The look she gave him, all sleepy and questioning, as he crawled in beside her squeezed something inside of him. “I can’t sleep with you tossing and turning on the couch, that’s all.”
Only when she’d snuggled against him and drifted off to sleep did Sean close his eyes. He still didn’t sleep, though, because that wasn’t all. There was also the fact having the rest of his life in front of him like an open road, with no obligations or strings just made him feel empty inside.
He must have slept at some point because her alarm clock startled him awake. Emma was curled up on her side, facing him, and he smiled when she opened her eyes.
“How you feeling this morning?”
“I’d feel better if you get up and shut my alarm off.” She’d plugged it in next to the couch, like she had in the beginning of their non-relationship.
“Now you’re just taking advantage,” he said, but he got up and killed the phone.
He turned back to the bed and froze. She was watching him, her eyes sleepy and her hair tumbled across the pillow. A smile curved her lips and he found himself smiling in response.
God, she was gorgeous, bedhead and ratty T-shirt and all.
“I’m starving,” she said and then she stretched, which made him turn away so he didn’t have to go down to breakfast walking funny.
“Do you want me to bring you up a tray of food?”
“Like room service?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure if you were up to going downstairs. Or working.”
“I’m okay, and you have two days to get that deck done. You can have dibs on the bathroom and then I’ll get dressed.”
Cat was flipping the first batch of banana pancakes when Sean hit the kitchen. “Morning, Cat.”
“Good morning. How’s Emma today?”
“Better. She’s, uh…it’s that time,” he said, going with Emma’s terminology.
“Huh. It doesn’t usually affect her much.”
“I think she also realized you’re not going to be here much longer.” And neither would he.
Emma would probably be relieved to have him out from underfoot. She could go back to driving her truck and sleeping on her side of the bed and washing her dishes in the proper order.
“I’m going to miss her, too,” Cat said. “Both of you.”
“I’m going to miss your cooking, that’s for sure,” he said, sitting down in front of the pancakes she set down for him. “You sure we can’t talk you into staying?”
Then he stopped with the fork halfway to his mouth. He had to stop doing that. There was no we.
“I miss Emma when I’m there, but I really enjoy Florida.”
He was on his second pancake when Emma came downstairs, looking a hell of a lot better than she had the night before. She kissed her grandmother’s cheek and picked at a pancake before disappearing into her office to make a phone call.
“What are you going to do today, Cat?” Sean asked when the woman just stood there staring after Emma, concern in her eyes.
“Oh, I’ll probably go into town and see if I can sweet-talk Russell into buying me lunch.”
He wondered how that budding romance was going to turn out, since she was leaving in a few days, but it wasn’t his place to ask. “I should get my boots on. If I’m not ready to leave before her, she might get the truck keys first.”
She touched his shoulder for a moment as she leaned in to take his empty plate, and he felt a pang of…something. Maybe guilt. But also affection and sorrow that she’d be flying out of his life soon and she didn’t know it would be for the last time.
On his way to the foyer, he paused to kiss her cheek. “Say hi to Russell for me.”
“Try not to let Emma drive you crazy today.”
“Fat chance of that,” he said, grinning. Then he went off to get to Emma’s key ring before she got off the phone.
The bell rang as Cat walked into Walker Hardware and she smiled, anticipating the way he’d look up and see her and his face would light up with a warm smile.
He didn’t let her down. “Cat, I was just thinking about you.”
“Good thoughts, I hope.”
“Of course. I was debating on calling you and asking you to lunch, but I wasn’t sure if you’d have plans with Emma since…you’re leaving soon.”
Maybe she was imagining it, but she thought his smile might have dimmed a little when he mentioned her leaving. “They have to work today and then they’re taking tomorrow and Friday off. I came to invite you to lunch, actually.”
She met him at their usual café in town, where she ordered a salad and he told her he’d have the grilled chicken instead of the fried. “It would be a real shame if I went to hell in a handbasket now.”
They talked about the store and the liquidation sale. It wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped because the people in town weren’t too comfortable taking advantage of the bargain prices. “One of my regular customers said she felt as though she was picking at my carcass.”
Cat laughed. “That’s a horrible visual, but I think I understand what she meant by it. It’s nice that people care about how you feel in all this.”