I did. It was one of the first things I’d done when Remy had brought him home, and I’d realized I was going to be helping him out with Toby. I knew if I brought him here I wanted him to be comfortable and safe, so I’d ordered some stuff for him online. Obviously I’d added to that stuff as time passed and his needs changed but had I overstepped?
Unable to read his expression properly, I chewed on my lip as he looked around, taking in whatever he was taking in as I watched.
He’d just opened his mouth when Wrecker finally made his presence known again. He’d been in the kitchen enjoying his breakfast finally, and apparently, my new dog didn’t stop eating for anyone. Well, after he’d almost made me break my neck when I’d opened the door, that was. It was ironic considering I’d put it down for him over an hour ago, and he’d decided to stick by my side until Remy turned up instead of eating it. Didn’t dogs dive on food as soon as it was in their bowls?
When Remy didn’t say anything else, I wrapped my arms around my waist. “I’m sorry if I overstepped. It wasn’t that I was assuming, I just wanted Toby to be comfortable and safe while he was here. I don’t have everything if that makes you feel better. I mean, I have a lot, but there’s still stuff that—”
“No,” he said firmly, interrupting me as he stared intently at me. “What you’ve done is more than most people would have. I’m beyond grateful that you care enough about him to do all of this, and I just wish I’d known before now.”
My head jerked at what he’d said. “Why?”
Glancing down at where Toby was now lying on his stomach with his ass in the air as he slept, Remy huffed out a laugh. He could fall asleep in the blink of an eye when he felt like it, and this was proof.
“We’ve already discussed how I’ve spent the last almost eight months giving you shit without even meaning to. It wasn’t personal against anyone on the receiving end, it was more me attacking myself.” He began walking toward me, an intense and almost heated look in his bruised eyes as he did it. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I can’t even put it into fucking words.”
My mouth opened and closed as I tried to say something back, but nothing came to mind. I wrote for a living, Goddamn it, why weren’t there any words?
Then, he made it worse by leaning down and kissing me on the forehead. It wasn’t a skim of the lips, either, it was a full press, and his hand moved to the middle of my back, holding my body against his for a moment.
My brain flat-lined. Like, literally just quit doing anything at all.
“Thank you, baby, and I really am sorry. I don’t trust many people with him, but you’re definitely number one on the short list.”
“It’s—” I licked my lips nervously. “Toby’s my Bub. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him.”
“I know that. I’ve known it for a while.”
Unsure and confused about what was happening and why, I pulled back and smiled shakily up at him. “Do you need me to watch him today? I can do that while I clean up the mess here.”
His expression morphed into a frown. “I’m not leaving you to do all this on your own. You shouldn’t even fucking be in the house while it’s like this. What if part of the roof came down?”
“That already happened,” I snorted, pulling away from him and walking over to where the first pot full of water was. “I can no longer sleep in my bed.”
His proximity had me so off-balance that the words came out of me without realizing it.
I didn’t hear him move as I took the pot through to the kitchen, so when he shouted, “What the fuck?” I jumped and dropped it in the sink, splashing myself with the murky water.
I was dabbing at my arms with the dishcloth when a hand turned me around, and Remy began skimming his hands over me. “Are you hurt anywhere? Where did it hit you?”
Realizing he’d seen the state of my bedroom, I tried to take a step back, but he didn’t let me. “I’m okay. It didn’t hurt me, just soaked me.”
His jaw tensed as he stared at something on my arm, and when I looked down, I saw a bruise I hadn’t realized was there.
“Don’t try and make me feel better by downplaying what happened, Tana. Your ceiling’s on your bed, and you’ve got bruises because of it. I should have insisted you stay at my place until it got fixed after Jerry told me about it yesterday. Fuck!”