AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 19
He shouldn’t have said that.
Mark lay in bed for a few moments after Pam hurried out of the room, his hands tucked under his head, his legs crossed, but his whole body wishing that he could just cringe into a ball and disappear. What was he thinking? They were friends. Sure, they got married, and yeah, they’d slept in the same bed last night, but it wasn’t supposed to mean anything. They just needed to have the relationship be believable for her mother and his sister.
And yet, it was believable, not because they were pretending, but because what he felt was real.
Staying in bed and castigating himself about it wasn’t going to solve anything, and he knew it, so he got up and got dressed, wondering if there was something he could do to fix things.
He just couldn’t keep the words from coming out of his mouth though. Because she was. Beautiful. Maybe not the kind of physical beauty that would draw a bunch of attention in a bar or something, but because of her giving heart, the compassion she showed, the love that she had for her students, and the way she gave her entire self to help them be better. The way she was such a great friend. He could depend on her. She would cook him supper just as easily as she put her boots and jeans on and went out into the woods to plant trees with him. Whatever he needed, she was beside him.
And she didn’t demand that he do the same for her, although he tried to. She just took whatever he gave and called it enough.
How could he not think she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen?
Still, he was frustrated with himself that he couldn’t have given her more time before he allowed the words to come out. Maybe, if they were close enough, in this forced proximity that was their marriage, she might come to feel the same way he did.
But he’d managed to ruin it.
He made his bed and then made his way downstairs. He would cook breakfast, since she didn’t say, but she was probably sore from yesterday. He was. Although, that hadn’t even been on his radar to think about.
He’d been so busy thinking about Pam and how he could be the same to her that she was to him.
He smiled, thinking about waking up with her in his arms. She hadn’t acted shocked or upset. Maybe that was a start.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” his sister said as he walked into the kitchen.
“Good morning. You’re up early.”
“Well, I just got a call from my girls—”
The door opened as she said that, and Ginger and Kay, his nieces, tumbled into the hall.
They were in their twenties, with careers and lives of their own, but he loved that they still considered his house home enough that they didn’t feel like they needed to knock.
The door closed behind them with a loud bang, and then they squealed as they saw him down the hall in the kitchen.
