As hard as it was, as much as it hurt, Sloan agreed.
“You tell Aaron I have the couch made up for him downstairs if he still wants it. He was worried about you. Wanted to spend the night to make sure you were okay. Guess he won’t need to now.” Her mom’s eyes twinkled, and Sloan saw the subtle change from Mr. ICU to Mr. Hunter and Sloan’s feelings for him. Were they that obvious?
“I’ll tell him. Thanks.”
When her mom was almost to the stairs, Sloan ran to her and pulled her into a bear hug. Before letting her go, she kissed her cheek. “Love you, Mama.”
“I love you too, baby,” her mom answered with a concerned look. Oh great. Sloan feared she’d let her mom know about how worried she was. After a second’s hesitation, her mom smiled. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” Sloan said as her mom descended the stairs to the living room.
Hearing footsteps on the wood floor downstairs, Sloan ran back to the bathroom door and knocked. “She’s gone,” she whispered.
“Good to know.” Aaron opened the door with the two roses in his hand. “Didn’t want her seeing these. Would make my whole lie into a… well, lie.”
“Can’t have that.” Sloan sighed. She turned and went toward her room with Aaron a few paces behind her.
She went to her bed and sat down. “My mom said you could still sleep on the couch if you wanted.” She heard the click of the door behind her, and she looked up. “She said you were worried.”
“I was.” Aaron looked nervous as he walked toward her bed. She’d never seen Aaron nervous before. It was sort of fun. Mr. Calm Cool and Collected now was Mr. Nerves. He sat down at the foot of the bed, way away from Sloan. She appreciated the space. It had been a horrible night. Some stranger — or actually, someone she knew — had been in her house, in her bathroom while she was showering and had left roses, and she’d had to lie to her mother to protect her. All she wanted was her bed and a good night’s sleep.
“I didn’t want to end it that way. The way I left. I was acting like a…”
“Jerk.” She finished for him.
“I was going to say hothead,” he corrected with a grin.
“I think jerk fits better.” She laughed. It felt good to laugh. Normal. Man, she missed normal.
“Maybe. But you wouldn’t listen to me. Sure, I might have entertained the thought that you might have had something to do with the roses and cards, but just entertained. I didn’t actually believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Why?”
Aaron slid closer to her. Not too close, though. Still not in touching distance, but close enough to make her breath catch. “Isn’t it obvious?”
She swallowed hard. “What do you want?”
He inched close enough to touch her knee. His voice was low, husky. “You.”
Sloan tried but couldn’t find the words to say to that. Truthfully, she wanted him too. She wanted him to take her and kiss her and make everything all better.
But…
“I want to make you feel better.” Aaron rubbed his thumb over her jawline. “I want to protect you. I want to do all these cliché things that I shouldn’t want to do, but I do. I can’t help it. I like you, Sloan. I have for a while.”
She finally found her voice. “Are you letting your intentions be known?” She grinned, her heart pounding like a humming bird.
“Maybe.” He leaned forward. She opened her mouth, expecting his lips to touch hers any second. Instead, he kissed the tip of her nose. “But for now, you need sleep. We can talk about it more when this all blows over.”
Aaron was right. Didn’t mean it hurt less, though. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“You can hold me anyway you want.” He grinned slyly. “Man, I sound like a goober.”
“I like it.” She smiled back, despite herself. Aaron was the one good thing that had come out of this crazy ICU stuff. Now she knew Ray had understood. He’d said as much on their front porch. She could relax and just enjoy being with Aaron, as much as one could enjoy being with Aaron.
He fluffed a pillow and propped it up against the headboard. He hit it a few times to get it just right and settled against it.
She eyeballed him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Protecting you.” He shrugged.
“Uh-huh,” Sloan replied sarcastically. “My mother won’t let you stay.”
Aaron grinned. “She will if she finds out a serial stalker is still threatening you. That he got in your house without anyone knowing it. I bet she’d love to have me around then.”
Her face fell. “You wouldn’t.”
With a self-satisfied smirk, Aaron propped his hands behind his head. “Wouldn’t I?”
Yes. Yes he would. With a huff, she rolled over on her side and tried to get comfortable. She found it rather difficult with Aaron being inches from her. That and the scary stalker out there somewhere.
“How did he get in my bathroom?” she asked finally when she couldn’t fall asleep.