Chapter 26
Leesa
‘I’m in a hospital gown covered in yoghurt and you’re suggesting we have sex?’
His throat worked in a convulsive swallow. ‘Not now.’
‘Clearly.’ My voice came out on a squeak. He’d assured me – with uncharacteristic vehemence – that this wasn’t a prank, but I was still certain this couldn’t actually be happening.
‘Take it easy, Kubicka,’ he said drily in response. ‘You’re not going to vomit, are you?’
‘What? No.’
His laugh was deep and chesty. ‘I wasn’t going to ask you to marry me. I just thought we could have a… good time, that’s all.’
Apparently, I needn’t have worried about his pride.
‘I don’t…’ Have a good time? Luckily, I cut myself off before I could finish that sentence.
‘I’m more of a… relationship gal.’ Yikes, that made me sound like real fun.
But since when did I care what Colin thought of me?
‘Too much thinking makes that… sort of thing…’
‘I should just go,’ he responded – predictably – with a tight smile, getting to his feet. ‘I didn’t mean to make a dick out of myself. Of course this is just… I don’t know. Old times or something.’
Old times had not been like this between us.
‘I’m…’ He sighed and peered at me again from under his lashes and whump, the strength of my reaction to those baby blues got my heart racing again. ‘I’ll see you… I mean, good luck.’
Lifting a hand in a wordless farewell, he reached for the handle of my hospital-room door and turned it.
Time seemed to spool forward too quickly – the yawning future without cycling, without any Gallaghers.
Flashes of memory – from today and years earlier – played behind my eyes and this moment seemed to detach from time and create its own life.
And then he was gone.