Page 106 of Timid (Lark Cove 2)

I was delirious as he fell to my side, pulling me over his chest to hold me while we regained our breath.

“I missed you.” It was the third time he’d told me tonight.

“I’m right here.”

“I know.” He sighed. “We just haven’t had this for a while. Just me and you.”

I softly kissed his chest. “It will get easier.”

“Yeah.” He hugged me tight before letting me go to use the bathroom and clean up. When I came back out to the bedroom, he’d climbed beneath the covers. Normally, he always tugged the quilt down so it wouldn’t get messy, but we’d been in such a hurry tonight, he’d forgotten.

I climbed into bed, snuggling my naked little spoon into his naked big spoon.

As I closed my eyes, a rush of pity for Hannah and June hit, not because I’d snapped at them, but because they didn’t have this. They might get the sex, but they were missing this part. They were missing the love.

Jackson’s breathing began to draw out, his body not far from sleep. So before he could conk out, I whispered his name.

“Hmm?”

I took a deep breath. “Do you love me?”

His arms around me jerked and his body stilled.

My eyes shot open, staring at the nightstand as I waited for a response.

It wasn’t the one I wanted.

Jackson relaxed his arms and kissed my hair. “Get some sleep, babe.”

“We haven’t had lunch together here in a long time,” Dad said.

“No, we haven’t.” I smiled.

The last time I remembered coming to the school to eat lunch in his classroom was when I’d gotten my job as director at the camp. I’d made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then come down to surprise him with the good news.

Just like then, he was on his side of his tall desk, I was on the other. In the corner was the same periodic chart t

hat had been there for decades. The cabinets at the back of the room were full of beakers and Bunsen burners. Above us was a replica of the solar system I’d helped him make a few summers ago.

“Remember in high school when you’d come here on Thursdays to eat with me?”

I nodded. “Best lunch day of the week.”

I’d ditch my friends in the cafeteria to come and eat with Dad. Once, a kid in my gym class had made a snide comment about it, calling me a daddy’s girl. I’d just shrugged and walked away because it was true. I was a daddy’s girl. Spending forty-five minutes in his classroom had never been an embarrassment.

Most of those lunches, Dad and I would talk about my homework or my friends. If something was bothering me, his classroom was my escape.

Like today.

“Is there something wrong, honey?”

I swallowed a bite of my sandwich and chased it down with a swig of Coke. “No,” I lied.

He frowned. “Willa.”

“It’s nothing.” I was lying to myself too.

The last two weeks had been miserable. Ever since I’d asked Jackson if he loved me, things between us had been off-kilter.