Page 102 of Stay With Me

He often considered glossing over what he’d done. But then he’d be no different than he was before, and the whole point of being brutally honest was for her to see that he was different. He wanted a fresh start, a clean slate so there would be nothing to tarnish their potential future. No skeletons in his closet to jump out later and ruin everything.

It was a gamble, but after a little more than two months of her sticking around, showing up every day, getting absolutely nothing in return, he tried to believe that the odds were in his favor.

Sammie turned to James and gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze. “Thanks for the burger.”

James patted her hand. “You bet. I guess we’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Same time, same place.”

She turned to Nick and leaned down to stroke her fingers through his hair, giving him a too-quick, too-chaste kiss. He grasped her hand, stopping her from pulling away too fast, wrapped his arm around her neck, and spoke into her ear.

I love you so much,he always wanted to say.

But, of course, he couldn’t say that. Instead, he always settled for the same old thing that didn’t mean nearly enough.

“You’re the best. I can’t wait to see you again.”

She pecked the spot next to his ear. “I can’t wait either. Get good rest.”

She stood straight, still squeezing his hand. “And give your poor mom a break. She looked ready to rip her hair out.”

“Yeah. She’s a saint.”

“She is,” James agreed.

Sammie gestured to the stack of paper on the nightstand. “Kimberly said there was a payroll document in there you needed to sign. I can drop it off tomorrow for you.”

“Oh, yeah.” He fished into the stack and signed off on the form without bothering to look it over. Yet another reminder that Sammie had taken on a bunch of responsibilities that were not hers, and never should have been. Yet another reminder that this could be a sign of her potentially being committed to him, no matter what—even whenno matter whatincluded his disclosing the fact that he’d been a slimeball. Or perhaps something that would come back and bite him in the ass when she found out she’d been doing favors for and wasting all her time with such a slimeball.

It was also another reminder that he needed to call Kimberly and essentially ask for gossip. He needed to know what Chase had said about Sammie being referred to as his girlfriend and he potentially needed to rip Chase a new asshole if he’d made any type of crass or disrespectful comment.

He handed the papers back to Sammie. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

“It’s no big deal.”

“It is to me,” he assured her, which was yet another substitute forI love you.

Yeah, hedefinitelyneeded to figure out a way to have the important conversation with her.

She winked at him and waved one last time to James before letting herself out of the room.

Nick sat in silence while he listened for the front door to open and close, and then gave his dad a look, who in turn burst out laughing.

Dad could always read his mind.

“You’re going to make it, sport,” he encouraged. “This time next week you’ll be able to have all the alone time you need.”

“It’s not that,” Nick deflected, but replayed in his head the brief interlude earlier when he’d been able to soak up a few moments of being almost totally wrapped up in the delicious soft skin that he knew he’d never get enough of in three lifetimes.

“Then what is it?” James inquired.

“I’m kind of, I guess sort of in deep shit,” Nick admitted. “And I don’t know how to deal with it.”

James instantly laughed louder, slapping his knee as if Nick had told him a hilarious joke, leaving Nick bewildered as to what was so damn funny.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Ahhh, sport. Leave it to you to refer to something like this as being in deep shit.”