“You didn’t, but I did.”
“Well, thank you.” He still hadn’t looked at her directly, and his tone was brusque. She stirred cream and sugar into the coffee while trying to think of how to bring up his nightmare. It was driving her crazy wondering who his mysterious her was.
“Eat,” he said, shoving a plate in front of her.
If he wanted her to forget his existence—which she thought was exactly what he was aiming for—then he needed to put on a shirt. “Aren’t you going to eat?” He stood with his back to the counter, leaning against it, his hands stuck into the front pocket of his jeans, his gaze fixed on her as if waiting for her to obey his every command. And wasn’t he just the sexiest thing ever in his shirtless, bad boy bossy mode?
“Ate already.”
Okay. That conversation was effectively shut down. Fine. She’d just go right to exactly what she wanted to know. “Last night, you said, ‘Please don’t hurt her.’ Who’s her?”
Caramel-colored eyes flared, then his gaze flicked from her to her cats, then to his dogs. “Apparently someone I can’t remember,” he said so quietly that she had to run his words through her head a second time to decipher them.
“You’re having nightmares about someone you can’t remember? Were you hurt or something?”
He lifted from the counter, his body expanding in a way that had her blinking her eyes in awe—and not just a little lust—and said, “I don’t know, all right! Eat your breakfast. I’ll be across the street if you need me.” With a hand signal to his dogs, he walked out with the two canines on his heels.
“What just happened?” she asked her cats, but none of them seemed to have an answer as all three were busy with their after-breakfast baths.
And the strange thing was, she wanted Cody more than ever. He was a wounded warrior, and whether he knew it or not, he needed her. So, how to make him see that? Unless there was a woman he loved so much that he still dreamed about her out there somewhere. Had he lost her somehow? If so, that would change everything.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
At his front door, Cody stopped and hung his head. Just because he was embarrassed that Riley had seen him lose it because of a nightmare didn’t make it okay for him to talk to her the way he had. The coffee and food he’d downed sat like a fat clump of dirt in his stomach.
He was an idiot. He let Sally and Pretty Girl into the house, told them to stay, then headed back to Riley’s. Not only was an apology in order, but he’d left Riley alone. As he stepped up to her front door, he heard a sound coming from the side of the house. When he went around the corner of her carport and saw her heading for her car, keys in hand, he blocked her with his body.
“Going somewhere?” he said.
Her nose smashed into his chest. “You need to put on a shirt.”
“Ah, but I don’t think you mean that.” He put his thumbs under her chin and lifted her face. “Look. I shouldn’t have stormed out like that, and I’m sorry. It’s just that—”
“That you’re having nightmares you don’t know what to do with, and it’s getting to you.”
It was exactly that and more. He tapped her nose. “Inside with you, sneaky girl.”
“Can I ask you a question, a personal one?”
He took her keys and opened the side door, following her into the house. “Might not answer, but fire away, darlin’.”
“Okay, here it is.” She huffed a breath as she stopped in the middle of the kitchen and faced him. “Is there someone in your life you love? If so, you need to tell me now.”
That was one he could truthfully answer. “There’s not.”
“Good. I was a little worried about that.”
He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Only a little?” The gold in her hazel eyes flared, and he gave in to the need to kiss her. When she sagged against him, he slipped an arm under her knees and picked her up.
“I guess I’m not going to work after all.”
“Guess not.”
“I was only going to spend an hour or two catching up on paperwork. Nothing physical.”
The woman couldn’t be trusted, and it was a good thing he’d been given a few days off so he could keep an eye on her. “You obviously need a keeper. Didn’t you listen to a word the doctor said? You rest until you see him again on Wednesday.”
He got her settled on the couch, swallowing a smile at her grumbling about not being an invalid. To keep her entertained, he played poker with her, which wasn’t easy when three cats thought the cards were things to play with. She didn’t ask again about his nightmare, but her question had him thinking. Had he seen something he shouldn’t have? It was maddening that he couldn’t remember, but he supposed that was why he was seeing a head doc, which reminded him that he hadn’t told Riley.