Page 80 of Beastly Mountain Man

“I’m not going to tell you what your job needs,” he said. “I know enough to know I don’t know that.”

I smiled a little.

“Thank you.”

“But I know you’ve been here for three days, and every time you talk about television, you sound like somebody who’s good at it because she actually loves it.”

“I do.”

“And a team being able to work while you’re gone doesn’t sound like evidence that you don’t belong there.”

“No.”

The answer was obvious when he said it.

That did not make it easy.

Lucky leaned back again.

“What about outside work?”

I knew exactly what he meant.

I wished I didn’t.

“I think I do some version of it everywhere.”

“With me?”

That question mattered more.

I turned toward him fully.

“I’ve been trying not to.”

Lucky waited.

I chose the honest answer.

“I like doing things for people. Remembering what they need. Solving problems. Showing up. I want to do those things.”

“I know.”

“But sometimes I don’t know where wanting to care for someone ends and proving I deserve to be kept starts.”

Lucky was quiet for several seconds.

Then he said, “You were asleep beside me this afternoon.”

I blinked.

“You weren’t doing anything for me. You weren’t entertaining me, helping me, fixing something, or making my life easier. You were unconscious and wearing pants I ruined in the dryer.”

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

Lucky smiled, but his eyes stayed on mine.

“I still wanted you there.”