while he was awake. She hated that he had chronic pain and dealt with what he called demons.
She wished that she could save him like he’d saved her when she was four, but since she couldn’t, she’d do the next best thing. She’d just be there for him. She knew that he had his doubts about her inexperience in other relationships, but if he gave her the chance, she would show him that she wasn’t going anywhere.
Well, that wasn’t strictly true. At the moment she did have to leave him to get to work.
As tempted as she was to lean over and give him a soft kiss before she left, she resisted on the chance that it would wake him up. He knew that she had to open the coffee shop early today, it was the reason that she’d insisted she drive herself to his house last night when they left the dance, so he wouldn’t be confused when he woke up and she was gone.
Being as quiet as she could she slipped out of bed and grabbed her clothes. Her movements did nothing to stir Josh, but they did wake the other gentleman in the bed.
Thor lifted his head as she tiptoed out of the room. She gave him a kiss on the head and whispered for him to go back to sleep.
When she made it to the hallway, she used the guest bath to change back into her clothes. The entire time she was getting dressed she had a smile on her face. It hadn’t dropped from the moment her eyes had opened.
It honestly felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders because Josh knew how she felt about him. She’d finally had the courage to tell him that it wasn’t about her, it was about him and what he needed.
As she walked out to her car, she felt like she was floating on air. Like she was on cloud nine. She honestly didn’t think anything could bring her down from this high she was on. She got into her car and as she was pulling away from the house she passed a taxi. It struck her as strange because normally, there was not a lot of people on the road at four a.m.
When she pulled up to the four way stop at the end of his street she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw that the cab had pulled up in Josh’s driveway and a woman was getting out.
What in the hell was a woman doing showing up at his house at four a.m.?
Audrey watched as the woman walked up to the porch and the motion sensor lights went off. She couldn’t tell what the woman looked like from this distance, only that she had long blonde hair. She knew it wasn’t Claire, who had short dark hair. She expected the mystery woman to knock on the door but instead she saw her reach for the doorknob.
Did she have a key to Josh’s house? Why would this woman have a key to Josh’s house? He didn’t let people stay the night but he gave them keys? That didn’t make any sense.
Those questions were running through her head when she heard a honk and realized that the cab was behind her waiting for her to go.
She pulled away and couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling she had. She told herself she was being ridiculous and that there had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for what was going on.
One that she would definitely be asking Josh for when he opened the garage today.
“Ruff, ruff.”
Josh lifted his heavy eyelids at the sound of Thor’s deep bark and the first thing he saw was the clock on his nightstand, it was barely four a.m. He rolled over to find an empty bed. Audrey had already slipped out. He knew that she had to open the shop this morning at five a.m. and figured she must have left to go shower before she had to be in.
He smiled to himself thinking of her face when he’d told her that he loved her. Her wide eyes and the flush that rose on her cheeks. Now that he’d said it to her, he felt a compulsion to keep saying it to her. He reached over to grab his phone to text her that he loved her but saw that it was dead.
Since he didn’t have to be up for another two hours, he rolled over to go back to sleep. When he woke up, he’d go to the kitchen to charge it and text her then.
“Ruff, ruff,” Thor barked again.
Josh lifted his head, realizing then that it had been Thor barking that had woken him in the first place. Thor had never woken him up before. He lifted his head and saw that his dog was standing close to the door and he wondered if it was because Audrey had left, and he was trying to tell him.
“She had to go to work, bud. But she’ll be back.” Josh loved that he could say that with complete confidence. With any luck, she would be moving in with him or vice versa. He didn’t want to spend one more night away from her. He patted the side of the bed. “Come on. Let’s go back to sleep.”
Instead of hopping up on the bed, circling three times and plopping down, Thor barked again.
“Do you have to go out?” Josh asked.
When Thor barked again, he figured he better get up and let him out so he didn’t have an accident to clean up. He was getting out of bed when he heard something that sounded like someone coming in the front door. Or someone trying to come in the front door. Audrey must have forgotten something. She’d probably called or texted but his phone was dead.
He grabbed a pair of sweats and headed down the darkened hallway. When he got to the front room he turned on a light as he opened the door. When he did, he saw a woman crouched over with a pocketknife in her hand who had obviously been trying to pick the lock. And not just any woman. His mother.
“Mom?” Josh asked. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I didn’t want to wake you,” she said as if that was a perfectly reasonable explanation as she stood and opened her arms to give him a hug.
He took a step back. “You thought breaking into my house would be better?”
Thor was beside him and when his mom noticed him, she knelt down. “You got a dog! Hi dog!”
“His name is Thor.”
“Oh, what a handsome name for a handsome boy.”
Josh ran his hands through his hair. He had no idea what his mom was doing here, but if he had to guess it had something to do with money. It was usually money. Sometimes she just wanted a place to stay for a few days, but even those times she’d ask for money, or just outright steal his money before she left.