AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You really mean it?”
“Of course, I mean it.”
She took a deep breath. “You know I hate asking for things, but I also don’t know if I can go back there right now.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll call an assistant right now and have them grab the things that you might need. We’ll make a basic list together, and I’ll make sure they grab you some clothes too. We could also go out shopping later if that’s something that you might enjoy, but you also don’t have to feel any pressure with that either. Just think of this all as a gift.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “You’re going to have to let me pay you back at some point.”
I kissed her forehead again and pulled her into my lap. “You keep me such good company that I don’t think I could ever ask for anything else. But if you really want to pay me back in some way, then you can just get me a nice gift. Then we can be even.”
“Okay, that at least sounds better than before.”
“There’s my girl. Now come on, let’s make a list.”
The two of us spent about an hour making a list of all the things that she might need, including clothing and basic living items. I added a few little extras of my own of things that I wanted for her, and then we sent the list off to one of my assistants to pick up for her, along with all of Bernadette’s sizing information.
The woman who was purchasing everything was roughly the same size and had a similar kind of taste, so I trusted her to figure out what would work best for everything.
Then I knew that I needed to keep Bernadette distracted so that she wouldn’t fall back into sadness again.
Kissing both of her cheeks, I looked her up and down and said, “Well, it looks like we’re alone and without anything to do again. Would you care to watch another movie?”
“We did just watch one,” she said with a smile. “But I think I could handle another.”
The closer I looked, the more I could see that her smile was a weak one. It looked more as if she was trying her absolute best not to break down into tears.
“All right, up up, come on, let’s go to the kitchen,” I said. She got off my lap as I asked, looking at me with a curious expression.
“For what? Why are we going to the kitchen?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious? For hot cocoa, of course.” I let out a laugh. “Hot cocoa cures sadness, and it looks like you’re in need of it.”
She looked down at her feet and sniffled. “I suppose so.”
“Come on, I don’t mean it like that. Look—” I grabbed her chin and made her look up at me. “—I’m not going to tell you to cheer up or something stupid like that. But I am going to let you know that I am going to do everything in my power to make you feel better, and you are going to accept that. I’m not letting you go to bed tonight with a frown upon your face.”
I kissed her then, and she giggled against me. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
“You? Deserve me? I’m still trying to figure out how I got so lucky.”
She followed me into the kitchen without any more protest and the two of us heated up some milk and mixed in melted dark chocolate for hot cocoa. I topped it off with marshmallows and fresh whipped cream, and then we went back to the living room to watch a movie.
By the time we went to bed that night, with her curled up next to me like the cutest kitten I had ever seen, she was no longer frowning and didn’t look as if she was about to cry at the drop of a hat.
As I settled my arm across her and pulled her close to my body, I hoped that I would manage to keep things that way.
11
Bernadette
In the morning I thought I would feel better, but I didn’t. Instead, it was like a ton of bricks had hit me in the head: I just felt worse.
It wasn’t the kind of worse that made you sob. No, that had been a yesterday thing. It was the kind of worse that just made you feel empty inside. Like nothing would ever change, and this was always the way things would be.
That in itself made me want to cry again, but I just couldn’t find the strength or the tears in me to do so.
My sadness must have been very noticeable, because Lucas looked concerned the moment he woke up. Or maybe he was just like that because I had been in such an awful state yesterday that he was afraid what today would bring.
