The House on Blackberry Hill (Jewell Cove 1)
His dark eyes shone at her for a moment before he smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
He turned around, and stoically holding in any sounds of pain, she managed to shove her shorts down over her ankles, step out of them, and into the sweats. They were very baggy and she had to pull the drawstring in as tight as it would go, but she did feel better. “Okay,” she said, gingerly bending to pick up the damp shorts.
“I’ll throw them in the dryer with your shirt,” he suggested, and disappeared.
When he came back, she had gone to the window and was staring out over the water. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against the hard wall of his chest. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he murmured.
“I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to go for a run.”
“To avoid the house because you knew I was coming.”
She turned, looking up into his face. There was real pain in his features. He truly had been worried about her. And it hurt him to think that she’d rather be caught in a thunderstorm than in the same house with him.
He’d saved her today. Despite their screwed-up relationship, he’d searched for her and pulled her out and doctored her wounds with gentleness.
Abby sighed, resting her forehead on his broad chest. She was in love with him, she finally admitted to herself. And it was
n’t just because he’d rescued her but because the very act of it had showed her the kind of man he was. He was the one she went to with her secrets. It didn’t matter anymore that his heart belonged to someone else and probably always would. That was completely separate from the demands of her heart. And right now hers was telling her that Tom was the most amazing thing to ever happen to her. It was, in that moment, the most thrilling and terrifying realization of her life.
“I wasn’t running away from you,” she said, reaching up and touching his face. “I just needed to clear my head.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. But maybe it’s time you do. Can we sit down?”
Her knees ached as she followed him to the sofa. The cushions were deep and thick and she sank into them with a sigh. His cottage wasn’t big but it was cozy. She thought she could probably sit here and watch the birds and the ocean for hours.
“This place suits you, you know. Peaceful. A good place to hide away from the world.”
“You know me too well.” He sat beside her and tucked one foot beneath him so he was half turned in her direction. “And sometimes I feel like I don’t know you at all.”
“And I feel like you know me better than anyone I’ve ever met.” She smiled a little. “I’m being cryptic, aren’t I?”
“A bit.”
She looked down at her lap. “You’ve been very open with me, Tom, far more than I’ve been with you.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “You told me about Erin, and that couldn’t have been easy. I trust you, and that’s something very new for me. And more than a bit scary.”
Their fingers were still joined and she rubbed her thumb over the warm, rough skin of his hand. Tom had working hands. Caring hands. Strong hands that had pulled her from danger. Hands that had touched her skin and set her on fire. She lifted his hand and pressed his palm to her lips.
“I’ve never really had what you’d call a stable home life. When my father died, my whole world got turned upside down. My mother ran out on us when I was just a baby, so when she got custody of me, I had no stability. We were always moving around. I didn’t make many friends because I knew I wouldn’t have them for long. I blended in. I missed my father so much, but Mom didn’t want to hear it. She just wanted to have fun and a kid didn’t really fit the image she was going for. I tried running away once and social services put me in foster care for a short while before sending me back to my mom. God, she was so angry that I’d drawn any attention to us.”
“I’m sorry, Abby, but I don’t get—”
She smiled sadly. “Bear with me.”
He squeezed her hand. “Okay.”
“My mom was killed in an accident when I was fifteen. She was driving drunk and hit a tree, and as much as I thought I hated her, she was still my mother, you know? By then my grandmother was all I had left. I finished high school, stayed close to her for college, but then she died, too. And I was all alone. Then I found out that there was this whole family out there that I never had the chance to know. I felt like my relationship with Gram had been meaningless, because she’d kept so much hidden. I never really knew her, you know? Every person I’d cared about, the people I’d trusted to be there for me … suddenly all gone.”
“Abs,” Tom said, softer now, and he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.
“That was the lowest I’d ever been, losing her,” she confessed. “Gram had always told us that her parents died when she was a baby and she had been raised by her grandparents. They were in their seventies and died right before she got pregnant with my dad. And that was that.”
She leaned back, away from his embrace. “Don’t you see? Coming here, meeting you, all of it, it’s just been so confusing. I’ve never really had a home before. I’m not sure I’d even know what to do with one.”
She swallowed, looked out the window. “Everyone I’ve ever cared about has disappeared,” she murmured. “It hurts so much. If I stay here, if I start to care about this place … about the people … Today, I wasn’t avoiding you. I was just trying to get some clarity.”
CHAPTER 20