She laughed. “It does,” she murmured. “It does, indeed. So, you just hope that you can do the best you can do and that, at one point in time, this will all come out in the wash and be okay again.”
“But, in the meantime,” he added, “there’s not a whole lot you can do.”
“Exactly.” She smiled and asked him, “So what do you want me to do to help you with dinner?”
He stared at her for a long moment, muttered under his breath, then turned back to his curry. “How about you set thetable? That should keep you out of trouble for at least five minutes.”
And for five minutes it did. After dinner they went for a walk and then sat outside on his balcony, with a bottle of wine.
She took a sip, relaxed into her lounger, and said, “I brought my work and running clothes for tomorrow, I think I’ll go for a run first. The workout tonight was good, but I’m feeling rusty.”
“Sounds good. I’ll go with you.” As he got up to pour more wine, his knee joint gave way, and he swore as he caught himself.
She looked at his knee and frowned. “How long has that been a problem?”
“For years,” he replied. “It’s fine, and then it’s not so fine. It’s one of the reasons I used to run and why I haven’t done a whole lot of it lately.”
“Makes sense. I don’t want you running with me tomorrow. You know that, right?”
“It’ll be fine,” he said dismissively.
“Nope,” she disagreed. “I don’t want anything to mess up our plans for tomorrow.”
He laughed at that. “So, now this will mess up our day?” he asked in astonishment.
She shrugged. “Feels like it.”
He smirked. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
“Good enough,” she agreed, then kissed him gently. “Just looking after you too.”
“I’m fine,” he repeated.
“No,” she countered. “If I’ve got to look after me, then you’ve got to look after you.”
He laughed, grabbed her in his arms, and said, “Deal.”
Chapter 15
Saturday Morning
Kate woke earlyin the morning and stretched—her muscles, her body, all still humming from the lovemaking of the night before. Something was absolutely wonderful about rolling over to see him, tucked up against her. Something comforting, something about being at home. She knew that other people would think she was crazy, but that’s what it felt like, like her heart had finally found a resting place. And wasn’t that a whole lot of romantic garbage?
Sighing, she slipped out from underneath his arms, but he grabbed her tight and pulled her back again.
She chuckled. “Let me go.”
He murmured. “As long as you’re not going running.”
“Nope, have to go to the bathroom.”
His hold immediately eased back, and she slipped out of bed and headed to the bathroom. After using the facilities, she looked over at the bed, checking that Simon was asleep, then quietly grabbed her clothes from her bag and quickly changed into her running gear. If he knew, he’d be pissed, but she was willing to let him be pissed about some things. She’d seen that knee slip out from under him last night.
He needed to do some rehab work to get it back into shape, and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin their plans for later today. She meant what she had said about that. Days off were a treat, and days off spending most of the day at the beach were an even bigger treat, and they didn’t come around very often.
She didn’t want anything to mess it up.
Right now she would warm up a bit. She did a few stretches in the living room, careful not to disturb him, then she walked out to her vehicle. She stopped as she looked around and thought,I could just run here. “Really no reason to go anywhere else,” she murmured. Except for the guy driving the Toyota Camry, she added as an afterthought.