Then she flitted past him to the kitchen. Troy shook his head. Good thing he wasn’t the sensitive type, or he would be downright offended by her behavior. She was acting as if they hadn’t spent the night together, hadn’t made love, hadn’t touched. It was a damn good thing he wasn’t stupid enough to fall in love with the woman. A damn good thing, he thought, and felt a sharp discomfort in the left side of his chest, right behind his rib cage.
When she saw Troy lift his eyebrow in inquiry about the difference in his food and hers, Senada nodded. “I really have to limit the fat in my diet, not because of weight. I usually stick to cereal and fruit in the morning, sometimes a bagel.”
Troy dug into his scrambled eggs. “Do you have someone who helps you plan your meals?”
“A dietician.” She took a bite of her cereal.
“How often do you see your doctor?”
“Once a month.”
“What all do they want you to do?”
She’d been wondering when he would grill her, she thought as she ate her cereal. She would answer his questions, and then tell him to mind his business. “Test my blood at least twice a day and keep a record of the results. Take the insulin twice a day. Stick to the diet. Eat every four hours. Avoid getting injured. Exercise,” she added with a grimace. “And limit my chocolate intake.”
Troy paused. “That one was the worst, wasn’t it?”
She gave a half chuckle. “What makes you say that?”
He looked confused. “But that chocolate cupcake? Why were you eating it?”
“I negotiated for that chocolate cupcake. First chocolate I’d eaten in a month.”
Realization crossed his face. “And I ate it.” He grinned slowly. “It’s a wonder you didn’t kill me.”
“I considered it.”
He looked at her thoughtfully. “Why did you leave Chattanooga?”
Senada drank a sip of her milk. It was much easier discussing the physical aspects of her disease than the emotional, especially since she didn’t have all the answers yet herself. “I’m not totally sure. Finding out I had it freaked me out. They put me in the hospital for a few days to regulate my medication and educate me. I told Lisa I was going away. While I was in the hospital, I just didn’t see how I could go back to the status quo. Everything seemed as if it had been turned upside down. I thought of my mother and father. The only family I had left was my father, so I guess I was running to him. But once I got here, I came to my senses. My father is not the kind of man to run to in a crisis.”
“Because of how he handled your mother’s death,” Troy said.
“Because of how he didn’t handle it,” she corrected.
“Have you thought about going back to Tennessee?”
“No.” She didn’t pause. She glanced down at her empty bowl and wondered when she’d finished. “I have a lot of privacy here. If Lisa had known about the diabetes, she would have worried me to death. I couldn’t handle that. I’ve been on my own too long to have someone, even someone as sweet as Lisa, looking over my shoulder.”
“You really hate to depend on other people, don’t you?”
He made it sound as if something was wrong with her because of her independence. She lifted her chin. “I prefer to make my own way,” she told him. “In everything.”
He surprised her by slipping his fingers through hers. “But some things take two, Sin.”
She’d wondered when he would remind her of their breathtaking intimacy. She’d done her best not to think about it. Her feelings were too strong. “True, but I can do most things for myself. By myself.”
He tilted her chin up, compelling her to meet his gaze. “Why do I get the impression you’re running from me?”
Her heart tripped over itself. “I don’t know,” she hedged. “Why?”
“Because you’ve barely looked at me, and you haven’t touched me after we made the stars come out last night.”
“We had sex,” she said in a low voice.
“We made love,” he corrected.
“Troy,” Her chest felt achy. She looked away, tried to remove her hand from his, but he wouldn’t allow it. She cleared her throat. “We made love, and I want to thank you for being there for me last night. Last night was—” she sighed “—difficult for me. But what we did last night doesn’t mean you need to act differently toward me. I don’t expect things between us to change. You don’t need to feel like you’ve got to look after me.”
“So you expect me to go on as if we weren’t together last night,” he said.