Sweet Dreams (Colorado Mountain #2)(52)
“The mind’s a powerful thing.”
“Yes,” I said softly.
“Your Dad’s gonna be okay, Ace.”
“I hope so,” I whispered.
We both fell silent and this lasted awhile.
Then, quietly, just in case he fell back to sleep, I said, “Everything you did today was nice.”
“Babe,” he muttered.
“Did I wake you again?”
“No.”
Well thank goodness for that.
I kept talking. “Thank you for coming all the way out here with me.”
“It’s just a day.”
“Still,” I said, “you didn’t have to do it.”
“State you were in, you’d end up in Alaska.”
That startled a giggle out of me.
Then I protested, “I would not.”
“Babe, seriously, you were a robot without any programming.”
I had to admit I kind of was.
“Told you Dad was the strong one,” I reminded him.
He had no response.
“I’ll pay you back for the tickets,” I whispered.
“We’ll talk about it later.”
I ignored him this time. “Yours too.”
“Lauren, we’ll talk about it later.”
“They had to cost a whack.”
“You speak English, you just don’t hear it,” he stated.
“All right, we’ll talk about it later,” I yielded.
We fell silent again. This lasted a long time, so long, I heard Tate’s breathing go even and I knew from experience with listening to Brad sleep he was out.
I rolled to my other side and the instant I did, Tate’s arm came out and hooked me at the waist, pulling me back into his body.
“Tate?” I called, super quiet.
“Mm?” he replied.
“You asleep?” I was still being quiet.
“No,” he replied.
If he wasn’t asleep then why did he pull me into him?
“Um…” I mumbled.
“Your hair smells good.”
“It does?”
“Yeah.”
Wow. He thought my hair smelled good. That was nice.
I decided to ignore that and how nice it was.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” I asked.
“’Cause I got a woman in bed with me who won’t shut up,” he answered.
“Oh,” I whispered then pointed out, “I was quiet awhile ago.”
“This is true,” he murmured.
“So why aren’t you asleep?”
He was silent.
“Tate?”
He sighed then he said, “You smell good, babe.”
“I do?”
“You feel good too.”
Uh-oh.
“Tate –”
“Just be quiet, Lauren.”
I decided to go with that.
“Okay,” I whispered.
We were both quiet a long time and I was about to fall back asleep in the curve of his arm with his warm body at my back when he called my name.
“Laurie?”
“Yes,” I muttered, my voice sleepy.
“I was pissed last night.”
“I know.”
“You look good.”
“Sorry?”
“No way you can look like all the rest.”
My eyes shot open.
His arm curled me deeper into his body and I felt his face burrow into my hair.
“You’d always shine through,” he muttered and now he sounded sleepy but I was again wide awake. “Somethin’ special,” he finished.
Oh.
My.
God.
He fell asleep moments later, I knew this when I took his weight into my back, his breath evened and his strong arm curved deeper around me in a way that I’d never be able to slide out from under it, I’d never be able to move away. I’d have to stay right there, tucked tight to Tate.
I didn’t sleep for a long time but I didn’t care. I just laid there thinking if Brad had held me like this all those years, maybe I wouldn’t have tossed and turned and driven him nuts. Maybe I would have been perfectly fine with my insomnia.
If Brad had held me like this, every night, I’d look forward to it.
Chapter Nine
Damn Baby
The phone rang and my eyes opened.
I was in Tate and my hotel room, alone in our bed.
I knew I was alone (even though the bed was huge) because I couldn’t feel him, hear him or sense him. In fact, I couldn’t sense him anywhere, the shower wasn’t running, he was gone.
I turned toward Tate’s side where the phone was and saw the note. I sat up, grabbed the receiver and the note, putting the receiver to my ear as the words on the note registered in my brain.
Ace,
Running. Be back.
Man of few words.
“Hello?” I said into the phone.
“Hi hon,” Mom said back.
“Hi Mom.”
“I wake you?”
“That’s all right.”
“You sleep okay?”
“Not really, you?”
“No,” she replied. “Listen, hon, we’re meeting for breakfast then going over. Mack says he’ll come back and get you if –”