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The movie got underway and their attention turned to the story. Fifteen minutes into the film she set the popcorn bowl on Wes’s stomach. “It’s all yours.”
She settled into the pillows. This was nice, getting cozy and watching a movie with him. Her decision to have him stay an extra night might have initially been driven by a passive-aggressive desire to stick it to Cooper. But those feelings had faded beforeshe and Wes even tucked into the pizza. Having him here felt natural, as if they’d done it a hundred times before. The analytical side of her wanted to examine the reasons for this, but the exhausted part of her just wanted to live in the moment.
The bed jerked as the popcorn bowl toppled off Wes’s lap. He’d reached for the bowl and winced in pain.
She set her hand on his shoulder. “Lie down. Are you all right?”
He sank against the pillow. “I’m fine but I made a mess. Sorry about that.” He started picking up the popped kernels strewn across his stomach and on the bedspread.
She paused the movie. “There wasn’t much left.”
Boots stood, sniffed the popcorn, then left the scene of the crime.
Avery spotted a kernel that had landed in Wes’s hair. She chuckled as she reached for it, then popped it into her mouth and helped him clean up the mess. Leaning so close, his familiar woodsy scent mixed with the buttery smell of popcorn.
Since he was otherwise occupied, she allowed herself to stare at his face, taking in his deep-set eyes, straight nose, and the masculine angles of his face. The five-o’clock shadow that now covered his jawline reminded her of the way he used to look.
“What?” he asked.
He’d caught her staring—probably wearing a dopey smile. They’d recovered the popcorn so she settled back on her own side of the bed. “I was just thinking of how you looked when you arrived.”
“Like a mountain man?”
She returned his grin. “I was so shocked that day when I walked in here and saw you’d shaved it all off. You looked so different.”
“Different good?”
She quirked a brow. “Fishing for compliments, Garrett?”
“I’m temporarily disabled over here—I need something to keep me going.”
“You know you’re handsome. You don’t need to hear it from me.”
“Well, it’s awfully nice hearing it from you.” He held eye contact and his expression sobered a little.
The air seemed to thicken with tension. Avery’s blood buzzed through her veins. What was going on in that head of his? Did she even want to know? “What are you thinking over there?”
“I’m wondering if I should tell you why I shaved it off.”
“Well, you can’t leave me hanging now.”
He paused for a long moment, his gaze piercing hers. He waited so long she wondered if he would drop the subject altogether. “You’d gone out with that guy the night before. I saw you dancing with him at the Trailhead—I didn’t like it.”
Her breath caught. He’d been jealous. A million butterflies danced in her stomach. So she hadn’t misinterpreted the subtle signals or the tangible tension that ran between them like an electric current.
But what of the woman on the phone? Who was she? What did it all mean?
He tore his gaze away. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
She actually wanted him to say so much more. But she wasalso afraid of what he might reveal and where it might lead. She had plans for her life that definitely didn’t involve a man.
“It’s okay. You didn’t.” She grabbed the remote and started the movie again.
The tension that hung in the room slowly lifted as Avery lost herself in the story of a woman who wanted nothing but a fresh start. As the romance between the main characters blossomed, the past week or so of sleepless nights began catching up with Avery. Her eyelids grew heavier, her body sank, weightless, into the pillows, drawing her to a place of rest and oblivion.
When Avery fluttered open her eyelids, dawn’s early light greeted her. Something was different. For starters, she was on top of the covers. She turned and found Wes, still sleeping soundly beside her.
Last night came rushing back—the pizza, popcorn, and the movie. The last scene she recalled was when the hero found the heroine’s wanted poster. Avery had drifted off—and apparently slept through the night. Maybe her insomnia wasn’t a Huntington’s symptom after all. Maybe stress had been keeping her awake, and now that she had a potential doctor, the insomnia would subside.
