Chapter 13
Chapter thirteen
Thea
The café had enjoyed a particularly busy day, and Thea was exhausted.
The bell over the door rang, and she took a deep breath. She needed to go back out there and greet her last customer of the day.
But then Nat came around the corner.
She breathed a sigh of relief and slumped over onto the kitchen counter, resting her head against her forearms.
“Long day?” he asked, coming around the counter and setting a vase next to her.
“Very,” she said quietly, lifting her head to look at them.
Daisies. One of her favorites. Which he knew.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help,” he said, reaching over to rest his hand against her shoulder.
She leaned over, allowing herself to rest her head against his shoulder for the first time in years.
She could hear his breath catch in his throat, even as his arm slid down to wrap around her waist, pulling her closer.
He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead, resting his cheek on her temple.
She took a deep breath.
This was it. What she’d been missing for so long.
Him. Them. Together.
The silence was broken by Ginger meowing as she came over to investigate. Thea looked down at the orange cat rubbing against Nathaniel’s leg, smiling at Ginger’s insistence that Nat pet her.
“Hey, kit,” he said, waiting for Thea to reclaim her own balance before reaching down to pet her.
Thea let out a deep sigh. What was it about being here with him that let her relax so completely? “I need to finish cleaning,” she said, shifting her weight as if to walk away from him, but he caught her waist and pulled her back.
“Just wait a moment,” he murmured. “You need to let yourself rest occasionally.”
His hands slid up her back to grip her shoulders, and Thea smiled in anticipation of what was coming next. “May I?” he asked.
Thea melted into his touch as he began massaging her shoulders.
“How did you know I needed that?” she asked as he began working through all the sore spots.
“Because you always carry your stress right here,” he said as his fingers pushed into the sore spot in her shoulder.
“Ow,” she said, cringing under his touch—not because she didn’t want it, but because it was blissfully painful.
“I wondered if that had changed,” he admitted with a chuckle.
“It didn’t,” she admitted, “unfortunately. I’ve missed you helping me with it, though.”
There had been more days than she wanted to think of where her ability to work had been impeded by the knot in her shoulder preventing her from moving well.
“I will help you with it for as long as you want,” he said gently, his fingers stopping their probing and beginning to rub soothing circles along her back. “I never stopped loving you, Thea—even when you were ignoring me and pretending you hated me.”