by Noelle Adams
“Can you…can you help me?”
“Of course I’ll help you.” She took a shuddering breath, her head spinning with fear. Something must be seriously wrong. “What do you need?”
“Can you come over?” His voice was so hoarse and rough and thick. Barely recognizable. “I need…I really need your help.”
She didn’t even have to think about it. It didn’t matter what had happened between them. “I’ll be right there. I’m coming over right now.”
It was pouring down rain outside, but she was in such a hurry that she didn’t stop for a jacket or an umbrella or even a bra. She just slid on her flip-flops with her tank top and yoga pants and ran out of her house.
It was raining so hard she couldn’t even see across the street. There was a blur of light over there, so Rob must have turned on his landscape lighting, which included a spotlight near the street. She splashed down her driveway, her clothes already soaked all the way through.
She was halfway across the street, sliding in her wet flip-flops, when she pulled to an abrupt stop.
Rob had come out to meet her, making his way down his driveway just like her. Now he was standing there, just on the edge of the road, visible in the light although blurred by the pounding rain.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt or shoes. He must not have shaved in a couple of days. He had what looked like sweatpants on—now soaked all the way through like her clothes.
They stood there in the rain and stared at each other for a few seconds that felt like a lot longer.
And she suddenly saw Rob—the real Rob—who had finally asked for her help. Wet and half naked and barefoot and as miserable as she’d ever seen him. He might be strong and competent and loved by everyone and unshakably solid.
But he wasn’t really that different from her. Right now. Always. Flawed and weak and sometimes scared and unable to get by entirely on his own. Dependent.
Human. Just like her.
She could see it so clearly as he stood in the rain, genuinely needing her to help him. The revelation rocked her.
Her clothes were so wet that she might as well have been naked too, and anything pretty or polished about her appearance was washed away by the cold streams of water rushing down her skin.
She was no longer Arthur’s perfect trophy wife. And she wasn’t the friendly, hardworking waitress at Dora’s. She wasn’t some pretty, stylish newcomer that Rob had managed to win, much to the town’s bemusement. She wasn’t young and gorgeous and vulnerable and completely dependent—waiting to be carried off in a strong man’s arms.
She was just her. Allison. Wet and cold and scared and confused. And wanting desperately to be here to help him when he needed it.
And Rob was seeing her—actually seeing her. Who she really was beneath all of her surfaces. And he was reaching out his hand. “God, Allison,” he said hoarsely, his voice mingling with the sound of the rain. “I really need your help.”
She closed the space between them so she could take his hand in hers. “I’m here. What’s the matter?” She really had no idea what the emergency was, but she knew it must be bad.
“It’s Cali. She’s…Just come see.”
She walked up his driveway with him, clinging to his hand, and she knew she’d been right about something.
And wrong about everything else.
Rob saw who she was. He knew who she was. And he wanted her—needed her—anyway.
Chapter 12
When Allison came into Rob’s house—drenched and shivering—she saw what was wrong with Cali.
The girl had been roughed up pretty badly. Her hair was tangled around her face, and her shirt was torn at the neckline. Her cheekbone was scarily red, her eye already starting to swell shut. And she was holding one of her forearms against her chest, like it hurt to move it.
She was huddled on Rob’s couch, tearstains on her cheeks.
Allison ran over to her immediately, crouching down beside the couch. “Oh my God!” she gasped. “What happened?”
“You’re all wet,” Cali said weakly, a very faint smile on her lips.
Allison made a choking sound and reached over to push the girl’s hair back from her eyes. Then she turned and looked over her shoulder at Rob, who was approaching with a couple of towels in his hands.
He offered one to Allison. “It was that…boyfriend of hers. I think she’s got a sprained wrist and might have a cracked rib.”
“Oh my God!” Allison quickly dried her face and hands. “We should take her to the emergency room.”
“I was going to,” Rob said, his voice still hoarse, although he looked a little more normal than he had out in the rain. “But I called Dee, and she said she was coming right over and she’d take her herself.”
Allison felt kind of sick at this piece of news. “Are you okay for now?” she asked Cali softly. “Can you wait?”
“Yeah. Everything hurts, but I think it’s going to for a while. I’ll wait for Mom.”
Allison’s chest ached as she smoothed the girl’s hair again and rose to her feet. “I’m going to get you some ice for that eye while we wait.”
Rob walked with her into the kitchen, meeting her eyes when she stopped near the refrigerator. “I know,” he said, very softly so Cali wouldn’t hear. “I should have just taken her right away. But she’s only fifteen, and she’s not my daughter. I don’t actually have any rights where she’s concerned.”
“I know you don’t. You did the only thing you could. Is Dee in any…fit state to…deal with this?”
Rob gave a half shrug. “I hope so. She sounded okay when we talked. She hadn’t been drinking, at least.”
“Well, that’s good.” Allison reached up to cup his cheek, since his face was so strained and the shadows under his eyes so dark. “Are you okay, baby?”
He leaned into her hand for a moment before he gently removed it, kissing her palm softly. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I want to kill that boy. You have to stop me from going to find him.”
Allison sucked in a quick breath. She understood the sentiment, and she hoped Rob wasn’t being literal, but she didn’t really know what to say. She just reached over to take his hand in hers and held it as she opened the freezer to get an ice pack from where she knew Rob kept them.
They returned to the living room, and Allison positioned the ice pack on Cali’s eye, and after a few minutes she asked the girl what had happened.
It was a simple story. Cali had gone over to her boyfriend’s house to hang out, and they’d gotten into a fight about his taking money from her, after which Cali had told him they were broken up.
The boy wasn’t all right with her breaking up with him, and he’d taken his anger out on her.
“Have you called the sheriff’s office?” Allison asked, looking between Cali and Rob.
When Cali didn’t answer, Rob murmured, “I wanted to, but she said no.”
“They won’t do anything to him. He’s only sixteen, and he just hit me a few times.”
“It’s against the law to do that. They may not do much this time, but if you don’t report it, then it won’t be on his record if he does it again.” Allison was hard-pressed to keep her voice calm, but she managed to do it. “Promise me that at the emergency room you’ll ask them to call the sheriff. They’ll want to talk to you about it and see what he did to you.”
“He’ll be so mad.” Cali’s voice was very small.
“So he’s mad,” Allison said.
“I’m not going to let him touch you again,” Rob said, an edge of warning in his tone that she knew he was trying to stifle.
Cali looked from one to the other and finally nodded.
Allison was relieved—partly because Cali wasn’t acting like a long-term battered woman. She didn’t think the girl had been hit by this guy before today. Hopefully she could get over it without lasting emotional damage.
Before she could reply, there was a loud, insistent knocking on the door, and Rob went to open it t
o Dee, who came in wet from the rain and in a state of dramatics about her baby getting hurt.
The woman would always annoy Allison. She was never going to like her. But Dee seemed focused and sober tonight, and she was at least acting like she was concerned about Cali, so Allison didn’t feel like they were sending the girl off to her doom.
Dee didn’t stay long. Rob helped Cali into the passenger seat of Dee’s car, and if Dee said anything to him, Allison didn’t hear what it was. Then Dee and Cali were driving off, and Allison and Rob were left alone in his house, both of them still wet from the rain.
“I told Cali to text me when she’s all done and they’ve gotten home,” he said.
“Good. Poor thing. The whole situation is awful. Do you think she’s actually going to report it?”
“I don’t know. I hope so. I’m going to talk to the sheriff tomorrow either way.” He was rubbing his wet hair. “I didn’t tell Cali, but I’ve already called Mitch. Someone will be paying that boy a visit.”
“Good.” Allison let out a breath. “That sounds like all you can do, then.” She looked up at him, her heart so full she could barely swallow over the pressure. “So you didn’t really need me, then.”
“Yes, I did,” he rasped, reaching out and pulling her into his arms. “I needed you. I need you, Allison. So much.”
She squeezed him with both arms, believing him since his whole body was confirming his words.
“Please don’t leave me,” he mumbled against her hair.
“I won’t.” She felt like she might say more—like she might try to explain some of the revelations she’d had this evening, but the only sound she could make was a sudden loud shiver.
Rob released her and looked down at her, his eyes full of emotion she couldn’t possibly mistake. “You’re freezing. Let me find you something to wear.”
“You need to change too. You’re just as wet as I am—plus, you don’t have a shirt on.”
They both went into his bedroom and found clean shirts and sweatpants to wear. Even with a drawstring, they would barely stay up on Allison, but they were better than her soaked leggings.
She was towel drying her hair as best she could when Rob sat down on the side of the bed. He didn’t speak. Just watched her.
She put down the towel. “Are you okay, Rob?”
He half nodded, half shook his head.
She went over to sit beside him, wrapping her arms around him.
He made a hoarse sound and kind of collapsed onto the bed, pulling her with him. The position wasn’t entirely comfortable, so after a minute Allison said, “Maybe we should get under the covers.”
Rob moved immediately, and soon he’d pulled her into his arms beneath the sheets and comforter. She burrowed against him, finally feeling warm and dry and comfortable. Finally feeling loved and trusted and needed.
Rob held her tightly, almost too tightly, and the tension in his body felt so urgent that it worried her. “Rob,” she asked after several minutes. “Are you okay?”
It took a little while for Rob to answer. “I haven’t been okay at all without you.”
“I’m here now.”
“And you’ll stay?”
“I’ll stay.”
They still had other things to say to each other, but this seemed to be enough for the moment. Allison held onto him until his body finally started to relax. She wondered if he would pull away from her then and try to get some sleep, but he didn’t. He started to stroke her hair and back, and it was the sweetest thing.
After a couple of hours Rob’s phone buzzed with a text. He reached to check it. “She’s home. Feeling better after the drugs they gave her. She reported it to the sheriff’s office. Dee’s still there with her.”
“Good. Good. That sounds like it went as well as it could have.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe you should try to get some sleep,” she said, stroking his chest over his T-shirt. “It doesn’t look like you’ve gotten much for a while.”
“I haven’t.”
“I can’t believe you cleaned your house.”
He paused before he answered. “I didn’t think you’d noticed.”
“Of course I did.”
“It was the only thing I could think of to do. I couldn’t do anything else.”
“Well, you can sleep now. Everything is okay.”
“Is it okay with you too?” He’d lifted his head to peer at her face in the darkened room.
She gave him a trembly smile. “I really think it is.”
This was apparently the right thing to say. He smiled back and drew her into his arms once more.
Allison felt better now. Relaxed. Safe. Treasured in Rob’s arms but also really needed.
She felt good about him and about herself for the first time in a really long time—and she felt nothing at all like a trophy.
—
Both she and Rob had to wake up early the next day. It was a workday, and unfortunately businesses kept running, no matter how many personal crises you’d worked through the day before.
They didn’t have much time to really talk before work. They’d slept later than they should have, so Allison needed to rush over to her house to shower and change for the restaurant. Rob kissed her before she left and asked if she’d come over that evening for dinner.
She said yes.
Any more relationship talk would have to wait until then.
Allison spent the day in an exhausted and strangely giddy haze. It felt like she could actually breathe, like she didn’t have to stay on guard against something she might let herself do or become. Chelle told her that she looked gorgeous, and when Allison doubted the veracity of this compliment, Chelle just muttered that love tends to do that to a woman.
Allison didn’t even feel obliged to object.
She got off midafternoon, as she normally did, and was tempted to walk over to the hardware store so she could get a glimpse of Rob. She managed to forgo that silly mission and instead went to the Walmart in the next town over to catch up on some shopping she’d gotten behind on because of all the heartache.
Things might be better with Rob now, but she still was really tight on money. She couldn’t be eating out all the time because she didn’t have food in the house.
While she was there, she looked at the clothes section for the first time in her life. She had more designer outfits than she knew what to do with, but she didn’t actually have very many lying-around clothes. Most of the clothes in the store she wouldn’t dream of wearing, but she bought a couple of pairs of yoga pants that looked decent enough, and then she went to look through the pajamas. Arthur had wanted all of her sleepwear to be slinky and sexy, and she only had a couple of comfortable pajama bottoms. She found some light cotton ones that looked cute enough. She could tell the quality wasn’t as good as most of her clothes, but she didn’t see why it mattered.
At least they were cheap.
She actually had a little bit of a shopper’s buzz as she left the store, and she had to laugh at herself.
When she got home, it was just after five, so she made herself sit down and work on some jewelry instead of stalking Rob’s house. She was still working on that choker necklace, which was incredibly intricate, so it forced her to concentrate.
She blinked when her phone buzzed, and it was Rob telling her he was home. It was almost six already, and she’d had no idea.
She put down her tools and ran to check the mirror. Since her hair was in decent shape, she grabbed her purse and hurried across the street.
The door was open, so she knocked on the storm door and let herself in.
“I’m in here,” Rob called out.
She found him slouched down on the couch in the living room. “What are you doing?” she asked.
He gave her a tired smile. He’d finally shaved this morning, but he still didn’t look quite like his normal self. “Sitting.”
“Did you get anything to eat?”
“Not yet
. I was waiting for you.”
“You look tired. Do you want me to fix something?”
“Not yet.” He stretched out his arm toward her. “I want to sit with you for a minute.”
When she took his hand, he pulled her toward him with surprising force. She ended up on his lap, laughing and wrapping her arms around his neck.
“That’s better,” he murmured, nuzzling her face as he slid both of his hands down her back until they were cupping her bottom. “I wanted to make sure you were still…”
“I was still what?” she asked liltingly, tangling her hands in his hair.
“Still mine.”
She could feel him smiling, even as he pulled her into a tight hug. She hugged him back and after a while said against his shoulder, “Are you really okay, Rob? You seem…different.”
“I am different. I lost you and I got you back. I don’t want to do it again.”
“I don’t either. So let’s not.”
He eased her back so he could see her face. “Is it all right if I ask a few questions, just so I can stop worrying about some things?”
“Of course. What are you worried about?”
“We’re…dating now, right? For real?”
“Right. For real.”
“Exclusively?”
“I hope so.”
This evidently was what he wanted to hear, because his face relaxed slightly. “You said when we first got together that you weren’t ready for a relationship, and so we were taking it slow. Do you still want that?”
She shook her head, knowing with certainty the answer. “I’m ready now. For anything.”
His lips turned up in a little smile. “I really want to tell you I love you, but I’m afraid it might be too soon for you.”
She gave a little gasp, her heart doing an embarrassing jump. “It’s not too soon.”
Now his eyes blazed up to match the little smile on his face. “I love you, Allison Davies.”
“I love you too, Rob West.”
He kissed her then, and she kissed him back, and both of them were eager and emotional and a little bit tired. She ended up slumped against his chest again, feeling like she might actually cry.