AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I slumped over his back, kissing his shoulder and his neck between ragged pants to try and steady my breathing.
He reached behind him and ran his fingers through my hair, scratching my scalp lightly. “You ok? You’re shaking.”
I hadn’t even realized I was. “Yeah. I’m ok.”
“Think you can manage a shower?”
Too tired for words, I simply nodded.
7
ALEX
February 15th — 10:57 a.m.
Aaron was like a zombie on the way to the shower. I’m pretty sure if I let him lay on the couch one second longer, he would have passed out. He’d had dark circles under his eyes yesterday but I assumed it was the stress of the day and his flower snafu. In the light of the next day, though, I wondered how deep his exhaustion ran.
He looked like he wanted to cry when he saw me cooking an omelet for him, like it was some glorious culinary feat. Standing before me in the shower, with his eyes closed and head tilted back under the spray so I could massage the shampoo into his hair, my mission was clear. Whether his stubborn ass wanted to admit it or not, he needed someone to take care of him—and I was going to be that someone. I meant what I said the night before. We’d already lost so much time. I didn’t want to lose another moment with him.
“When’s the last time you took a vacation?” I asked, almost as soon as the thought popped into my head.
He opened his eyes slowly, a crease between his brows. “Huh?”
“A vacation? When is the last time you took a vacation?”
I might as well have been speaking Greek with the way he looked at me. “There’s never really a good time. I mean, there’s Easter, graduations, and goddamn Mother’s Day. Then fucking Father’s Day and—”
“I’m well aware of the dates on the calendar. What I’m saying is, you need a vacation. So let’s plan one.”
“I can’t.”
“Because of the restaurant?”
“That’s part of it.”
“What’s the other part?”
Averting his gaze, he didn’t answer. It looked like his fight or flight instincts had kicked in again. Rather than push for a verbal answer and run the risk of losing him a second time, I tipped his head back again and finished rinsing his hair.
“One day at a time, ok?” I said after I finished. “One day at a time. Just… Getting to know one another again. See if you’re still a nerd underneath all this badass ink.”
That brought his gaze back to me and a small smirk to his lips. “Says the guy who could lift me with one arm. Not very badass of me.”
“I could never sit for one tattoo, let alone do all this,” I said, running my hands over his wet skin. “You know I get queasy at the sight of blood.”
“Like the time I fell off my skateboard and cut my leg open?” He grinned darkly.
I groaned. “Why did you have to bring that up?”
“Because I was the one bleeding all over the driveway and yet you were the one who got to ride in the ambulance!”
“It is not my fault I passed out,” I countered. “But it proves my point—they patched you up right there at the house and you were skateboarding again the next day, meanwhile I had to go to the hospital for a CT scan.”
“You do not want to hear about my early years in a kitchen then.” He chuckled.
“No, I probably don’t. But I see all of your fingers are still attached, so I guess that’s a good sign.”
He laced said fingers through mine, pulling me in close, his blue eyes full of sadness again. “I really missed you…”
