Page 7 of The Road Back to Us

“Or you can sleep in my room,” she said quietly, looking down at the floor as if she were embarrassed to make such an offer.

I stopped what I was doing, letting the pants fall from my hand back into the suitcase.

“You want me to stay in your room with you?” I asked, my eyebrows rising on my forehead.

She shrugged and gave a little nod.

“It’s the least I can do for everything you did for me today.”

“Lyric, you don’t need to do that. Everything I did was to help make things easier for everyone. I don’t expect anything in return, nor do I want to make you uncomfortable.”

She worried her lower lip between her teeth, reminding me of when she was a teenager. She used to do the same thing anytime she was nervous.

“I’m not uncomfortable. I mean, we are married after all,” she said sarcastically, looping back to what Kara had said earlier.

I walked over and stood in front of her.

“Ignore what Kara said. There’s a lot going on for everyone right now, but our past isn’t any of their business.”

“I know, but in a way, it is.”

“How so?”

She shrugged and then looked around the room as if searching for the right answer.

“How could it not be? You were Clay’s best friend. You’ve been there all along and have helped raise them, especially after Melanie died. I’m his sister, but they don’t know me. We’re still legally married, so I’m sure it’s confusing to them that we’re both going to help raise them, yet we’re not together. I would be super confused about all of this as well.”

I shoved a hand through my hair and nodded because she was right.

“So, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted quietly. “I don’t want to give them the wrong impression that we’re getting back together, but at the same time, I don’t want them to feel like they have to choose between us. I’m going to need your help for a long time—if not forever. I’m not saying that you have to live with us forever. I know you have a life of your own, and I don’t want to keep you from living it. But I need them to see us as a team that works together to take care of them. That’s what Clay would want.”

I licked my lips out of habit, but noticed the way Lyric’s eyes caught the movement and stayed glued to my mouth for a few seconds longer than necessary.

“I will follow your lead,” I said, pulling her attention away from my lips. “Whatever you want to do is fine with me. If you want me to stay in your room, we can make that work. Just tell me what you need, and I’ll make it happen.”

Nine

Lyric

“Do you want another pillow?” I asked, looking over at Cole as he laid beside me in the king-sized bed we decided to share.

“I’m good, but thank you.”

“Okay.”

I worried my lip between my teeth, feeling more nervous about having Cole in my bed than I thought I would when I offered it to him.

“I can go sleep on the couch,” he offered as if reading my apprehension.

“No, it’s okay. Sorry, it’s just been a long day, and I’m feeling a little out of sorts.”

“It’s okay to let your guard down, Lyric.”

I swallowed hard and stared at the ceiling because it was, in fact, not okay to do that. If I let my guard down, I would find myself letting him take care of me, and that wouldn’t do anyone any good. We both knew that his staying in the house with me was temporary. While I would need his continued support to help with the kids, the last thing I needed was to get so used to having him around that I couldn’t function when he left.

On top of that, we still had the whole ‘being married’ thing to address at some point. Now wasn’t the right time for it, but I wasn’t sure that there would ever be a right time. We’d been separated for so long that I didn’t know if there was even anything left to save of our marriage.