Laid Bare - Lauren Dane [47]
He fell to his knees and pulled her to him; they both cried.
Through sobs so hard she had to run to the bathroom to vomit again, she told him the rest. How her relationship with Jeremy had fallen apart because she’d distanced herself and he hadn’t known how to reach her. The horror of the trial and finally moving back to Seattle and trying to start over.
And when she’d told him everything, she did feel lighter. The pain was still there. She still had a hole in her heart Adele should have filled with laughter, but it wasn’t an ugly secret weighing on her heart every moment anymore.
Even if he hated her after the telling or couldn’t deal with her baggage or whatever, she’d unburdened herself and she could breathe.
Todd had of course read the newspaper accounts, but hearing her tell it, watching her sob at helplessly witnessing her daughter’s death as she nearly died herself—it tore him up.
“Erin, honey, I—There aren’t words. I’m sorry. Tomorrow is the anniversary?”
She nodded as he helped her to sit again.
“Is she up here?”
Another nod.
“Let’s go then. Tomorrow we’ll take flowers and go. That is, if you’ll let me go along with you.”
She touched his cheek. “Okay.”
“Your brothers are worried about you. I want you to know I did call Brody while you were sleeping. Would you call them now? So they can hear from you that you’re all right? Or as all right as you can be anyway?”
She blinked. “You did? You spoke to Brody?”
“I’m sorry if you think it’s interfering but . . .”
“No, it’s not that. I—well, thank you. It means a lot to me that you’d call him.” She briefly put her head on his shoulder before picking the phone up.
While she spoke to her brothers, he cleaned her kitchen and changed over the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Earlier, he’d watched her sleep and then gotten up to call Brody. While he was up, he’d cleaned up the clutter and done her laundry, before setting her coffeepot for some hours later. The circumstances were not so sexy, but, in truth, they meant a lot. Yes, he’d had to essentially break into her place, but she’d finally turned to him and let him help.
15
Erin looked up at the chiming of the bells over the door of her café and smiled. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until later tonight.”
“I thought I’d come by and see if you wanted help closing up.” He held up a small shopping bag. “And to bring you this. I want you to wear everything in this bag tonight.”
She raised a brow but took the bag.
“No peeking yet.”
“Hmpf. All right, joykiller. I’m fine, you know. I can close up without being scared. It’s still daylight, Brody is next door.” After placing the bag on the counter, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.
He wore that grin of his and she couldn’t stop her body from responding.
“Stop being so defensive. I know you can close without being afraid. I just thought you’d like the company.”
“I need to do this stuff on my own. I appreciate this, I do.” She softened because she knew he did it out of concern for her. Out of love. In the weeks since she’d told him the whole story about Adele, they’d gotten much closer. “But I told you, I need to get my life back. These baby steps may not seem like a big deal to you, but they are to me. This place is concrete proof that I can have a life.”
He turned and locked the door, flipping the CLOSED sign, and then was on her in two steps.
“I love you.”
“I know.” She hadn’t told him she loved him yet, even though she knew she did. It wasn’t as if she held it back to punish or reward him. She just kept trying to find the perfect time. She realized there was no perfect