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“Like, really likes you.” Kara didn’t look pleased with this revelation. “This is not brand-new information. Don’t look so shocked.” She took a sip of her tea and added, “And you like her too.”
His lips twitched but he didn’t deny it.
It was why he was there in the middle of the night, wasn’t it?
Dave tipped his head back and gazed at the night sky out the tall windows.
“I have friends,” he said. “I have really good friends. The kind of friends people would die for. I could go to them and talk to them about what’s going on in my head but…” He licked his lips and took a deep breath. “She’s on a whole other level.”
Kara didn’t respond. Which Dave appreciated because he was just now putting some of the scattered pieces into place.
“I keep thinking that if I could just hang out with her, everything would make sense. I know how it works for most people. I know they can close the book on the day, go to sleep, and pick it back up in the morning. And I don’t want to get in anyone’s way. I don’t want to turn her life upside down.” He glanced to the side. “Or yours,” he added. “I just can’t put it away yet.”
“What would help you put it away for today?”
He shook his head. “I…don’t know.”
“She leaves for work pretty early in the morning.” Kara pressed her lips together like she was contemplating several different avenues of thought. “I don’t think this is solvable in one night.”
Not exactly news to him. Also, not the first time he’d felt utterly exhausted by the way his own brain worked.
“Is it easier to be able to make decisions?” he asked, frustrated.
She arched a sardonic eyebrow and snorted. “I don’t think love is ever easy, babe.”
He rolled his eyes and they landed on her. “Babe.”
“Babe.”
“C’mon, babe.”
“No, babe.” She smiled and reached for his empty mug. Closer now, he could see the compassion shining out of her tired eyes. “I think you should get some sleep. Go sneak into Sabine’s bed. She won’t mind.”
“But won’t that be confusing?” he asked, even as his soul reacted in quiet jubilation. Just the thought of being near Sabine, even in sleep, was enough to quiet the turmoil for a moment.
Kara shrugged and stood up. She looked down at him. “She misses you too, dummy.”
She took their dishes to the kitchen and left him on the couch to make his own decision.
Maybe Kara didn’t hate him after all.
Or maybe she was giving him just enough rope to hang himself.
That thought immediately flooded him with guilt. That wasn’t at all what Kara had intended. She was fiercely protective of Sabine.
Kara and Sabine’s relationship reminded him of what he had with Leslie and Max, and he realized he didn’t really know the story behind that. Sabine knew all about Leslie and Max’s history with him but he couldn’t recall being told much at all about Sabine’s past.
Was that why he was hesitating?
Because she was?
Sometimes it seemed like she was all in but if he really examined their interactions, she had been… careful.
Oh. Discomfort washed away and was replaced by delighted shivers.
Because heunderstoodthat.
She wasn’t going to throw her heart in his face and get angry when he dropped it. That wasn’t her at all.
