AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Would you stop it? I’ve bought you a few meals and some coffee. Plus, it’s the least I can do, you saved my ass today.” Her hair blows in the wind, as a breeze rolls through. “Just accept it, would ya?” I tell her, as I take out the opener and we head back in.
“All right! Thank you, it’s very sweet of you, Thane.”
I smirk at her as we step foot back inside. The boys are still playing hide and seek. Braxley flies in front of us and hides in the same cabinet Jack did earlier.
“You want a beer?” she asks me, and I nod.
“How can I help you?” I ask her cracking my beer open on the side of her counter top. She’s laughs a little with a bottle opener in her hand, and I hand her my cap.
“Really? My countertop?”
“What? I didn’t hurt it.”
“You know I used to think you were a gentleman.”
I sip my beer leaning back, watching her, thinking about what she’d look like with no clothes on. My stare makes her nervous as her cheeks get red again, and she says to me, “Why don’t you take the salad from the fridge and get the boys?”
“Sure thing,” I tell her, taking out the huge bowl of salad, setting it down, and calling the boys. It’s not but a minute later, and they fly into the dining room like it’s a race to see who can get to the table first, moving a million miles a minute and flopping into their seats at the table.
“How do you guys have so much energy?” I ask them sitting down too.
They both bounce in their chairs ignoring me, laughing, and I ask Faye, “Did you give them candy or something?”
But she doesn’t respond, and as I look at her she’s motionless, her shoulders are slumped forward, and her head is in her hand. Something’s not right. “You okay?” I ask, getting up, and when she looks at me, tears are in her eyes.
“What’s the matter?” I ask, grateful that the boys haven’t noticed she’s upset. But she doesn’t answer, she turns away from me, shutting down, and I don’t like it. At this point, I want her to know she can open up to me. I touch her shoulder, and she shakes her head, brushing me off, “It’s nothing.”
“Faye, you can talk to me.”
She wipes the tears from her eyes, but they won’t stop watering, and it kills me to see her upset. A moment ago everything was fine, and now she’s so upset, and that’s hard to handle. I grip her shoulders rubbing them gently. “It’s okay.”
“I know…it’s…just…when I looked at you sitting there, in Ben’s chair, I…I saw him for a moment and…it fucked me up.”
Hearing her confession comes as a shock, and I don’t quite know how to help her. “Maybe we should go,” I offer. The last thing I want to do is cause her any unwanted stress or for my presence to upset her.
She swallows away the tears, wiping her eyes again. “No, please don’t leave. I don’t want to be alone.”
“Are you sure?”
She nods but still won’t look me in the eye. It’s like she’s embarrassed to be emotional in front of me
“It’s okay to cry, Faye. You don’t always have to be so strong.”
She smiles, finally bringing her eyes to mine and I can’t help it. Taking her body, I pull her into a tight hug, holding her closer and tighter to me than ever. She clings to me, and I let her just be because that’s what I want to show her, that she can be any way around me, and no matter what, I’m not going anywhere.
