Page 237 of Taken Away

When he turned back, he found her watching him.

“What?” he asked softly.

“I don’t know.”

He came toward her.

She tried to smile.

“I think I’m tired.”

“I know.”

“Not sleepy tired.”

“I know that too.”

He stopped in front of her.

For a moment, he only looked at her.

Then he lifted one hand and brushed her hair back from her face.

The tenderness of it nearly undid her.

“Aubrey.”

She looked up.

“You don’t have to be fine in this house.”

Her breath caught.

Bennett’s hand settled against her cheek.

“You don’t have to make it easy. You don’t have to make it neat. You don’t have to turn it into a joke before it hurts somebody.”

Her eyes burned.

He bent and kissed her forehead.

Then her temple.

Then the corner of her eye.

Aubrey closed both hands around his shirt.

“Bennett.”

“I’ve got you,” he whispered.

That was when she broke.

A breath that turned into a sob before she could stop it. Her forehead dropped against his chest, and his arms came around her at once.

He held her like he had nowhere else to be.

Like nothing in the world mattered more than keeping her upright.