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“Thank you.” I side-hugged her and climbed out of the cab with Ella in tow.
“Whatever you’re doing, I hope it works.”
My eyes dartedup and down the street as I waited for an answer to the doorbell. A shadow passed down the block, and I huddled closer to the door. The lock clicked, and my breath froze. With a creak, the door groaned open.
“Bright Side?” Andrew’s hair was disheveled. He’d shed his suit for jeans, his white button-down shirtsleeves rolled up.
“I need you.”
He stared at me a moment as if processing my words and glanced at the carrier in my hands where Ella slept. Then he stepped out of the doorway to let me in.
I glanced back and gave Baker, who was still waiting in the taxi, a thumbs-up.
“You’re shaking,” he said when he’d secured us inside.
“I’m not sure what I’m doing,” I admitted and immediately regretted it.
“Why don’t we go to the kitchen? I just put on a pot of coffee.” He took the carrier from me. “Are you babysitting?”
“I don’t want coffee.” I stayed rooted in place in the foyer.
He paused mid-step. “I have tea. Water. Wine.”
“I don’t want something to drink. I want you.”
His lips parted, his expression incredulous. I hadn’t considered that Andrew wouldn’t do this until now.
“Let’s slow this down a notch, okay?”
I shook my head, strands of hair coming loose from the elastic I had it pulled up in. “If we do, it won’t happen. Ineedthis. I need you.”
I erased the space between us and covered his mouth with mine before he could protest. He wrapped an arm around me and gave into the kiss while still holding Ella’s carrier. The watery haze I’d been in since this afternoon cleared.
This.
This was the feeling I’d been looking for since—no, I wasn’t going to think about that now. I felt safe. Cared for. Like I could breathe even as Andrew stole my breath.
He pulled back. The vein in the side of his neck pulsed at a rapid rate as his fingers dug into my hip.
“You.” He brushed his lips against mine. “I definitely need something to drink now.”
Andrew winked at me and slid his fingers into mine. But instead of heading up the stairs to continue what we’d started, he moved toward the kitchen. Dazed, I followed.
He settled Ella on the counter and opened the refrigerator door. “Water?”
I nodded, and he filled two glasses with ice.
“Definitely too warm for that coffee.” He passed me a glass of water and then made a funny face. “I’m rambling. I never ramble.”
Something about his nerves set me at ease. “I like it when you ramble.” I sat on a barstool at the island, and he leaned on the counter across from me.
“I’m trying to look cool here but failing miserably.”
“Maybe it’s because you don’t have a tie on.”
He grinned. “Could be.”
I took a long sip of the cold water. What I’d come here for wasn’t happening yet, but this was better. I’d been so off-kilter since this afternoon. While Andrew set my nerves on edge, he also settled my soul.
