“What are you doing here?” I asked, my throat and voice dry and scratchy. I had cried too many tears.
He cocked his head to the side. “You texted me. Said you needed me.”
I had done that. I blinked twice, as if having to force the memory to the forefront of my mind. But as soon as it hit, my shoulders sagged.
My chin trembled again and I nodded. “I did,” I said, as I began to cry again.
I didn’t take another step before Tyson was in front of me. He wrapped his arms tightly around me. “You okay?”
“No.” I shook my head, sniffing against the lapel of his suit. “I’m not.”
“Shh. Let’s get you to your room.” His firm grip on me, the softness in his voice…it was too much. My knees quivered and I collapsed into him, losing the remaining strength I had before I saw him.
“Shit,” he cursed and bent down. One of his hands went to my knees and then he hauled me to him, carrying me with one arm behind my back, the other beneath my legs. I burrowed into his chest, fisting his suit in my fingers. I didn’t say anything as he carried me through the hotel lobby, or when he adjusted his hold just enough to hit the button on the elevator for my floor.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered when the doors shut behind us.
“Nothing to be sorry about. I’m just glad you’re okay, I’ve been waiting here for hours.”
Hours. Had it been that long since I sent that text? I had no idea. Time passed by while I’d been lost on the riverfront but it didn’t matter.
Because I needed him—and he came.
He waited for me.
“I’ve been calling you like crazy,” he said as the elevator doors opened. “I was starting to freak the hell out when you didn’t answer your phone.”
“It’s in my purse,” I answered. “I think I turned it off.”
I shifted in his hold when we reached my door, signaling that he could put me down. Once on my feet, with his arm still wrapped around my back, I dug through my purse and grabbed my keycard. I inserted it into the lock with minimal problems and opened the door.
I stepped through it, knowing Tyson was following me, and just as I set my purse down on the table next to the door, I was swept back into his arms and once again being carried down a hall. I was too exhausted, too wrung dry to insist I could walk by myself. I didn’t want to. It felt good to be in Tyson’s arms and be cared for by him.
When we reached my bed, his arm at my back tightened as he bent down to pull down the covers. Then he placed me on the bed and I curled to my side, not wanting to take my eyes off him.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked and ran the back of his knuckles down the side of my face. His thumb wiped away my tears.
I shook my head, but murmured, “My mom.”
It was all I could say before I felt his hands at my ankles. He dropped my shoes on the floor, and shifted my body, lifting my hips while he removed my skirt. Then he pulled me to a sitting position so he could remove my top. I let him undress me like a rag doll, too exhausted to move my limbs. As he reached around to my back to remove my bra, my forehead fell to his shoulder. “I can get undressed,” I told him, even though he’d already done most of the work.
His hand grazed my back up to the nape of my neck. His lips pressed against my ear. “I want to take care of you.”
A shudder rolled through me as he laid me back down, disappearing for only a moment before he came back with a tank top I’d slept in before. He quickly slid it on me.
“Do you need to brush your teeth?”
I shook my head, no. “I’m too tired.”
He chuckled, and it made me smile. With another lift, I was in his arms, carried to the bathroom, and then gently set down on the vanity. I did nothing while he put toothpaste on my brush and handed it to me. Then he filled a cup with water and held up an empty one so I could spit in it.
“I feel foolish,” I admitted, once I’d spit and rinsed my mouth.
“Don’t. We all need someone to take care of us, and while you’re there for your mom and your family, I want to be the one you lean on.”
Another warm shiver rolled down my spine as he lifted me again.
Then I was back in my bed, curled to my side, but this time facing his side of the bed. I was too exhausted to open my eyes, but I reached out toward him when he pulled away.
“Don’t leave me.”
“I’m just getting undressed.”
“Okay,” I whispered, already feeling the darkness of sleep and emotional overload pulling me down.
Then he was back, lying down next to me and pulling me to him so my head was on his shoulder, his heartbeat to my ear. He placed my hand on his chest.
“Sleep well, Blue. I’ve got you.”
But I couldn’t respond to tell him thank you because I’d already fallen asleep.
—
I woke up with red, scratchy eyes and a cold bed next to me.
Blinking the haze of sleep away, I wondered briefly if I had dreamt everything that happened last night, but when I rolled over and saw a note propped up by my phone, which had been plugged into the charger, a grin pulled at my lips. With sleepy movements, I reached for the note and flipped it open. It took me a moment to focus my blurry eyes on the confident scratches of Tyson’s writing.
Bluejay—
Early meeting today and a busy week ahead. Sorry I couldn’t be there when you woke up. Call me if you need anything and I’ll be there.
Yours…always,
Blackbird
The immature smiley face after his equally immature nickname made me laugh. Even more immaturely, I pressed the note to my chest, clasping it with both hands. And like I did in high school, I sighed.
Because he loved me. His words might confuse me sometimes, but it was the actions that made the man.
Last night, Tyson showed me exactly the kind of man he was, and how he felt about me, barely saying a word.
It was enough for me.
With renewed confidence in my relationship, and knowing these next two days at work were going to be crazy with getting ready for Saturday night’s benefit, I slid out from beneath the warmth of the hotel’s bedsheets and showered.
The workday flew by. Simone and I spent the morning ensuring everything was now set to go for Saturday, confirming last minute RSVPs and changing the seating arrangements accordingly. I grimaced as I set my own name next to Malik’s at the head table. We’d be dining with the CEO of Ford, the president of Detroit’s largest bank, and two other CEOs of smaller companies, along with each of their wives or mistresses. My skin went cold just thinking about the influence Malik would have over these men, the shady dealings he probably already had with them. Being paraded around on his arm and joining him at dinner, like I was someone important to him, was the last way I wanted to spend Saturday evening.
We took a break for a Caesar salad lunch, eaten at the conference table in Simone’s office, but my stomach swirled with the thought of what lay ahead of me. I didn’t know why I thought it would be so easy to step out from under my father’s rule when I returned home. Pure naiveté, probably, and the fact that I hadn’t spoken to him in ten years. I’d forgotten how determined and stubborn he truly could be.
I had a few other stores where I wanted to look for furniture, boutique type places with more unique pieces than the large, traditional box stores that took me out closer to Latham Hills. Then I needed to go back and spend more time with my mom.
I didn’t want to.
I didn’t want to have another meltdown like I did last night, when I fell into Tyson’s arms afterward.
After I purchased and scheduled delivery for the living room furniture, light teal–painted and distressed tables and a coordinating gray-blue bookshelf along with a rug with hints of salmon that tied the colors together, I figured there was no harm in stopping by Tyson’s office on my way back home.
Perhaps he could stop for a quick bite to eat. I wanted to see his smile and feel his touch before I spent the rest of the night in a home I despised while losing one of the few people I cared about in this world.
His grandfather’s firm was easy to find. It was a small, nondescript two-story building just off Main Street. Based on memory, I knew it was close enough for Tyson to walk to work if he wanted to, and it was just three or four blocks down from the Fireside Grill.
I pulled into the small office parking lot and noticed Tyson’s black truck.
Unbidden, my pulse began to flutter just knowing that he was there.
Something happened last night when Tyson wrapped me in his arms, carried me, and held me all night long. He changed from being someone I wanted…to someone I needed. His strength, knowing he was here for me, knowing he was only a phone call away, helped me to know that whatever was going to come my way soon, I could bear it with him by my side.
The outside doors of the building opened to an octagonal rotunda with a winding staircase directly in the middle. The building wasn’t large by any means, but it was full of bright sunshine coming from a skylight. After a quick scan of the directory inside the door, I headed to my right and found Tyson’s office on the main floor. I opened the door and was assaulted by a familiar scent that had nothing to do with Tyson.
When we dated when we were younger, I was invited to several gatherings at his family’s house for holiday dinners and special occasions. There was absolutely nothing that could ever make me forget the smell of his grandmother’s perfume. When I heard a feminine gasp come from my left, I already knew who I was going to see when I turned. I came face-to-face with a woman who had held me in her arms and pressed her lips to my cheeks many times.