Maybe… maybe that’s exactly what we needed.
• • •
BRAM
“What do you think?” I asked.
Her mouth opened and closed, her eyes wide, as she said, “I don’t know.”
I smiled.
I knew what she was actually thinking.
She was thinking that I wouldn’t be happy there.
But I would.
As long as I had her.
“I contacted that BNB chick,” I said. “Directly. They said as long as we pay rent, that they’ll be more than happy to rent it out to us for six months.”
My belly pitched as I watched her face go from excited to unhappy, to pensive, to excited again.
She didn’t want to be here.
My family and me… well, we’d fucked something up inside of her.
She wanted to be away.
“As long as you’re willing for me to be there, I’ll be there,” I told her. “And if you want, we can look for a house there.”
“But your family…” She hesitated. “They’ll hate me even more for taking you away.”
“I’ll tell them that I found a job there that pays better. You know how hard it is to find jobs here as it is.” I waved off her concern. “They won’t even know that it has anything to do with you.”
The hope in her eyes damn near killed me.
A little beep had me glancing at my phone, and I grinned.
“The chick that owns your BNB just messaged back with this house.” I flipped my phone around. “Check those pictures out while I go get dinner started. Let me know what you think.”
Dinner consisted of some really bland, non-smelly food.
All the meat was cooked outside, because I’d found out over the last week that she did better when the smells didn’t linger.
And the rice was plain ol’ boring white rice.
But if it meant that she would eat, I would eat the shit and be happy.
Which she did.
After bringing in the grilled chicken and placing it on the counter, I scooped out some rice onto a plate, more than she likely would eat, and then flipped over a crispy piece of chicken that I’d marinated with the sweetest teriyaki I could find.
Sweets seemed to do the trick. Not only had she been able to hold down a cupcake today, but a cookie and a kid’s bowl of orange chicken and white rice.
And since I was all about seeing her eat, I’d tried to recreate a little bit of that at home.
When she came into the kitchen wearing her gray sweats, my sweatshirt that I’d all but forced on her, and a pair of slouchy socks, I thought I’d never seen anything more beautiful.
“You look adorable,” I said as I placed the plate into her waiting hands.
She looked at the food and smiled.
“Thank you,” she said softly as she moved to the bar where we usually ate our meals.
But, since I was trying to make this more traditional for us, I gestured toward the table. “I set the table. We can sit there.”
She blinked at me owlishly. “You… what?”
I smirked. “I set the table.”
It wasn’t much. Just some silverware, a non-scented candle that I’d had to take out of our emergency stash, and napkins.
But it was me, trying. Trying to give her what she deserved, that I never gave her before.
“Are you sure?” she asked softly.
I placed my plate at the table where I usually sat when I was alone, then took her plate from her and set it directly next to mine. “Come on. Do you need a knife?”
She nodded her head, and I went back to grab a steak knife to cut up our chicken and a couple of drinks for us both.
“Do you want to try a Dr. Pepper?” I asked.
She looked thoughtful for a second, then nodded, causing her hair that was piled high on the top of her head to bob. “Yes.”
I grinned and grabbed two, handing her one before taking the seat beside her.
I watched out of the corner of my eye as she ate, and ate it all.
God, I hoped she kept it down.
When she was through, she even went back for seconds. Which made my heart fuckin’ happy.
That night, after we were ready for bed and crawling in, I turned out the light and said, “So what do you want to do, darlin’?”
I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to pull her into my arms and hold her tight all night long.
But that hadn’t been my question.
“I’ll go,” she said softly. “I had a job lined up there anyway.”
I blinked, surprised. “You did?”
“Yeah,” she said softly. “When I graduated in December, I started to look. That’s why I went to Accident. They had an opening for a child psychologist.”
That was another reason to feel like shit.
I’d missed her graduation.
She didn’t know that I knew, but I had.
Or I’d mostly missed it.
I’d gotten there in time to see her walk halfway across the stage and accept her diploma.
“When you walked across that stage,” I said softly, “I’ve never been prouder. You did all that without any help whatsoever. I still can’t believe that you did it in such a short amount of time.”
Her breath hitched as she said, “You went to my graduation?”
I twisted to lie on my side, my stupid sweatpants getting caught up in the bedclothes.
I ignored them as I said, “I was there. I was able to get out of work in time to go. But I had to go right back. It was during my lunch break. And you know how my boss is.”
I heard her sniffle, and I stiffened. “Baby? Why are you crying?”
She kept sniffling, and I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for her and pulling her in close. “Dory…”
“You just made my day,” she whispered brokenly. “I thought nobody cared.”
CHAPTER 15
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any more passwords left in me.
-Bram to Dory
BRAM
I thought nobody cared.
Her words from last night played over and over in my head as I talked to the lady on the phone about renting her house out for the next six months.
Then, once I was done with that, I contacted some movers that were going to be here tomorrow to start packing up our house.
Tomorrow would be the last day we would live here for a while. Possibly forever.
But that didn’t bother me.
What bothered me was that she thought nobody cared. She thought that I didn’t care.
And that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I more than cared.
I cared too much.
I cared so much that I overthought everything there was to ever think about.
Which sucked because a lot of my thinking always centered around how much better off she would be if she wasn’t shackled to a man like me.
But that was a moot point now.
I would be fixing what I’d broken.
And that started with me getting us out of the city. Away from my family. To a place that she would be comfortable. To a place that she could heal from the wounds my family, and mostly I, had inflicted on her.
“Thank you again for getting this done on such short notice,” I rumbled. “I’ll see y’all bright and early tomorrow.”
Everything getting done in a timely manner, and it wasn’t even eight in the morning yet, I looked at my watch and considered what to do next.