Page 93 of Only You

Kayla switched off the dryer and reached for a towel at the same time. In her haste, the towel fell onto the floor, and she looked down at it with dismay. Jack quickly picked up the towel and handed it to her. Kayla hurriedly wrapped it around herself and tucked it in over her breasts.

“What the hell, Jack? You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry.” It was all he could manage at the moment.

“What are you doing home? Did you get my message?” Kayla asked.

“What message?”

She scowled. “You didn’t see it? Where’s your phone?”

Jack pulled it out of his pocket and opened the messaging app. He read her text and sighed. “I must have been on the phone with Ryan when you sent this.”

“Ryan? I thought you had a meeting.”

“It got cancelled.”

“Oh.”

She sounded disappointed. Was it because he’d come home, hadn’t answered her text, or both? “I would have come home sooner, but I got the impression you didn’t want me here,” Jack said.

“I’m sorry about how I acted earlier. I was feeling—I don’t know— discombobulated.”

“Let’s sit down and talk,” Jack suggested.

She glanced down at the towel.

“You can get dressed first, if you want to,” he added.

“Like you said before, it’s nothing you haven’t already seen.”

Jack’s lips twitched, but he couldn’t smile fully until he knew she was okay. He walked over to the bed. “Is here okay, or do you want to go into the living room?”

She shook her head. “With our luck, your parents will pop over, and they don’t need to see me in a towel.”

Jack remembered the last time his mom had interrupted them. “They’d probably take it as a good sign that our relationship is flourishing.”

Kayla gave him a brief smile as she went and sat on the edge of the bed.

Jack joined her, keeping some space between them. “I think I know what’s bothering you.”

Kayla raised her eyebrows but didn’t speak.

“What we did last night wasn’t just sex to me,” he began.

“Jack.”

“Please, hear me out.”

She slowly nodded.

“The sex was great, but it was so much more than that. I haven’t felt that close to someone in a long time.” Maybe ever.

“We were both in a dry spell,” she said lightly.

He shook his head. “If that’s all it was, I should feel content right now, but I don’t.”

Kayla furrowed her eyebrows as he continued.