Fall for Me (Danvers #3)(49)

“It smells amazing; thank you.” She sat up against the cushions and Nick settled the tray on her lap. Any other time she would have been embarrassed at how fast she consumed the bowl of soup, but once she started, she couldn’t seem to stop. It was the best meal she could remember having in ages and she ate until the tray was clear.

Nick gave her a smile of approval when he removed the empty tray. “Good girl.” He took the tray to the kitchen and she was surprised when he came back to the couch and lifted her up so that he could slide in behind her. When he had her settled in his arms to his satisfaction, she snuggled into his warmth. His hands settled on her temples and she moaned in bliss as he rubbed them gently. The combination of the meal and the massage was more than her tired body could handle. Within moments, she felt herself slipping away. How could love be any better than what she felt right now in his arms? It was just the icing on the cake. She could live with this. It was enough, wasn’t it?

Chapter Twenty-four

Beth lay in his arms sleeping peacefully, but sleep wouldn’t come for Nick. So many thoughts swirled in his head. He had little doubt that her sickness earlier was brought on by not eating. She had devoured the soup as if she hadn’t eaten in a week, and she probably hadn’t. What was he going to do with her? He couldn’t force-feed her, but his days of accepting her word that she had already eaten were over. It was time to make things more difficult for her to try to cover up skipping meals. He would stop going to the gym in the evening. Making sure she was okay was more important than working out. Come to think of it, he would start matching his office hours to hers as much as possible. He could work at home in the evening if he needed to. If they rode to and from work together, she couldn’t say that she had picked up something on the way home.

He was worried about what she was doing to the babies, but he was more terrified of what she was doing to herself, mentally and physically. Not for the first time, he longed to strangle her uptight parents. What must they have put his beautiful girl through in her life to make her feel this way? His gut clenched as he imagined something happening to her. He couldn’t comprehend a world without Beth in it. Somewhere along the way, she had become home to him. They laughed together, they played together, and she could drive him to the edge with just one look. There were moments he wanted to kiss her and moments he wanted to strangle her, but the one thing stayed constant: the want. They might not have the white-picket fence or traditional relationship like Claire and Jason, but they could come pretty damn close.

The only problem left was how to convince Beth of that. Was she truly ready to be a family—with him? He knew women wanted love, hearts, and roses, and he could give her two of those three things. Wasn’t that enough? It was more than a lot of people started off with or ever had.

The ringing of Nick’s cell phone made him cringe. He knew without looking who it was. Which body part would she threaten this time? He felt sorry for Gray, the poor bastard. He was likely to have his dick cut off sometime during his life unless he kept his wife happy. He had pissed off a few women in his lifetime, but none that made the colorful type of threats that his new sister-in-law made. Sadly, he knew she wasn’t bluffing.

“Hey, sis, what’s shaking?” That’s real wise, Merimon. Go ahead and piss her off. She will be over here with a knife and a pair of scissors before you can say “balls.”

“I’m not your sis, doofus. How is Beth? Oh, and thanks for calling me back.”

“Save some of that charm for my brother. Your sister is asleep and seems fine now. I think she just went too long without eating.”

“Shit! I tried to talk to her today, but she got pretty pissy with me. You’re right though, there is something wrong with her.”

“Excuse me,” Nick taunted. “Could you repeat that part about me being right again?”

“Yeah, yeah, shut-to-the-up and let’s figure out what we’re going to do, pretty boy.”

He really hated to admit it, but he was crazy about his new “sis.” She was rude, crude, and irreverent, but funny as hell. Even with the constant threats of bodily harm, he could see why Gray fell so hard for her. “I’m going to make it hard for her to skip meals. I plan to change my schedule around so I can keep an eye on her more. I do have to go to Charleston tomorrow, but I’ll come back instead of staying over. We have an appointment next week with her doctor, and I hope they give her hell if she has lost weight.”

With a deep sigh, Suzy said, “Oh well, I guess it’s a starting point. When you aren’t around, I will force her to go to lunch with me so I can keep an eye on her. I can hit the Krispy Kreme every morning on my way in and buy a few dozen donuts to tempt her. Of course, I’ll probably get attacked on the elevator before I even make it to the office with them.”

Nick chuckled. “That sounds like a plan. Why don’t you swing by here and pick her up on your way to the office tomorrow? I need to leave early and I don’t want her driving until we know that she’s okay.”

“Yeah, no problem. Just let her know. Um . . . thanks, Nick, I really appreciate you looking after her.”

“Oh, man, I bet that hurt. You don’t need to thank me. Beth is, well, you know . . .”

Suzy laughed. “Yeah, I do know, Nick. The question is, do you know?”

With that parting shot, she was gone. What the hell was she talking about? Maybe she had taken to drinking at the office. That would explain a lot.