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“Laurel,” Lachlan said again. He had a look on his face like he was about to grab me and start shaking me.
I straightened, schooling my features with a determination to ignore him. I knew what he was thinking—he hadjustsaid I should rely on other people. But that had been in the neutral zone.
This was reality. And in reality, I couldn’t afford to make mistakes like that. Like him. I gave him a wide-eyed, overly innocent look, and my hands pulled down on the hem of his shirt. “What?”
“Don’t do that. You know what.”
“Lachlan, I’m fine. It’s fine. I’m just in a rush. Calla needs me.”
He still had his hands on his hips, and he looked like the patron saint of sexy frustration. “You’re shutting me out.”
“I’m not,” I insisted, letting my feet carry me to the door. “I’m just in a hurry.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not taking you anywhere until you knock it off.”
I deflated at the doorway, expelling a breath of frustration. I turned a glower on him, folding my arms. “What do you want me to knock off, Lachlan? My child is sick. I’m in a rush. You’re really going to refuse to drive me to her?”
He pulled his key fob from his pocket, taking slow steps my way. “I’m happy to take you to her. I’m happy to give her an exam and call her in a prescription. I’m also happy to listen to theactualreason you’ve turned into a frantic rabbit on steroids.”
My arms tightened under my breasts. I considered denying it. I considered keeping the mask over my face, but that didn’t work on Lachlan. So, I’d have to find some other way of keeping him at arms-length. “Fine,” I relented, posture still stiff. “Yes, Jason is really peeved, and I’m worried it will lead to consequences. But I can handle it. I just need to get back home so I can focus on themountainsof adult things that need my attention.” I gave him a little lighthearted shrug. “More than just two, unfortunately.”
He reached me, and with his fob slung on his pointer finger, he rested his hands on my upper arms. “Tell me how I can help. I’ll back off if it helps. Or I can be here in whatever way makes things easier for you. Just don’t shut me out.”
I felt my throat convulse.So, so tempting,I thought with a pang of longing. But any of this outside the little bubble of the neutral zone would only end in heartache. “Thank you.”
Lachlan gave me a dubious eye squint but released me. “Your coat is hanging by the garage. I’ll meet you in the car in a minute.”
“Okay,” I gave him a smile, but I felt it tremble.
I hurried through the living room and hallway, studiously ignoring the little glass patio to my left, and found my coat on a hook just before the door. The garage had already been opened and the SUV turned on. When I slid into the passenger seat, the warmer had been turned on and the heater blasted through the cold with soothing heat. Once again, Lachlan had already thought of everything.
He joined me a minute later with the black duffel bag I’d seen earlier and the Styrofoam bowl of chicken noodle soup in his other hand. He wordlessly handed me the soup—which he’d warmed up again—and dumped his duffel bag in the back seat.
I clutched the bowl tightly as he backed out of the garage. If I spilled this stuff on his nice, black leather seats, I’d honestly just die. The man had probably cleaned more in the last two days than he did in a month.
Lachlan glanced at me as he carefully turned the car in the driveway to head down the gravel road. “I swear to God, Laurel, if you don’t eat the damn soup—”
“I’m eating it!” I growled, shooting him a frown. I took a pointed bite and chewed quietly while the heaters hummed through the silence. “I like food you know,” I grumbled. “Just not when I’m… sick.”
“Nervous?” he corrected.
“Fine, I’m nervous.”
“You don’t need to be,” he said. The evening light dappled over his skin as we drove through the slanted shadows of tree cover. “It’s okay to ask for help sometimes.”
I chewed a gummy noodle and swallowed it. “I know, but… we were strangers like thirty-two hours ago. It’s not your problem. None of this was to begin with.”
“But I chose to make it my problem,” he said, his eyes glancing from the road to me and then back again. “I’m choosing to, Laurel. Hell, I probably chose to the first time I met you. I wasliterallyfighting to keep my thoughts off you when you crashed into a shelf of Doodle-Os at the grocery store.”
“Noodle-Os,” I said faintly, my head reeling. “Wait, what do you mean you were trying not to think about me?”
“I mean, I was completely, embarrassingly, besotted with you within the first three seconds of meeting you.”
I stared at him, mouth open.
He spared me another glance as we made our way slowly down the mountain road. “What? You don’t believe me?”
“No, I don’t believe you. We barely spoke.”
