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“Why is she saying that?” I stare at the pocket-sized woman in front of me.
“Because we left yesterday.”
“Florida. I know.”
“The hospital. Well, and the clinic.”
The fuck?
“You checked out of the hospital, retrieved Kyle, and got on a plane?” I can feel my temper wanting to flare.
“Uh-huh.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Don’t play coy with me. In the bedroom, I’m all for it. With your health, that’s a no-go. Why didn’t you wait a day or two?”
She shakes her head.
“Livy.” My voice is as serious as my temper right now.
Her head snaps up. “Because I was afraid, okay? Tustin knows where I live. The paparazzi have been to my house. And forty-eight hours ago, someone was in my home and wielding a knife against me and against Kyle. I’m not stupid, Layton. And I’m not a risk-taker. I was scared and didn’t want to be there alone. So yesterday morning was the agreed-upon flight, and I caught it.” Her chin lifts as her stubbornness comes to the forefront.
“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t want any of this for you. I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t break into my house.”
“No, but I wasn’t there to protect you either.”
“Layton, we were doomed from the start. If you had been there, I would’ve lost my job.”
“Instead, you have a stab wound, Kyle has an incision the size of my hand, and none of the three of us can walk well. Fuck your job. They can’t say anything now. I resigned. And you had every right to do with your body what you wanted. Then. And now.”
“I need my job, Layton.”
I lean forward and challenge the woman who challenges me more than anyone I know. “Then why are you here?”
* * *
Livy
“I’m on a medical leave of absence.”
“That started yesterday.Afteryou agreed to come here and booked a flight to do so.”
“So?”
“So… Are you running from something or to something?”
“Does it matter?”
“To me, it does.”
“If you don’t want me here, Layton, just say so, and I’ll go home.”
“Dammit, woman, you like me. I like you. I want you, and you want me, and you’re too stubborn to admit it.”
