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Alex grips my ring finger, sliding my forgotten-about wedding band from my hand and sliding it into the back pocket of his saturated jeans.
“Let me help you.” He lifts the hem of my dirty pink T-shirt and encourages me to strip out of my wet clothes before leaving me in my underwear.
“I’ll take these, and you can follow me down when you’re up to it.”
He lifts my chin, pinning me with an intense stare. “Take your time, Sunshine.”
The water is a balm to my soul, miraculously washing awaysomeof the constant aching loss and helping to make me feel slightly like myself once more.
I switch off the shower once I’ve finished washing and towel dry my thinner-than-usual body in the ensuite, already feeling so much better than before. The pain is still there, but somehow it doesn’t feel as sharp following Alex’s heartfelt plea.
I feel seen. Cared for. I feel human enough to throw on a pair of old black sweatpants with a baggy grey Tee and venture beyond my bedroom door for the first time since Lita’s service.
Has itreallybeen three weeks since the service?
It had been an intimate farewell with just a handful of staff from Sunrise Harbor, Penelope and Vanessa among them, along with Alex’s siblings, his work colleague, Grayson, who’d looked as miserable as I felt, and his friend Vaughn.
Ford had stood sentinel, silent and stoic as always, as we’d paid our respects, and Alex had even given a beautiful eulogy when I’d been unable to form a basic sentence.
I’d held it together long enough to get home from the service and then disappeared into my grief, where time had ceased to exist for me, apparently.
Three weeks!
My bare feet slowly and silently descend the staircase, and my eyes land on a dry-clothed Alex as he flits from the dishwasher to the stove in the open-plan kitchen.
He’s wearing the same clothes as I am, except his T-shirt is black, and his sweatpants are grey. The corner of my lip tics in the first sign of joy I have felt in what feels like forever just as he raises his head.
He watches my slow approach, leaving his place at the stove to meet me at the bottom of the stairs.
His arms encircle me before I’ve made it past the last step, and he picks me up, locking me in his strong embrace. He stands there for a long beat, burying his nose in my neck and inhaling deeply.
I canfeelsheer relief emanating from his body.
When he gently sets me back down, he presses a kiss to my brow before interlocking our fingers and tugging me after him toward the kitchen.
My nose twitches when I smell the inimitable scents of tomato and garlic with each step closer to the kitchen. A large pot on the stove confirms my suspicion.
“Spaghetti?”
Alex answers over his shoulder with a soft nod. “I wanted to make you some comfort food, but I’m afraid tamales are not in my wheelhouse.”
My chest swells at his thoughtfulness. “Spaghetti is the perfect comfort food for today.”
I slide onto a stool at the kitchen island, watching as he moves fluidly from one task to the next. He shoots me an easy grin as he adds a ladleful of sauce to a pan of pasta, coating the noodles with several flicks of his wrist.
He plates it with ease before dropping a bowl down in front of me with a smile. “Eat up, Sunshine.”
When I twist some onto my fork, he watches as I bring it to my mouth.
“Mmm!” A moan of delight escapes my lips when the taste of a well-seasoned sauce explodes on my taste buds.
“This issogood.”
He moves around to the opposite side of the island and plates up his own dish before tucking in. I can feel his eyes on me while I eat, but I’m too absorbed in filling my stomach to do anything further than vaguely note it.
I’m full to bursting by the time I’ve even made it halfway through my food, and I sit back, rubbing my slightly-less concave stomach in complete disappointment.
“I can’t eat another bite.”
