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“I’m gonna take a bath and then set up out here.”
He gives me a puzzled look. “Set up out here…?”
I nod. “The couch is huge and comfortable. I can camp out with my laptop on the coffee table and work from there since it looks like we’re going to be here for a while.”
Reese frowns. “You can sleep in the bedroom, Olivia. In the bed. You’re pregnant.”
I shake my head. “We’re not sleeping together, Reese. I’m putting my foot down on that one.”
I can see the frustration flicker over Reese’s face. Am I being difficult? Yes. Do I care? No. Not even a little.
“That’s completely unreasonable.”
“Oh, we’re really going to talk about ‘unreasonable’ now?” I scoff. “You really want to go there?”
He obviously wants to argue. I can see it in the way his jaw muscle twitches, the way he gets that furrow in his brow. What surprises me is how, one beat later, his face smooths over calmly and he nods.
“Alright. I get that. How about you take the bed and I sleep out here? It’ll be better for you and the baby anyway if you’re in the bed.”
I eye him a moment. Is he trying to get on my good side? Whatever the reason, I decide to take him up on the offer.
“Alright. But I’m sleeping alone, one hundred percent. No funny business, understand?”
Reese holds up his hands. “I’ll be good. Choir boy good.”
I roll my eyes. “I doubt that. I know you too well.”
“I’ll… try my best?”
I barely suppress a smile. “I can accept that one.”
He grins at me. It’s bright and open and it threatens to melt the ice I’ve built up inside me because of him. It’s the kind of smile that makes a girl do stupid things, which means I need to walk away and I need to do it now, because Reese Dalton’s smile has made this girl do stupid things aplenty and I can’t afford to do any more. So with a sigh, I make for the bedroom.
I close the door behind me, drop my stuff at the foot of the wardrobe, and veer toward the bathroom.
The bath glistens, beckoning me. I crank open the water at full heat and full blast, doing my best to ignore the mental image of Reese climbing in there with me. It’s easier to busy myself with sorting through the cabinets full of soaps, body washes, bath bombs, hair products. I dump a frankly obscene amount of lavender and vanilla scent into the tub, then strip off my clothes and drop in.
I’ve needed this. Just me, myself, and some well-earned solitude.
But I can’t help but hate how quiet it is.
39
REESE
I watch Olivia walk off to the bathroom. The desire to follow her is like a voice in my ear. Go after her. Drag her to bed and make her see that you care about her. That’s why you did it all—because you care.
But I don’t, because I can’t, because I shouldn’t. It was the right thing to tell her everything that I had been holding back from her—I know that. But just because it was right doesn’t change the sting that comes with her reaction. I was prepared for her to be upset; I wasn’t quite ready for this.
For the bright, warm woman I love to shield herself in ice.
I sigh and lean my head back against the couch. Fuck. This blows. It’s almost like doing the wrong thing is the easier choice. It’s simpler to lie and hide shit. There are virtually no consequences when you do that—not until you’re caught, at least.
But boys lie and hide.
Men own up to what they’ve done.
While I’m sitting here, consumed with my thoughts, there’s a chime from the front. My brow raises and I go to it. I’ve got a screen installed right beside the door that shows me who’s trying to buzz up when they don’t have a key card to access the place.
