He returned his gaze to hers and held it a long second before he said, “Yeah.” A flash of pain shone in his eyes and cut straight through Brook’s heart. “But it’s pretty clear you didn’t. So you probably had it right. This probably wasn’t the best idea.” He straightened away from the wall. “At least you know I didn’t forget.”
He turned and was halfway out the door before Brooke managed to grab a handful of his jacket. “Wait.”
His free hand gripped the doorframe, and his body hummed with tension.
“Don’t go.” Brooke glanced at Justin to make sure he was still resting, then stepped close to Keaton and wrapped her free arm around his waist, squeezed her eyes closed, and pressed her head to his back. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for things to—”
Keaton turned, breaking her hold. Then his arms closed around her and hauled her up against him so hard, all her air whooshed out. He pressed his face to her hair and exhaled heavily, the sound part agony, part bliss.
“Knock, knock.” The soft, cheerful voice of the nurse on duty—Brooke was beginning to believe she knew them all—sounded as she passed into the room, as if she were knocking to interrupt their embrace, not to enter the room, because the door was still propped open by their bodies.
Keaton lifted his head and loosened his arms but didn’t let Brooke go, and she wanted to weep with relief, with joy, with so much love, it swamped her. She kept her face pressed to his chest, where she breathed in the spicy, male scent of pure Keaton.
“Why don’t you two take a break?” the nurse said. “Tammy’s in the cafeteria. I have her number. I’ll call y’all if Justin wakes, but I suspect he’ll be out for most of the afternoon.”
“Thank you.” Keaton’s fingers slid down Brooke’s arm and clasped around her hand. “We’ll be back.”
He pulled Brooke from the room and looked both ways down the corridor.
“The elevators are—” Brooke started.
But Keaton turned the other direction. “I don’t want the elevators. I want privacy.”
Brooke wouldn’t have been able to keep up with him if he hadn’t been dragging her. She avoided the curious stares of hospital staff, her mind darting all over the place at dizzying speed. Within seconds, Keaton pushed through the door to a stairwell, and pulled Brooke out of the doorway and into his arms again. With his arms wrapped tight around her waist, he bent to pull her s
o close, their bodies connected from knees to shoulders, and he dropped his face to the hollow of her neck again.
“I’ve fuckin’ missed you so bad.” His rasped words echoed the pain aching inside Brooke, and before she could respond, he pulled back and pressed his lips to hers.
Brooke hummed with relief so deep it was painful. Tears spilled from her eyes and added a salty poignancy to the moment. He tilted his head and kissed her deeper, and the hunger and longing Brooke had been stuffing away to get through every day overwhelmed her. She tightened her arms around his neck and opened to him the way she’d dreamt of kissing him every spare moment for the last month.
Keaton moaned into her mouth, lifted one hand to the back of her head, and caressed a hand over her hair. The sweet move choked Brooke with emotion, and she broke the kiss with an urgent need to explain everything, even though she knew it wouldn’t erase the pain.
“I left Austin because she forced me to choose. It was horrible. I was torn apart. And there was no right answer. No matter what I did, someone I loved was going to get hurt. So I sided with Justin. I had to. It’s who I am.”
“I know,” he said, wiping at her wet cheek. “It was the right thing.”
“As soon as I got home,” she said, “I called Ellie. I had to get a job so I could pay for the rest of this procedure. Ellie and Troy went to Jax. They put their heads together and got me a couple of interviews…”
She paused her ramble to draw air. “I’ve been crazy. I feel like I’m spinning. Trying to get used to someone new, still walking on eggshells, waiting for the next trapdoor to open under my feet, hoping I can get Justin through program before anything bad happens. I’ve wanted to call. I’ve had my finger hovering over the Send button a hundred times since I left—”
He kissed her again, this time gently, his lips lingering in a way that made the stress drift from Brooke’s body and allowed her to lean into him. Finally finding a place to rest after doing so much on her own.
He lifted his lips from hers, pressed them to her forehead, and pulled her close again.
“I didn’t want to hurt you, and I knew telling you I was sorry couldn’t fix it. I didn’t want to reopen a wound that I had no way of healing.”
Footsteps on the stairs drew their attention, and Keaton moved them aside so the man in scrubs could pass. Then he sat on the steps near the wall and pulled her into his lap. “Ellie told me where you were, but she didn’t tell me about the job. Who’s it with?”
“Will and Leslie Crow.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ve worked with Will,” Keaton said. “Nice guy. Intense, yeah, but that’s what makes him such a good actor.”
Brooke nodded. “Definitely demanding, but also reasonable and appreciative and generous. They’ve given me the time I need to be with Justin during the procedures, and pay me well enough to make ends meet and still pay the monthly payment for the program. It’s only been a few weeks, but they’ve been straightforward and honest.”
“Refreshing.”
“Right?” She laughed the word, relaxing into their conversation, into the feeling of having someone other than her sister to share her life with. “I’m cautiously optimistic. His wife Leslie is a fashion model, but she’s pregnant with their first baby right now, so she’s limited her jobs to maternity shoots until after the baby’s born. They live here in Tampa, so I don’t have to deal with the tiny airport in the Keys like I did for Jillian.”