Page 61 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
13
Jada was almost feeling human.The fact that Gideon had gone out three days ago and bought her an iPad might have something to do with it, but she didn’t care what it took, she was just glad she was feeling better. Thank God, horse hooves no longer clattered through her head. Another plus was that her brother Ricky had grabbed some things she’d needed from her apartment, which included her secret computer. He’d overnighted it all to her. Ricky was the most laid back of the Harlow brothers; he knew that eventually she’d tell him what the deal was, and he trusted that she could take care of herself, so he hadn’t asked questions, he just did her a solid.
Then there was the fact that she and Gideon had come to some sort of detente. They didn’t talk it through, but somehow they both knew not to discuss anything personal and keep everything focused on Risk Guard and figuring out where Miles and Psycho Sister were hiding.
Okay, so Gideonhadtried to bring up personal shit a couple of times, but she’d shut him down, and he’d allowed it. The fact that he’d been at work for the last four days really helped.
Cuddling into the corner of the most comfortable couch in the world, Jada picked up her phone and made a facetime call to Gianna. She grinned when her friend answered it on the first ring, but frowned when she realized she’d only picked up the audio portion of the call.
“Thank God you called, I’m going bat guano crazy staying in bed. I swear, Sebastian has implanted some kind of tracking device inside me that tells him if I’ve moved two feet from the bed. He comes into the room like the hounds of hell are after him as soon as I make a move.”
Jada snickered. “That sounds about right.”
“It’s not funny,” Gianna wailed.
“Yes, it is.”
“Sebastian is running himself ragged trying to be the perfect husband to me, and the perfect father to Neil. He isn’t taking any downtime. He hasn’t slept more than three hours at a time since they told us I needed to be on total bedrest.”
“So, it’s back to the good old days like when you first brought Neil Gideon back from the hospital,” Jada laughed.
“No, it isn’t. It’s something else entirely.”
Jada heard something in her friend’s voice, and it wasn’t just exasperation. She sounded sad.
“What’s going on?” Jada probed.
“I’m not sure.”
“But you’ve got an idea, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Gianna admitted in a whisper.
“Tell me.” Jada winced when she realized those were the same words that Gideon had used on her.
“Sebastian refuses to sleep with me. He’s sleeping in the guest room.”
“What?” Jada was appalled.
“He says it’s because he has to get up in the middle of the night to check on Neil and doesn’t want to wake me. But that’s bullshit.” Jada was surprised when her friend used a curse word. That washerbad habit, not Gianna’s.
“Why is that bad? That seems considerate to me.”
Kind of.
“It’s ridiculous. We have the baby monitor, so if Neil cries we’d hear him. But he doesn’t cry during the night anymore, he sleeps all the way through like a champ. Unless he has the croup or something…” The last few words faded away and Jada could swear she heard Gianna start to cry.
“Gianna—”
“Don’t worry, Jada, I’m not expecting you to be able to make me feel better,” Gianna said in a wobbly voice.
“Honey, you have to ask him what’s going on,” Jada said softly.
“I can’t. I just can’t. What happens if he tells me our marriage isn’t working anymore?”
“You’re out of your mind,” Jada scoffed. “He thinks the sun rises and the moon sets according to your smiles. Remember, I was just at your house for two weeks a month ago. There is no way the devotion I saw suddenly went up in smoke.”
“But ever since they put me on total bedrest, it’s like he can’t look me in the face. The three kisses we’ve had since then, I’ve had to initiate, and that’s after I had to ask for the hug. How pathetic is that? I’ve had to ask for hugs from my own husband.”
