“Still sore?” He sat on the bed next to me and placed his hand on my head. “Your temperature seems to have gone down. I came in earlier, and you were roasting.”
“I don’t remember. I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train.”
“More likely a virus. A couple of days in bed and you’ll be right as rain.”
“I have to get up. I’ve got gigs in Scotland.”
“Duncan cancelled them. You can’t sing in this condition, Killian, no matter how much you think you can. Now, lie back and let me take care of you.”
“As much as I love your offer, I’m not really up to it right now.”
“Not like that.” He swiped at me and smiled. “You always did like to tease.”
I yawned and stretched my muscles. “I need to pee.”
“I’ll get out of your way. I’ll bring some food up in a while. Just soup, so it’ll soothe your throat.”
He stood and waited by the door. I threw back the covers and, on unsteady feet, made it to the bathroom. Harvey hovered.
“I’m okay. I’ve got it.”
“You sure?”
“Unless you want to hold it for me.”
A blush spread across his cheeks. “I’ll, um, leave you to it.”
Why was he doing this, and more to the point, why was I letting him?
I swore three years ago that if I ever saw him again, I’d knock him flat and walk away. Yet there I was, lying in his bed, eating his food, and low-key flirting.
My ma always used to say the heart knows what it wants, and I was beginning to believe she was right.
Chapter 30
Harvey
For the next couple of days, Killian improved, and on day three, he finally came downstairs. I sat him in the extension to the kitchen, next to the window, so he could look out over the garden. It always soothed me. I hoped it would for him, too.
I sat at my drawing table, sketching nothing in particular, doodling to while away the time.
“Don’t you work?” he asked, his voice much better now.
“I do, but I asked Steph for some time off. I told her I’m looking after a friend.”
“Is that what we are?”
I put down my pencil and looked at him. He sat on the sofa, a soft woollen blanket wrapped around him, Jasper sitting on his lap.
His long hair cascaded around his shoulders, his cornflower-blue eyes piercing in their intensity. I remembered how his lips tasted, the smell of his skin as he wrapped himself around me. Was it wrong to want to be more than friends? I’d never fullyexplored our relationship, sabotaging it before we had a chance to make it work.
“Do you know why I pushed you away?” Now seemed the right time to tell him.
“I wish I did. It might have made things easier.”
“You’d always have wondered if I’d do it again, and you needed to concentrate on your career, not some fucked-up loser.”
“You were never a loser, Harv. I was always in it for the long haul.”