Page 106 of Hold Me Until Morning

“I don’t intend to.”

“But it’s easy to get caught up in something, to start to believe it’s going to end one way when there’s no chance that it really could.”

I wondered which of us she was really warning.

“And sometimes we end up exactly where we’re supposed to even when we never believed for a second it could be a part of our destination,” I told her.

She looked away. Without a doubt, she was terrified of believing what I was saying.

Fuck, guess I was, too, but I was having a harder and harder time envisioning walking away from her in the end.

I had to.

I knew it.

But that didn’t change the way I felt.

“You know we can’t, Cody.” It was the softest rejection that still clanged in our ears.

“Excuse me.” A voice came from the side.

I jolted out of the spell this woman had me under, turning to find an older woman written in sheer irritation as she waited to get to the potatoes I was blocking with the cart.

“Sorry,” Hailey rushed, flustered that we were so caught up in each other that we’d gotten lost to anything around us.

She grabbed the end of the cart and hauled me along as she hurried deeper into the store. She basically went to ignoring me as she grabbed the few things she needed.

Bread.

Steak.

Milk in the dairy section.

Five minutes later, she was heading up to the register and got in line.

I nudged her out of the way, loaded the items onto the belt, then dug into my back pocket to get my wallet so I could take out my card.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She whispered it again. Harsh even though it was quiet. It was the same thing she kept asking again and again.

It was a prudent question.

What in the ever-loving-fuck did I think I was doing? Whatever it was, apparently, I couldn’t stop.

I put my mouth to her ear. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m taking care of you.”

Because people who cared about someone took care of them.

In any way they could.

We loaded everything into two bags then I carried them out to my truck.

Hailey scrambled along at my side, trying to keep up with my long strides.

It was still hot out, just after five-thirty, the summer in full force.

I clicked the locks and the running lights flashed, and I opened the back passenger door and placed the bags on the floorboards.

Just as I was ducking out, the hairs lifted on the back of my neck as a bolt of awareness streaked through the atmosphere.