When he looked up, she’d gone.
He heard her bedroom door close.
After stripping off his t-shirt, he sighed and lay back, hands linked behind his head, and stared up at a red-tasseled lampshade. Maybe he’d pushed it with what he’d said, but so what? She needed to know the truth, the truth that he thought she was beautiful, inside and out. He couldn’t remember wanting a woman more than he did right now.
He closed his eyes and drifted off. The sofa was a welcome reprieve for his spine. It was nice to be warmer too. Sleeping propped up on the porch had been getting old, despite what he’d said about not minding.
He must have dozed for an hour or so when he sensed movement in the room.
Instantly alert, he opened his eyes. But he didn’t move, he stayed lying quietly.
Standing beside the window, holding the curtain back a few inches, was Tammy.
She wore panties and a t-shirt, her slim legs highlighted by a shard of light coming in from an outside streetlamp. She stood absolutely still.
“What is it?” he asked, sitting.
“I thought I heard something.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“What?”
“I don’t know, a bang. It woke me up.”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“You were asleep.”
He stood. “How long have you been standing there?”
She didn’t reply, and he walked over to her. “Let me see.”
The street looked the same way it always did at this time. Empty. A few parked cars sleeping. The ocean rolling onto the beach without its daytime audience. “Nothing there now.”
“No, I guess there isn’t.”
“Hey.” He touched her shoulder. “Go back to bed.”
“But—?”
“I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you or Zak.”
The tension in her shoulders melted a little.
“I promise.” He pulled the curtain closed.
“I know you won’t,” she said. “It’s just taking a while to get used to feeling safe again.”
“After so long of not.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, youaresafe. There are no bumps or bangs in the night I can’t deal with. And don’t forget, you’ve got an entire chapter of Barbarians in your corner too.”
“That is also taking a while to get used to.” She paused. “Today, at the compound, everyone was so welcoming. It was like I didn’t even have to try to belong. Belle and Leah and Brooklyn, they…”
“See you as part of the family?”
“Yes.”