“Thank you,” I said. “Just… so much. Thank you, so much.”
He didn’t say anything but wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. I closed my eyes, breathing in the smell of Vince and letting the rhythm of his breaths and the beat of his heart wash the day off me. We both probably needed to actually wash, but a shower was my lowest priority right then. I was too exhausted to stand for a lot longer, much less take a shower.
Instead, I stripped out of my clothes and dropped one of Vince’s fresh white T-shirts over my head. We crawled into bed, and I took some of the painkillers, drank the water, and nibbled on the snack while Vince flipped through channels on the TV. My eyes were heavy, and I barely even registered the show he chose before my head dropped to Vince’s chest and I fell asleep.29VinceAll of our plans for our big weekend together had pretty much gone out the window. But I still woke up with Lindsey pressed against my back, her arm around my waist and her leg slung up over my hip. It was exactly the way I wanted to wake up—beside her and enveloped in her warmth and smell. At least that hadn’t been completely derailed by the events of the day before.
But it still wasn’t exactly the way it should have been. We should have woken up without a thought in our minds. Without a care to drag us down. We should have woken up naked, having fallen asleep exhausted from each other rather than drained from fear and stress.
I immediately knew this wasn’t going to be the day we had planned. Carefully extracting myself from her hold on me, I got my phone and shot off a quick text to Nick. I wanted him to know Lindsey was at my house and reconfirmed she wouldn’t be going into the bar that night. Even if she thought she might want to, I fully planned on discouraging.
After what she went through the night before and Remy still in a delicate condition, she didn’t need the added stress of being at work. Besides, I thought it was about time she and I had a talk.
I didn’t bother to wait for a response from my brother before setting the phone aside again. In all honesty, I didn’t need to hear anything he had to say. Instead, I climbed back in bed with Lindsey. She murmured something in her sleep and curled over onto her other side. I slipped in behind her and cuddled up close so her body molded against mine.
I lay there with her for a while, just enjoying the calm of being together. I knew once she woke up, things were going to start to change. There was really no way around it. They had already changed, and it was just a matter of time before we found out how much.
A kiss on the side of her neck brought Lindsey up out of her sleep several minutes later, and she smiled as she rolled onto her back to look up at me.
“Good morning,” she said.
I brushed the tip of my nose against hers and kissed her. “Good morning. Did you sleep alright?”
“About as well as to be expected,” she said. “But definitely much better than I would have if I was at my apartment. Sleeping beside you always has that effect on me.”
I brushed the hair out of her face and stroked her cheek with the tops of my fingers as I let my eyes sweep over her features. She was so familiar, yet I felt like I was trying to memorize every bit of her. She sighed and tilted her face against my touch. We stayed that way for a few minutes before she rolled over and got her phone off the nightstand. My body immediately tensed.
“I already messaged Nick,” I said.
The words just kind of blurted out of me, and Lindsey gave me an odd look.
“Alright,” she said. “That’s not who I was messaging. I was letting Grant know I’m up so he has an idea of when I’m going to get there.”
“When you’re going to get there?” I asked. “You’re going back over to his house today?”
“Yeah,” she said, setting her phone back down. “You heard me tell Remy last night I’d see him this morning.”
As soon as she said it, I realized she was right. Right before we left, she told the little boy she would see him in the morning. It didn’t process then, but it hit me now.
“So, Grant has decided to just let you come and see him?”
Lindsey nodded. “That’s what he wanted to talk to me about last night when you were hanging out with Remy. He said I could come visit Remy whenever I wanted and could start having him on outings and at my house and stuff more.”