Page 70 of You First
Gray wanted to protest, but he held back. This was the sort of thing she was supposed to be doing. Technically.
“Thank you,” he said, and when Bax turned to make his way around the island, Gray followed. But he let his fingers brush across her elbow, and he heard the soft gasp it drew from her.
It was the last thrill he managed to win because Meredith took her coffee across the island from both of them and avoided meeting his gaze. Which may have been a good thing, since he couldn’t stop ogling her. But he did nail down the fact that she would come back to his house later that afternoon — after she’d finished with class and had a chance to go home and spend some time with Oscar.
An hour later, he held onto that promise as he lay immobile in the white coffin of the MRI machine, the deafening beat of the scanner perforating his sanity. He shut his eyes and called up the taste of her lips and the press of her sleeping body against his.
The heat of her blush and the way she smiled for him.
The rush of her breath at his touch.
If something that good could happen in his life, maybe there was hope for him yet.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“WHY DO YOUhave to go back? You were there all night?” Jamie filled the doorway of their bedroom and glared down at her. She and Oscar had been playing on the floor with his Tobble blocks when Jamie came home and launched his attack. At his tone, Oscar stopped stacking and looked up at his father.
“Because. It’s my job.” Meredith managed to keep her voice steady, even though there was so much more to the truth.
“Your job shouldn’t keep you away from our son morning, noon, and night,” Jamie hissed. “Do you know how much he cried when you weren’t here to take him for a walk today?”
Guilt socked her in the stomach, but she tried to keep an even expression. Oscar wasn’t yet two. Some mornings, he fussed and cried even when theydidgo for a walk. Jamie probably just resented having to deal with it.
“Well, didyoutake him?” she fired back, and she saw at once that her aim was true.
Jamie’s look of stunned surprise flashed over his face before he recovered with a sneer. “I’m not gonna stuff a crying kid in a stroller and take him howling down the street at six-thirty in the morning.”
“Daddy yelling,” Oscar whined, dropping his block and covering his ears.
Meredith shot Jamie an icy glare as she pulled Oscar into her lap.“Stop it. You’re scaring him,”she mouthed over her baby’s head.
“It’s okay, baby. Daddy’s just cranky.”
Jamie flared his nostrils and pulled the corners of his mouth down in mockery.“Stop it. You’re scaring him,”he mouthed back grotesquely, cocking his head from side to side.
“That’sreallyattractive,” she deadpanned. “Also, mature.”
“What’s going on in there?” Leona’s voice carried down the hall. Her footsteps clicked toward them a moment later, and when she stepped into view, everything fell into place. Her short hair was freshly colored and teased into golden, feathery curls. Meredith understood at once that Leona had been to the hairdresser’s that morning, leaving Jamie to take care of his son by himself.
Any trace of guilt Meredith carried turned to ash and blew away. Without another word, she scooped up Oscar and moved past both McCormicks.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Leona sing-songed.
Without pausing, Meredith answered. “I’m taking my son for a walk since his father wouldn’t do it this morning.”
“And why should he?” Leona countered, hard on Meredith’s heels. “My God, doesn’t he deserve some rest after breaking his back offshore for three solid weeks?”
Despite her words, Leona’s voice was deceptively soft so she wouldn’t upset Oscar, but there was no mistaking the tone of judgment and censure intended for Meredith. She found herself grinding her teeth.
“And while he’s offshore, he works a twelve-hour shift. Which means he has another twelve hours to do nothing but eat, sleep, and watch porn.”
Leona’s scandalized gasp echoed through the hallway. Behind her, Jamie had the nerve to snicker.
“How dare you say that in front of my grandbaby?”
“Jesus, Leona, he doesn’t know what it is— yet.But he will as soon as he picks up his daddy’s phone.”
“Well…” She exhaled, obviously trying to control her temper in front of Oscar. “If you would let Jamie make an honest woman out of you — like he wants to — he might not have to resort to that sort of thing.”
