“What?” Seth was there immediately, taking her shoulders in his hands. “Did you hurt yourself?” He glanced around. “Did I miss one?”
Not trusting herself to speak, she shook her head. And willed the tears away.
“What’s wrong?” he asked again, searching her face.
“I thought you’d gone.” More tears came.
Though she wasn’t even sure he was aware of it, Seth’s hands were softly rubbing her arms. “I just went outside to—”
“I know,” she interrupted him, tried to laugh.
“Laura...”
“Shhh.” She put a finger on his lips. “Nothing’s changed,” she whispered.
She couldn’t be the woman he needed, a woman worthy to be his wife, and she couldn’t let him any further into the lives of her children without that permanence.
If nothing else, the past eight months getting over him had proved it. His going had practically killed her children. She could only imagine how much worse it would’ve been if he’d stuck around for a year or two before he’d decided to split.
“Nothing’s changed,” she said again.
He didn’t even try to argue with her. He lowered his lips to hers, instead, kissing her softly—and then not so softly. Telling her with his body how much he wanted to stay.
And then he was gone. Leaving her with her empty house and her broom and her pile of dead bees.
“SUSAN’S SICK.”
Recognizing Seth’s voice, slurred though it was, Michael sat up in bed, reaching for the lamp on the nightstand beside him. It was two o’clock in the morning. Monday morning.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, throwing off the covers, mentally calculating how long it would take him to get from Denver to Cincinnati.
“Dunno,” his friend said. “She says nothing’s wrong.”
Feeling stupid for overreacting, Michael lay back on the bed and wondered how many drinks Seth had had. “Then how do you know she’s sick?”
“We were all out to Scott and Julie’s for Easter dinner a couple weeks ago. She could barely eat a thing.”
“Maybe she just wasn’t hungry,” he said, remembering life with his ex. “She probably had a craving for a burger on the way over and stopped for one, thinking she could eat that and dinner, too.”
“She threw up.” It sounded as though Seth had been drinking for hours. Much as he didn’t want to stick his nose where it didn’t belong, Michael was going to have to have talk with his ex-brother-in-law. Soon.
“She could’ve had a touch of the flu.”
“She missed work two days this past week.”
“You’re sure?” Michael sat up again, his stomach tight.
“’Course I’m sure. I may be drunk but I know when my sister isn’t at work.”
Even when she’d had that fever of 103, Susan had gone to work. She’d worked with a sprained ankle, with strep throat, and with a cold so bad she was blowing her nose every five seconds. “Something’s wrong,” Michael said, thinking out loud.
“S’what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“She won’t talk to you about it?”
“Nope, jes tol’ me I worry too much.”
“I’ll call her.”