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“Leave me alone,” her muffled voice called from inside.
“Bella, if you don’t let me in right now I’m calling the medics,” Heath told the closed bathroom door. “I mean it. And then you’ll have a huge hospital bill and the kids will hate me forever.”
“I have medical insurance.”
“Bella, please—”
“I’m sorry, I just think I might be sick,” she said, with a moan.
He laid his hand on the door. “Well let me in, I’ll hold back your hair.”
“I don’t want you to see me throw up.”
“I don’t care. I just want to see you. Besides, I like vomit.”
She laughed then moaned again. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“Let me in and I promise not to.” He felt a small lightening in his gut. If he could still make her laugh, all wasn’t completely lost. Right?
“Just a second.” The toilet flushed, water ran for a long time, and then he heard the click of the lock and the door swung slowly open. “I think I feel better.”
“Good,” he mumbled.
She looked amazing. He thanked God he had shaved and gotten a haircut before he’d come. Otherwise, he might have blamed his own scuzzy appearance for Bella’s funny stomach. He’d been a wreck the past four months.
“Hi,” he said with a cautious smile.
“Why are you here, Heath?” she asked, her blue eyes as dark and stormy as he’d ever seen them. They were practically black.
She hated him. She hated his guts whether he’d had a haircut or not. He’d been nuts to come. She didn’t want him here or she would have called, or written, or at least not returned every one of his letters with “return to sender” scrawled across the top in her gorgeous handwriting.
Hansel must have done a piss-poor job of breaking the news of his arrival. Either that, or she hated him so much that she was pretending to have the stomach flu in order to avoid contact.
“Heath?”
“Yeah? I mean, hi, how are you feeling?” He cursed beneath his breath. “Sorry, you said you were feeling better. Sorry.”
“Yes, and I asked you what you were doing here.”
“Right.” He pressed his lips together as he followed her back into the open living-room/kitchen portion of the large apartment. “Okay, so this is more awkward than I thought it would be. I guess I shouldn’t have—”
“No, it’s my fault. And Hansel’s. He surprised me.” She smoothed her hair away from her face self-consciously. It was a little longer and wilder than he remembered, and made her sexier than ever.
“I know,” he said. “Should I have called and warned you in advance?”
“No. I don’t know.” She looked seconds away from tears. “I’m just glad you’re here.”
Okay, so that was good news, but why the tears when she was the one who hadn’t wanted anything to do with him? Maybe because he creeped her out? Maybe because she felt like shit for not thanking him for what he’d done for her and the kids? Maybe she wanted to puke again and that was making her eyes water?
Who knew? Not him.
“Oh good,” he said, instead of any of the other things that were flying through his mind.
Bella sighed a miserable sigh. “Heath, I don’t know what Hansel told you, but I—”
“I love you, Bella,” he heard himself say.
So much for not making a fool of himself. Might as well go for broke now that he’d gotten started.
