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Shit.
She had to leave. Now. She’d done nothing but take from him, cheerfully oblivious until he’d literally injured himself forher. Why deal with actual relationship problems when you can run off in the middle of the night and slow-dance to goddamn Savage Garden? She hadn’t wanted Nick to have feelings for her, so she hadn’t seen them. She hadn’t wanted to have feelings for him, so she’d told herself they weren’t there.
You’re a liar, Hayley Michelle. You wanted it all. You knew the whole time, and you played dumb so you could keep your karaoke star on a leash.
You wanted too much, and someone got hurt.
Hayley spun toward the bedroom door so quickly she nearly tripped over his walker—and there was the beach photo on the wall. She’d dreamed last night that she was on that beach with him. She’d asked him a question, half-awake.
“You’re the sky,”he’d said.
No. She wasn’t a liar. She had made the right choice. She had tried her best. She had helped him.
And she hadn’t run away. Kevin had, right out the front door, so there wasn’t anything wrong with being here with Nick. She liked their dance, and she liked the dancer she was with him. She could choose the beauty here and worry about the pain later.
Like any second now, when Nick woke up and wondered why the hell he’d destroyed his closely guarded dignity in his favorite bar for a crazy woman, and what the hell had possessed him to allow her to spend a sexless night in his bed. What would she say when he asked what they were, what she wanted? That she wanted to feel safe? That she wanted to hold him? That she had no idea what they were, but she knew she wanted to take care of him? It had nothing to do with his disability, but how could she explain that?
“I’ll have to get you a copy of that,” Nick said.
She turned around to see him grinning lazily at her. “That’d be great,” she said, finding a shy smile. “And good morning.”
“Good morning to you.” He propped himself up on an elbow. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah.” Then, more softly, “I really did.”
His smile broadened. “Me too.”
Okay, so he wasn’t freaking out. Did he expect her to get back in bed? Would he be offended if she didn’t?
And for the love of God, why was she acting like a teenager on her first date?
“Did you bring a change of clothes?” She was relieved he was talking again. “Other than your dancing stuff, I mean.”
She remembered her bag at the foot of the bed. “Um, yeah,” she said. “Why?” She looked down at the T-shirt she was wearing. “These are yours. I’ll give them back. Or, um … I’ll do that later, because you’re here. Not that … it’s your bedroom, so why wouldn’t you be here, but I just meant …” She saw the laughter in his eyes. “I should shut up. I’ll shut up.”
He scratched at the stubble on his cheek. “I could be way off base here, but it seems like you’re nervous.”
“No.” She gave a quick laugh. “Why would I be nervous?”
“No reason,” he said, then: “Thing is, I’ve spent enough time being nervous around you that I know what it feels like.”
“Well. It’s not … I’m not … It’s just that I don’t …”
“I asked about the clothes because I figured you’d want to wear clean ones after you showered.” He rolled to his stomach, slid off the side of the bed until his feet hit the floor, and pushed against the mattress to stand up. “You don’t have to shower, of course, but the guest bathroom has a tub. We could have breakfast afterward.”
She nodded, got more comfortable with her own smile. “Sounds great.”
Nick lunged easily from the mattress to the wall, then stood with one hand on the doorframe of the bathroom.
“Still no expectations,” he said gently. “I’m good. I promise.”
“Okay.” It came out much too fast, and she tried again. “Okay.”
“I know last night wasn’t an invitation.”
Slowly, the tension in her evaporated. How did he do that, just by looking at her?
Hayley said, “You’re pretty great, you know that?”
