“I know,” she whispered. “I’m just not used to being out of control.”
Jeff let out a quiet laugh. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m not much of a fan of it myself.”
“I’ve been taking care of myself since I was sixteen. I don’t like...help. I don’t like...needing things from other people. It makes me feel...trapped.”
Her voice broke the smallest extent on that last word, twisting something deep in his chest.
Leaning back just far enough to catch the side of her face and bring it up so she was looking into his eyes, he promised, “Don’t. Don’t feel that way about this. About being here. About anything.”
Their eyes were locked. Hers so vulnerable as she looked up at him, it made him ache to make it better. Made him ache to give her back all the things he’d seen in those eyes before. Steel, mirth, resolve, confidence...heat.
Hell.
Scratch that last. He didn’t want to think about what she’d looked like when it was heat filling her eyes. Desire. Need.
Not when she was standing within the circle of his arms as he told her everything was going to be fine. When she needed reassurance. Not the muscle memory of some residual attraction she wouldn’t be able to ignore springing to life between them.
But, she was so soft and warm and lush and...all the things he didn’t want to notice. Shouldn’t remember about the last time he felt her against his body, beneath his fingertips.
Setting her back a step, he walked to the door, not meeting her eyes as he spoke over his shoulder. “Why don’t you take a few minutes and then meet us downstairs? Get that tour underway.”
* * *
It wasn’t as though Darcy had thought Jeff would be moving in, too. She’d known he was simply dropping her off and then returning to the life he led in the city. They weren’t together. They weren’t a team. They weren’t going to get through all this together.
They were two people, who were going to be sharing a child.
She understood it and had every intention of adhering to those mutually agreed upon limits.
It was just that in a day filled with so much uncertainty and upheaval, he’d made her feel safe. A little less alone.
And for a few minutes, she’d clung to that.
But now, Jeff was leaning in to kiss his mother’s cheek. He’d already made certain Darcy had a list of two dozen phone numbers to use in case of emergency. And after a moment’s hesitation when he didn’t seem sure of whether to hug her or pat her arm, he leaned in and kissed her cheek, too. And then he left.
And Darcy stood staring at the closed door he’d walked out of, next to a woman she didn’t know, in a house she didn’t belong in.
Gail rested a hand at her elbow, offering a sympathetic look. “Are you all right with Jeffery gone?”
“I’ll be fine. Honestly.” It was so difficult to know what to say, circumstances being what they were. But meeting Gail’s eyes she got the sense Jeff’s mother was someone who appreciated the truth. “We hardly know each other.”
Gail looked toward the door. “Give it time. You’ll get to know each other, and figure out how exactly you fit into each other’s lives.”