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She raised an eyebrow. “I’m not going to find anything weird in there, am I?”
“Of course not. That’s all in my closet.”
She rolled her eyes, dropped the bag, and hugged him. “You really are a monumental pain in the ass.”
“I know.” He wrapped an arm around her and held on tight. She tingled at the pressure of his fingers and realized that Nick wasn’t clinging to her—he was steadying her.
“And thank you.” She lightly pressed her lips to his cheek. “I mean it.”
She’d never heard such tenderness in his voice. “You’re welcome, Hayley.”
She resisted the urge to look over her shoulder as she walked down the hallway. She hoped he was still watching her. Hoped she was still seen.
25
After he heard the bedroom door shut, Nick wandered over to the television, turned it off, and putRocky IIback where it belonged. He ambled to the cart, limping slightly, and pushed it back to the kitchen. He very deliberately put the chocolate back where he’d found it.
Because as long as he was still awake, the evening wasn’t over.
Hayley was not okay. He’d known as soon as he’d seen her in the bar tonight that she was losing the kind of fight he understood very well. It was time to protect her. Time to be the person he wished had been there for him during too many nights and too many losses.
But.
She’d called himbaby. It was just one word, and she’d been hanging on by a thin thread, one he’d very nearly cut when he’d decided to be a genius and hurt himself for her sake. But to see her fight through the crowd to get to him; to see her drop to theground, to his level, without a second thought; to see nothing but concern in her eyes and then to hear her say that one word with all of the intimacy he’d barely allowed himself to want. Hayley hadn’t acted like she was concerned for a customer or a disabled person or a friend. Hayley had responded to his little con game as if even the possibility of his injury was the single worst thing that could happen to her. She had responded the same way he would have if she’d gotten hurt.
She’d called himbaby, and for the first time, he was considering the possibility that she might feel for him what he felt for her.
After their kiss, she’d been supposed to move away with Kevin, and he’d been supposed to have all the time in the world to recover from this mess. Instead, Nick was standing at his kitchen counter, breaking a chocolate bar into tiny pieces while the newly single Hayley Burke took off her clothes in his bedroom. She was the one who’d wanted to come back to his apartment. What was stopping him from opening the bedroom door and seeing what happened next?
Nick didn’t even make it halfway down the hallway before he turned around.
What wasstoppinghim? Seriously? As if he deserved a reward for scaring her half to death. For all he knew, after what’d happened in that rehearsal room, the breakup could’ve been because of him. Hayley would’ve made it clear who kissed whom, but maybe she’d defended Nick. Maybe she’d realized she liked their kiss. Maybe she wanted to do it again.
Sure. As long as he was dreaming, maybe his cerebral palsy would disappear tomorrow. Hayley was a mess, and this was not the time, and even if she wanted to give him her body, accepting him and his damaged legs and everything that came with his condition, Nick had to know it wasn’t just because she was toovulnerable to resist. He wanted Hayley to choose him when she could’ve chosen anyone else.
But she wouldn’t be choosing him at all, of course. There would be someone else for her to dance with. The bedroom door would stay closed tonight, she would leave tomorrow, and he would be alone with nothing but a bruised knee to show for his attempt at being a hero. Nick dropped onto the couch and tried to get a look at the damage, but the leg of his jeans bunched up too readily. He’d have to take off his shoes, then his pants.
“What’s that?” Hayley said.
Nick jumped. Hayley was standing in front of him, barefoot, the cuffs of his cotton pajama pants rolled up at her ankles. Her hair obscured the lettering on the back of his show choir T-shirt from high school.
“What?” she said. “You said I could wear whatever.”
He cleared his throat. “I remember.”
“You’re looking at me like I’m wearing that robe again.”
“Do you honestly not know why?”
To his surprise, Hayley blushed a little before her gaze dropped back to his leg. “So, what is that?” she asked again.
Nick looked down, even though he knew what she was asking. His leg was encased in a sort of plastic boot, ending at the top of his calf and held in place by Velcro. The top of a sock was visible past the edge of the plastic, and the bottom of the whole thing was hidden by the sneaker he was wearing over it.
“It’s a leg brace,” he said. “They stabilize my ankles, I think. Gives me more support when I walk.”
“I’ve never seen them before.”
“I don’t show them to people.”
