Page 9 of Love Me Like You Do
He guessed when your Aunt was born and bred and a favored member of a small town you were greeted with acceptance and interest—like family.
Since that first day he’d felt at home. It helped that some of the kids—now adults—he’d hung out with in his misspent youth still lived here. Dylan still lived in the house next door. Which was how he’d gotten home seeing how the minute they’d returned from the fire yesterday evening he’d called Lance from Pine Tree Auto Repair to come and tow Cov’s death-trap of a car to the shop.
Lance had left with the directive to go from bumper to bumper, tires to roof and write down everything wrong with the old Chevy. No sugar coating either.
Tristan wanted to know if the car was salvageable or if he should start looking for something more appropriate—safe—for a future mother.
Reaching the house, he started with the doormat then moved onto the flowerpots lining the porch in search of a key.
Perhaps he should give Cov his truck. It had a dual cab and four-wheel drive and had one of the top safety ratings in the country. Perfect for navigating mountain roads.
“Hey.”
Glancing up he found Cov standing in the doorway. Waiting.
Jesus, he could get used to that sight.
Especially when she was bundled up in one of his old fire department sweatshirts and a pair of his work socks. The shirt was long on her and she’d pulled the socks up to her knees so only a few inches of her dance leggings showed between the two.
Smiling, he moved back to the door. “Didn’t want to ring the bell in case you were sleeping.”
She frowned. “It’s almost midday.”
“Is it?” They’d had a call that took them into change of shift but he hadn’t realized it had gotten that late.
Fidgeting on her feet and wringing her hands, both nervous actions he hadn’t seen in her before, she asked, “Are you hungry? I could make you something. I hope it’s okay I helped myself to some of your food.”
“Cov, baby, what’s mine is yours. And while I should probably eat, I’m in more need of a shower and sleep. I’ll take a rain check though.”
“Oh. Right.” She jumped back, made room for him to enter the house. “It’s your house and I’ve kept you out on the doorstep.”
He walked inside, chucking at the fact they’d been having a conversation while he stood outside his front door. Shaking his head, he turned toward his room.
“Um…”
When she didn’t continue he glanced over his shoulder and saw she was shuffling her feet and twisting her hands again. “What?”
“I had to, um, sleep…there’s only one bed…” She shrugged.
“Oh, yeah. I cleared out all the old furniture when my stuff got here. I haven’t set up the other bedrooms yet.”
Filling the three-bedroom cottage had been the last thing on his to-do list after his furniture had been delivered. He probably should have kept some of what was in the house when he arrived, but Tris couldn’t stand the thought of using what strangers had used. And he’d yet to go through the shed out back where his Aunt’s stuff was stored.
“Tris…”
“Give me a few minutes to shower. We’ll talk before I catch some Z’s.”
Cov nodded. “Okay. Sure.” She looked away. “I’ll just…make a list of what I ate.”
“Don’t do that. Jesus.” He didn’t understand why she was so anxious with him; they’d never been on eggshells around each other but right now Cov looked as though she’d shatter if he said boo. “Just put your feet up. I’ll be two minutes, tops.”
“I should replace—”
“No. You shouldn’t.”
Before she could come up with another argument or something else to delay his shower he strode down the hall and into the bathroom.
He knew they had things to discuss. Firstly, what she was doing here, why had she come to him? Then he wanted to know who’d knocked her up and left her to deal with the baby alone.
