However, if you’re bored and only when you feel up to it, you have my permission to work remotely when needed.But for now, please don’t worry about a thing here.
With that, I hope you get some rest.The team has it covered for you.
See you soon.Be well.
Trevor
Oh my God.Could I be any more humiliated that Dane shared the status of my health with Trevor?
I can’t imagine what opinion Trevor has already formed about me this week.
H.E.Double Hockey Sticks.
This is exactly what I don’t want.I want to bury my head in my pillows and scream.I would, too, but I haven’t washed them yet.
I need to fix this, and quick.
I respond with a note thanking him for his care and generosity and then let him know I’m on the mend and will do a complete review of the reports on my task list later this evening.
Once I’m done with that, I change into a pair of leggings and an oversized sweatshirt, strip the sheets, start the laundry, and crash on my couch.The energy I’d had after my shower has dwindled, and I expended more than I had in the tank.That’s the hard part of recovering.You feel good until you don’t any longer.
Being sick sucks, especially when you have no one to take care of you.
My head snaps up when I hear the front door unlock and it flies open as Dane glides in like he’s still wearing skates, carrying a bag of something that smells warm and delicious.
“Oh good, you’re up.Ready for some lunch?”
He floats in like a figment of my imagination, and heads directly toward the kitchen.I sit, dumbfounded, and watch as he enthusiastically opens and closes cabinet doors, taking out plates and utensils to clearly indicate he’s made himself at home in my house.
This man is unbelievable.Who is he?Who has he become?
Dane Axelrod isn’t the same great guy I used to know.
I think he might just be better.
23
Dane
“I’ll tell you what.I think I had a crash course on four-year-olds this week,” I say over a mouthful of food.
I was starving after practice and had stopped in at Louie’s for takeaway, picking up some soup and a turkey sandwich for Halle in the hopes she would be hungry and up to eating.And I was worried she might need something, so I wanted to swing by to check on her anyway.“I didn’t know what I didn’t know, ya know?”I took another bite of my toasted club sandwich.
She laughs and nods.“Oh, I know all right.”
“She’s a chatterbox, that one.I can’t imagine who she gets that from.”I give Halle a pointed look.
From the other end of the couch where she sits, she lifts a brow of disagreement, a smile turning up at the corners of her mouth.I could tell by the glow of her fresh-faced smile when I walked in the door, and the damp strands of hair braided through her thick auburn hair that she’d taken a shower while I was gone.She also is dressed casually in a pair of black leggings that hug all those new and generous curves of hers, and a light gray sweatshirt that gives the barest hint of her shoulder.My fingers twitch to run over the smooth slope of skin, and I kind of miss the T-shirt and panties.
Being in Halle’s presence without a small kid close by is an unusual place to find myself.It’s also confusing to be on a couch with a beautiful woman and not try to make the moves to get her naked.
While Halle and I know each other intimately, the space between us is cluttered with so much of the past, I don’t know how I should act around her now.What I would’ve done on this couch with her five years ago is a completely different vibe than now.
Plus, we have things left to resolve.
“Lenni is a master storyteller,”she agrees, bringing the spoon to her mouth as I stare at her lips.She looks up from her spoon, and our eyes connect.She quirks a brow.“What else did you learn?”
I wipe a napkin over the cleft in my chin, worried I have mustard stuck in my beard, and consider her question.
