The doorman whistled down a passing cab for me and was such a consummate professional that he acted like I was dressed for work rather than sporting bare feet and a black dressing gown. I thanked him sincerely.
And I was so grateful to the cabbie for getting me home quickly that I tipped him well and didn’t care about the furtive looks I got from my own doorman and the front desk staffer. I didn’t even care about the look I got from the stunning, statuesque blonde who stepped out of the elevator I was waiting for, until I smelled Cary’s cologne on her and realized the T-shirt she was wearing was one of his.
She took in my half-dressed state with an amused glance. “Nice robe.”
“Nice shirt.”
The blonde took off with a smirk.
When I reached my floor, I found Cary lounging in the open doorway in a robe of his own.
He straightened and opened his arms to me. “Come here, baby girl.”
I walked straight into him and hugged him tight, smelling a woman’s perfume and hard sex all over him. “Who’s the chick that just left?”
“Another model. Don’t worry about her.” He drew me into the apartment, and shut and locked the door. “Cross called. He said you were heading back and he has your keys. He wanted to be sure I was here and awake to let you in. For what it’s worth, he sounded torn up and anxious. You wanna talk about it?”
Setting my purse down on the breakfast bar, I went into the kitchen. “He had another nightmare. A really bad one. When I asked him about it he denied, he lied, then he acted like I was nuts.”
“Ah, the classics.”
The phone started ringing. I flicked the switch on the base that turned the ringer off and Cary did the same to the handset he’d left on the counter. Then I pulled out my smartphone, closed the alert that said I’d missed numerous calls from Gideon, and sent him a text message; Home safe. Hope you sleep well the rest of the night.
I powered the phone off and tossed it back in my purse; then I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “The kicker is that I told him all my junk earlier tonight.”
Cary’s brows shot up. “So you did it. How’d he take it?”
“Better than I had any right to expect. Nathan ought to hope they never run into each other.” I finished the bottle. “And Gideon agreed to the couples counseling you suggested. I thought we’d turned a corner. Maybe we did, but we hit a brick wall anyway.”
“You seem okay, though.” He leaned into the breakfast bar. “No tears. Really calm. Should I be worried?”
I rubbed my belly to ease the fear that had rooted there. “No, I’ll be all right. I just…I want it to work out between us. I want to be with him, but lying about serious issues is a deal breaker for me.”
God. I couldn’t let myself even consider that we might not get past this. I was already feeling antsy. The need to be with Gideon was a frantic beat in my blood.
“You’re a tough cookie, baby girl. I’m proud of you.” He came to me, linked our arms, and turned off the kitchen lights. “Let’s crash and start a new day when we wake up.”
“I thought things were going well with you and Trey.”
His grin was glorious. “Honey, I think I’m in love.”
“With who?” I leaned my cheek against his shoulder. “Trey or the blonde?”
“Trey, silly. The blonde just provided a workout.”
I had a lot to say about that, but it wasn’t the time to get into Cary’s history of sabotaging his own happiness. And maybe focusing on how good things were with Trey was the best way to handle this instance of it. “So you’ve finally fallen for a good guy. We should celebrate.”
“Hey, that’s my line.”
The next morning dawned with an odd surreality. I made it to work, and then through most of my prelunch day in a kind of chilly fog. I couldn’t get warm enough, despite wearing a cardigan over my blouse and a scarf that didn’t match either one. It took me a few minutes longer to process requests than it should have, and I couldn’t shake a feeling of dread.
Gideon made no contact with me whatsoever.