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When I removed my thumbs from her cheeks, she gripped my wrist.
“I did think about Will after he came to my apartment,” she said, her voice low but sure, as she absently interlinked her fingers with mine. Tingles ran up my arms. “But I realized he was nothing in comparison to you.” Her words sounded sincere.
She saw my stunned silence and smiled.
“I was surprised too,” she said, as the soft caress of her fingers against mine stopped. “Walk with me, please? The dean said Henry would be here,” she said, turning and leading the wayto the ambulance, and I followed her, wishing that I could clasp the hand that had grazed mine as we walked.
If we were strictly physical, what were these emotions doing, taking up space in my heart? I’d never known and felt jealousy, possessiveness, and tenderness at the same time.
And that was my clue that I needed more of her. The clue that should have sent me fleeing the scene. Instead, unable to keep away, I followed.
Henry surprised me even more.I watched from ten feet away, where I wouldn’t interfere. My respect for him increased when I noticed that he was calm and even humorous after the ordeal.
He joked about something, and I could see a few people around him crack a smile, and then he took care of Chloe in his own way. He made sure that she had water to drink and that she ate some of the granola bars from his bag before they headed to the bus stop.
Henry proved what I had suspected the last time we met—that he had a solid head on his shoulders.
Chloe looked tired from the last few hours while she waited at the bus stop, her hand resting on the back of Henry’s wheelchair. I fought the urge to go over and ask if I could help in any way.
Henry was on the phone, presumably speaking to friends. Going by the number of people who walked up to them, checking on him, clapping him encouragingly on the shoulder, a lot of people cared about him.
When the bus showed up, the bus driver took a few minutes to lower the ramp and buckle Henry in. I walked back to my Rolls-Royce, wishing I were there on that bus, shifting closerand closer to Chloe until my body was flush with hers, instead of being in my car.
But I set my jaw and walked back, asking Chris to follow the bus. Erin was landing later that night, and I’d originally planned to ask Chloe about what I could do for Erin. But I couldn’t ask anything of Chloe at this moment, and I certainly couldn’t let Chloe go without making sure she really was okay.
Occasionally, while Chris and I followed the bus, I could see Chloe leaning her weary head against the window. That sight tore at something in my chest.
How the fuck was I not able to protect her and Henry? My heart felt like it was being split in two. I was realizing the tight control I tried to maintain around Chloe was weakening.
When the bus stopped outside her apartment, I asked Chris to park a little farther off and walked over after seeing Henry pushing in through the door of their apartment.
“I’ll lie down for a bit,” I heard him call out.
Chloe turned around, as if she could feel my presence, and smiled when she saw I had followed them home.
She took a quick look through the door before shutting it gently and running over to me. I opened my arms, and she leaned into me, hugging me back hard.
“Thank you,” she said while I pulled her into my chest firmly. She clung back, equally desperate, as if fearful that I might just be her imagination. “For everything. Today has been hard in so many ways, but you made it easier. Just by being there. For showing me you have my back.”
For a second, my mind went blank, followed by another blank second and another. It was an odd, weightless feeling, like earning Chloe's complete trust was the greatest milestone I’d ever achieved. As I stood, enveloped by her, her hands wrapped tightly around my back, her breath on my chest, I felt like I had just climbed a mountain and conquered it.
She hesitated for a moment. “Did this change the way you look at me? Running and worrying over Henry—it’s not a particularly sexy look on a woman you’re considering go?—”
“Chloe,” I said firmly, determined to make the woman stop. “The only thing this incident has done is make me admire you even more.”
She looked nonplussed, and after a few attempts at speaking, she finally said, “That’s … well, good.”
My hands ran soothingly up and down her back as her body relaxed against mine. Her heart beating in rhythm against mine.
Her brow creased as she looked at me. “Oh my God. It just hit me. Aren’t you supposed to be at your conference? Weren’t you supposed to have a meeting with the UK’s Secretary of State for Business?—”
“Stop,” I said, bringing my thumb over her brow, smoothing the crease. She was right. Not just Mark Waldorf, but I’d blown the UK’s Secretary of State off too. I’d do damage control later, but now, my time was Chloe’s.
She relaxed against my touch, her eyes fluttering closed for a quick second. I could see from her expression that she needed sleep and food, probably in the reverse order.
“Do you have anything for dinner for you and Henry?” I asked, and her eyes opened right away, concern shining through them.
She bit her lip and shook her head. I pulled her to me and pressed a kiss to the wrinkle in her forehead that had chosen to reappear.