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Sighing, she climbed out of bed. Sophie had been cleaning earlier that day, so she already had some paper towel handy and began soaking up the liquid. She heard footsteps down the hall and Noah appeared in her doorway a few moments later.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I broke your cup. I’m sorry.” She kept her back turned, but her voice betrayed her. Sophie was about to cry.
Noah entered her bedroom and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Hey…” He bent down to her level, catching a glimpse of her face. “Hey, Sophie. It’s just a cup. Seriously, it’s no big deal.”
Sophie ignored him and ripped off a new piece of paper towel.
Noah’s hand moved from her shoulder to her cheek and she paused. He wiped the tears from her face and helped her to her feet, motioning for her to sit on the bed.
Noah bent and began cleaning up the mess.
“It’s not the cup,” she sniffled.
“Then what is it?”
Sophie wiped under her eyes with her fingertips. “I had a dream.”
Noah glanced up from tossing the soaking-wet paper towels into the trash bin. “What was it about?”
“I barely even remember now. I was with a toddler. I think they were mine. But I was terrible, I kept messing everything up.”
Noah finished cleaning and sat beside her on the bed.
Sophie’s lip trembled. “Do you think I’m going to be a bad mom?”
“What? Sophie no. Not at all,” he assured her.
Sophie knew he was just saying what any decent person would say.
He hugged her then, for the first time in weeks. Since their staged moment at the park. Sophie began to sob and Noah held her, not saying a word.
If her dream was right and she was a terrible mom, then she would be completely alone. She wouldn’t be able to count on Noah to help her after the baby was born. Sophie thought she could be everything, mom and dad, that she could be anything her child needed. But what if she couldn’t?
Noah shushed her and rubbed her back. It began to soothe her enough that she stopped crying, exhaustion falling over her once again. She didn’t want him to stop comforting her, to stop holding her. If he did, she thought she might fall right back into tears.
Please don’t leave, she begged silently.
But eventually, Noah realized she was better and figured he was good to leave. Sophie’s chest physically hurt when his hands slid from her body. As his feet moved closer to the hallway.
She couldn’t stand it.
“Noah,” she called.
He paused. “Yeah?”
“Can you… stay with me?”
He hesitated in the doorway. She was asking him to cross the line, she knew that. But at this moment, she didn’t care; she didn’t want to be alone.
They hadn’t talked about what happened at the dress shop two weeks ago. And they had avoided any non-staged touching since then. But Sophie craved the safety of his comforting touch, and needed him to stop the ache slicing across her chest.
“Yeah,” he replied quietly. “I’ll stay.”
CHAPTER21
NOAH
