It didn’t feel right to bring it up at all. In fact, he felt like he’d done something wrong in snooping. Jacob pushed the flyer intothe purse and retrieved the movie. He placed it on the coffee table then closed the distance between himself and Hallie.
His arms slipped around her middle and he breathed out a sigh that sounded a great deal like relief mingled with resignation.
“You okay?” she whispered, leaning her head back as if in an attempt to snuggle him. Her hands were covered in hamburger as she formed the patties for their meal.
“Yeah,” he murmured, nipping at her earlobe.
She giggled.
“Thank you, Hallie.”
This time she grew still but only for a moment. Then she turned in his embrace while keeping her hands free of him. “For what?”
He tilted her chin upward. “For being what I needed even though I didn’t realize what that was.”
Her smile warmed him from the inside out. She continued to heal the cracked bits of him that didn’t want to believe he could be happy again. There was so much up in the air right now. The unknowns about his job, their relationship, and what it might mean if he could manage to have it all.
Hallie lifted on her toes, pecked him on the cheek, then returned to fixing dinner. “How about you get that movie going. Then, if you’re feeling up for it, we could play some chess.”
He hummed thoughtfully. “Actually, I think I might want to sketch a little.”
She turned wide eyes to him. “You draw? How did I not know this?”
Jacob chuckled and tucked a stray strand of hair from her eyes. “I couldn’t give up all my secrets. We need to maintain some mystery, right? Have to keep you interested somehow.”
Hallie smirked. “You’re more than enough, Jacob. Always have been.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
There had beentimes in Hallie’s life where the fight felt endless. The fight to get to the end of the finish line, the fight to just make it one more day because exhaustion wore on her—just the fight to survive.
She understood how hard it had to be for Jacob to come to terms with everything when his entire identity stemmed from his ability to compete. It made sense to her. She didn’t need anyone to explain the psychology of it all.
Perhaps that was why it had been easy to be patient with him because she understood that time was needed to heal the broken parts of him, literally and figuratively.
They were in the home stretch. She could sense it.
The cast was coming off today but Jacob hadn’t said anything about his plans for physical therapy. She’d caught him multiple times watching clips of his past competitions and she couldn’t help but wonder if he was still on the fence about what he wanted.
She’d given him his space. But now was the time to make a decision.
Ryker had kept in contact with her, sending messages here and there to check in on his brother because Jacob was keeping his cards close to his chest. He wasn’t sharing with either of them what he wanted.
Was it bad she was getting tired of waiting? She was here to help, and he wasn’t accepting her support in the way she knew he needed.
Like right now.
He was inside the doctor’s office and he’d asked her to wait in the car. His excuse had been that he didn’t want her to be bored in the waiting room. Well, she was bored in the car. What was the difference?
The longer she analyzed what he was doing, the faster her nerves rose to the surface. Was he pushing her away? What if he fully planned on returning to the rodeo but he didn’t want her to know yet because eventually they wouldn’t be able to make things work with his schedule?
No. Nope. She wasn’t going to go there.
Hallie had been nothing but supportive and while her self-confidence had taken a hit when she confessed her feelings the first time, she wasn’t going to allow herself to go down a path where she became the clingy girlfriend.
She was smart and capable. They could have a decent conversation about their futures without it getting weird. This relationship was still new and she didn’t want to scare him off, so she hadn’t planned on telling him that she was willing to followhim across the country to the different events. There would be time for that.
But none of that would even happen if he wasn’t going to get an appointment with Dr. Drake.
