Page 105 of You First
She asked one of her own. “What am I going to do?”
Brooke reached out and took both of her hands. “You’re going to do what you should have done a long time ago. Leave.”
“And go where?”
“Let’s go back to my house. I think I found us a place, but they’re painting it, and we won’t be able to move for two weeks.”
Just a few days after Gray’s surgery. A chill passed over her. Would he still be with her? Meredith looked at her phone. It was now after midnight. Thursday morning. That left only eleven days. And if eleven days was all she had…
“I want to go to Gray’s.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
GRAY STOOD INthe doorway of his bedroom and watched Meredith in the dim dawn light. She slept curled around her young son. Oscar had barely opened his eyes when they’d arrived near one in the morning. At first, Meredith had put up a fight when he offered up his own bed, but she’d finally listened to reason when she remembered that his mother was staying in the guestroom, and it would be easier for everyone if Gray slept on the couch in the living room.
The sounds of their arrival had drawn his mother downstairs, and he’d glimpsed her wide-eyed surprise at his full kitchen. Through her eyes, the scene must have seemed pretty surreal: Meredith, her toddler, her best friend Brooke, and Brooke’s boyfriend Rajan. Judging by the look on her face, this midnight invasion of guests was the last thing Dahlia Blakewood had ever expected to see at his house, but a moment after she took it all in, his mom assumed her usual sense of grace and offered to make hot chocolate for everyone.
After Meredith had settled Oscar in his bed, and after her friends left and his mother went back upstairs, she’d told him about the attack.
“I want blood,” he’d said. As a crime writer, he’d dreamt up dozens of ways to commit murder, but he’d never hungered to do it himself until then.
“I want to be held,” she’d countered. And so he’d held her. It calmed him as much as it soothed her. She told him, too, about how she’d been living. And she’d cried with shame when she told him how much she’d allowed Jamie to take from her.
And Gray had promised all the things he could promise. That Meredith never had to see that raping dick-fiend ever again; he’d have André file for a restraining order to make it official. That she and Oscar could stay with him as long as she wanted, but if she wanted a place of her own, she could come and go as she liked. Always.
He didn’t tell her that she’d be looked after, no matter what happened to him, but knowing this was true — that he’d already set this plan in motion — gave him a sense of relief like he’d never known. She would never have to rely on Jamie or his family again.
Still, Gray had to take half an Oxy to even think about sleeping after he’d kissed her goodnight and stretched out on his couch. His head hurt, of course, and his eyes were still a mess, but his real distress came from the thought of Meredith in the hands of that fucker. It was faint, but she bore a red mark just above her lip, and the flesh there was a little swollen. He saw, too, the bruising on her arm, and he had to remind himself that a blow to the head might kill him, and then what good would he be to her? So it was best to leave Jamie McCormick alone for a little longer.
Even with the painkiller, he was up before Meredith, and no wonder. She probably needed to sleep for days. He hated the thought of waking her, but she’d insisted on going to class. Gray and his mother would watch Oscar, and Dahlia Blakewood was already up, dressed, and preparing a massive breakfast at the prospect.
So it was time to wake Meredith. Gray crossed the room and sat beside her. He brought his hand to her cheek, brushing away the dark locks that fell across her face.
At his touch, Meredith awoke with a start. Her eyes were wide with panic until she focused on him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, backing up and giving her space. After what she’d been through, he should have known better than to touch her while she slept.
“No,” she whispered, reaching for his hand and clasping it. “It’s all right. For a moment, I thought I was…there.”
He squeezed her hand. “You’re here. And you’re safe. And my mother is making a comically large breakfast,” he whispered back, making her smile.
“Okay.” She nodded, but then she glanced at Oscar sleeping on the other side of her. “I’d better wake him up alone. He’ll probably be really confused.”
“Got it,” Gray said, rising to his feet.
She held his hand as he stood, and then she made his day by bringing it to her lips. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Don’t thank me,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re here. That’s what I want.”
The look in her eyes made him want a lot more, but he slipped out of the room. In the kitchen, his mother fussed over buttering biscuits while bacon sizzled on the stove.
“That smells amazing, Mom.” He came around the island and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Thank you.”
She smiled and held his gaze for a moment. “She must mean a great deal to you,” she said quietly, her hazel eyes bright with interest and her slim brow arching. “Taking her and a baby in like this? Into your quiet, well-ordered home?”
He heard a teasing note in her voice, but she wasn’t simply teasing. Dahlia Blakewood was fishing.
“I’m not taking them in,” Gray said, snatching a buttered biscuit from the pile on the plate. “Meredith is getting her own place in a couple of weeks. Until then, I want her here.”
