Take her back to bed so we can start over.
But I know a little more about her now, and now is the right time to give Naomi a little space, but I don’t feel like giving her so much space that she leaves.
“It’s been a big couple of days for you,” I reason with her. “We can take things slow. I’m just being honest about what you heard me say on the phone is all,” I remind her.
She looks more confused than ever now, but at least she’s not so angry.
“Listen,” I continue. “I said you should stay here for a few days anyway, at least until you figure out what you want. Ignore everything I just said if you want, but I can’t hide the fact I’m crazy about you even if I tried.”
Her look softens and that lip quivers again.
“Just don’t walk out of here, Naomi. Because I don’t think I’d make it if you did,” I tell her, my own voice cracking with emotion.
Chapter Thirteen
Naomi
My brother Chet always tells me that when I’m tired, when I’m hungry, I act like my shoe size, not my age.
Like a kid.
Hearing Parker explain patiently, but with concern about what I overheard him saying to his elderly mom on the phone, I can’t help but feel stupid.
I’m accusing him of calling me ‘just a kid’, so why am I acting like one to prove it?
I guess I feel torn between feeling scared like a little kid with everything that’s happened today and feeling more grown up than I ever have. What Parker and I have done together so far definitely qualifies as grown up stuff.
Stuff I thought I’d never share with anyone in my whole life, let alone with someone as perfect as Parker.
I admit to Parker this is all happening too fast, and once he tells me how he understands, just doesn’t want me to go I know I’m in the right place.
I could say the dumbest things or act like a child and he’d still be here, waiting for me.
Like he says, whenever I’m ready and if it’s what I really want.
I think it is what I want, I mean. I know he’s what I want. I just don’t want to commit to anything on the spot.
Being so tired, so hungry, and with nowhere else to go right now.
Moose scratches at the door again, and barks.
With Parker’s say so I let him in and he trots straight past both of us, back to the room I was just in, and jumps up on the bed.
Parker smiles to himself and shakes his head a little.
“I know Moose wants you to stay as well,” he admits. “Looks like he’s gonna want to keep you company for a while too,” he adds.
“And you don’t?” I ask him, suddenly worried I’ve put him off or maybe acted too crazy for one day.
“I do, you know I do,” he says gently, coming over and brushing my hair over my ear. “But maybe just go have a lie down. Get some sleep. I’ll still be here when you wake up,” he recommends.
I have so much I suddenly want to tell him. I want him to come back to bed, want him to take me as his own like he said he would.
But Parker’s eyes are clear and calm as he gently but firmly orders me to go take a nap.
“I’m sorry, Parker,” I tell him before I go back to bed without him. “Sorry for overreacting, I mean.”
He smiles and tells me not to worry, reminding me I’ve had more than enough trauma for one day, that he doesn’t hold it against me and he’s glad I’m staying.
“Moose would be lost without you around too, by the way,” he adds before I walk like a zombie back to bed, and curling up to Moose beside me falling asleep instantly.
The sound of my phone ringing wakes me at the same time the smell of food cooking reaches my nostrils.
The door’s ajar and once I wake up Moose by fishing for my phone which is somehow by the bed now, he lets himself out once he knows he’s done his job of watching over me.
It’s Chet calling, and although not a great time, I pick up.
He is my brother after all and he’s not in the habit of just calling to say hi.
Something must be up.
Turns out he just caught a news story about some city folk claiming they saw an off-duty cop disarm a mugger as he walked his dog from a dog salon with a girl who looks just like me.
Plot twist? He didn’t arrest the mugger, but gave him fifty bucks and told him to go buy a meal.
“Sound like something you’d be mixed up in sis?” he asks me point-blank.
For the first time in his life though, he actually sounds concerned, which worries me more than anything.