Chapter Forty Eight
Reid
“I came here to give you a break,” I say, sitting back down on the bed with her after getting Chloe settled back down. “I know this hasn’t been easy. But you need to give yourself a little more credit. You are doing so much and deserve some time to yourself.”
She silently nods, sipping her water. I bend over to open my bag on the floor. Pulling out a bouquet of flowers and an envelope, I stand back up to hand it to her, as she gives me a puzzled look.
“What’s this?” Caroline asks, setting her water glass on the nightstand and reaching out to grab the items.
“A gift card to The Village Spa. Take the day off - go get a pedicure, get a fun drink, do what you need to.”
“Reid, thank you so much!” She exclaims, putting the card on the duvet next to her and throwing her arms around my neck. “I’m so sorry I snapped at you, you don’t deserve that.”
“It happens to the best of us. I just want you to know that I appreciate you and think you need to be more gentle with yourself. Okay?” She nods again with a tear filled smile. I start to get up to go tend to Chloe again, but she grabs my hand and pulls me back down.
I look back at her silent expression, as she quietly says “I love you.” And I can see in her eyes that she truly means it.
A warmth spreads over my face. I don’t think I realized how badly I needed to hear that. I’ve known I’ve loved Caroline for a long time, and deep down I think I knew she has too. But we were comfortable with where we had finally gotten and were both too scared to screw this up again.
“I love you too, Caroline.” I smile back, bending down to kiss her. “More than you know.”
∞∞∞
After Caroline left, I wasn’t sure if I was excited to spend some solo time with Chloe or terrified of how this day was going to go. But we would figure it out, right?
Chloe was starting to grow a bit more personality and was less of a little potato these days. I got her dressed in a little strawberry matching set and snapped a pic to Caroline to assure her that we were doing just fine and not to worry about us.
It was a beautiful day out so I decided to bring her outside with me for some yard work.
I buckled her in the stroller, drawing the shade over her face and took her for a quick walk through the garden.
Spring was finally starting to warm up, the flowers were beginning to bloom and the sun was shining while birds chirped all around.
Before I knew it, she was back to sleep.
Parking the stroller under a shady tree and opening Spotify on my phone, I turned on some Luke Combs to play in the background while pulling some weeds. It’s not even fifteen minutes later before the music is interrupted by a phone call. I head over to see who it is. Caroline, of course.
Pulling my gloves off to answer, I say “Hello sweetheart.”
“Hey, how’s it going over there?” She sounds worried.
“Everything’s fine, we’re just getting some fresh air and she’s snoozing in the stroller now,” I assure her.
“Okay, just wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything.”
“We’re fine, seriously. Go relax and enjoy your day! I’ll hold down the fort over here.” I hear Chloe start to stir and whine, about to blow my cover and stress us both out. “Get back to your pedicure, I’ll see you tonight!”
I hang up, not giving her another moment to object and offer to come back home.