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Henry was playing in the detritus from the party, stomping on crumpled pieces of wrapping paper. Ellen sat on the rug, unsure whether she should take him home now or try to find a way to talk to Caleb. He and Katie had disappeared into the kitchen after clearing the table.
Just as she lost what nerve she had left and rose to go, Katie came out, Caleb behind her. “Hey, Henry?” Katie said. “I’ve been thinking an ice-cream bar from the bookstore sounds pretty darn good. You like ice cream?”
“Yas,” he said, jumping up and down. “Mama take you.”
Katie looked her way and smiled. “Mama’s going to stay here with Caleb. We’ll go get some ice cream, just the two of us, and give them a few minutes to talk. C’mon, I have something really cool to show you in the garage.”
Seduced by Katie’s warm manner and her promise of ice cream plus an exciting surprise, Henry followed her happily enough, and after the two of them shuffled out the door, the house fell silent.
Then there was only Ellen and the man standing in the doorway of his kitchen, a black column of lean muscle with an indulgent expression that made
her heart race.
“Hello, Ellen Sydney Callahan,” he said.
Oh.
He crossed the room and reached for her hands, pulling her right up against his body.
Oh, my.
“So that’s my family.” Caleb gripped her hips as if they were his to do with as he pleased. Which they totally were. “I think they like you.”
“I argued with your mom.” The memory of it made her flush with shame, and she looked down, unwilling to meet his eyes.
Stark against her white skirt, his left hand on her hip was a raw mess, yellow-green with fading bruises. Painful looking. He’d done that for her. She hadn’t even thanked him.
“Yeah, that was my favorite part. It was a long time coming. But I liked it when you explained eminent domain to my dad, too.” He glanced around the room. “You probably want a tour, don’t you?”
“Uh, sure.” She couldn’t really focus on anything but Caleb and the heat in his eyes.
“You’ve already seen the dining room and the living room. Kitchen’s over there,” he said, with a quick jerk of his head. “Bedrooms are this way.”
“Where’s the bathroom?”
He pointed with his elbow. “There.”
“Let me see.”
His brow furrowed, but he spun her around and walked her in that direction. When she took his good hand and led him inside, he said, “None of my fantasies about what we were going to do when Katie left included the bathroom.”
“Sit down.”
Caleb obediently lowered the lid and took a seat on the toilet. Ellen rifled through his vanity cabinet until she found a box of Band-Aids and some antibiotic ointment. She set them on the countertop and washed and dried her hands, then filled the sink with warm water and wet a washcloth she found on the towel rack.
“Give me your hand.”
He raised it, a near-smile playing over his lips as she rested his palm against hers. Her index finger brushed over the tender skin of the inside of his wrist, and she felt the beat of his pulse. It matched the pounding of her own heart.
Ellen reached for the washcloth, squeezed hard to wring it out, and brought it to his knuckles. She cleaned them off as gently as she could, but they wept all over again. Caleb didn’t flinch. He watched her work, accepting this fussy bit of tenderness with more solemnity than she would have expected. She hoped he knew what this meant to her, what she was trying to say to him. I want to take care of you. I want you to take care of me.
She patted his hand dry and smoothed ointment over his cuts before wrapping three of his knuckles in Band-Aids. An awkward job. Fingers were so easy to hurt and so hard to fix.
When she’d finished, she clasped his hand in hers and laid it over her heart as she leaned down to kiss him. Their eyes met and held, the soft, dry brush of their lips more significant than any kiss she’d ever offered him.
Caleb cradled the back of her head in his free hand and pulled her closer to deepen the kiss, transforming it from her apology into his own affirmation with the sweep of his tongue into her mouth. She sank into his lap, and he kissed her forever, deep and long. They apologized and confessed, forgave and made promises, all without saying a word.
When he let her go at last, she felt so much better that she wanted to cry, but she smiled instead.
