Page 89 of Liberating Lily

About two hours later, the front door opened again, and she stood up, turning. She was determined to be more welcoming this time, maybe even offer Trey a cup of coffee. She’d cursed herself for about an hour after their interaction for not offering him anything.

But this time, it was Harvey who walked through the door, and her relief was instant, nearly bringing her to her knees.

“Mo bhreáthracht, are you all right?” he asked, walking forward quickly. “You’ve gone all pale.”

“Oh, yes, I’m fine. I’m just really glad to see you,” she said.

Maybe she should have acted more resilient or unaffected by his absence, but she found herself unable to play any games around him.

All she wanted was for him to take her into his arms and tell her that everything was going to be all right.

“Are you sure nothing else is wrong?” he asked.

“No, I’m good. Really.”

She waited for him to give her a hug, or to boss her around by telling her to sit down and rest. But he didn’t say anything like that. And he didn’t move any closer toward her. Instead, he just nodded and then headed into the kitchen.

“Did you have any lunch?”

“Uh, no.” She winced and waited for the scolding to come.

Harvey simply nodded and started putting together some sandwiches.

He wasn’t going to tell her off? Even though it was now after two in the afternoon, and she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Which she’d also barely eaten.

That was odd and not like him at all.

This had to be related to her reaction this morning. Did he think he needed to treat her differently?

Shoot. How did she fix this? How did she prove to him that she was tough enough for anything when she wasn’t exactly sure that she was?

Or maybe she should just go with this. Perhaps this was better, to have a Harvey that wasn’t so controlling or commanding.

Sure. So why do you feel so weird and off about it all?

“Come sit down,” he said. “If you want to sit here, of course. We can sit at the dining table or outside.”

She glanced outside. For some reason, she just couldn’t bring herself to go out there. She didn’t know why.

Instead, she slid onto a stool at the kitchen island. It was familiar territory. And she thought that would make her feel better. He placed a plate, with a very full-looking sandwich on it, along with a glass of water.

Honestly, there was no way she could eat that huge sandwich. Lily wasn’t used to eating a lot of food. And it was going to take her stomach and her brain, it seemed, a while to catch up with the idea of eating more.

“Sorry, I’m starving,” he said as he sat across from her and took a large bite from his own sandwich

“Don’t apologize,” she replied. “How did you get on with my mother?”

Just thinking about her mother was enough to make her stomach clench. And ruin her appetite. Her mother had a habit of doing that.

She set the sandwich down on the plate.

Harvey glanced down at it with a frown. Okay, surely now he was going to say something about the fact that she hadn’t eaten anything.

But he didn’t. Instead, he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

“Your mother is desperate to have you back. Gave the same sort of spiel as the doctor about you being overdue to go to the clinic and needing your medication. There’s something rather off about her at the moment.”

“Off? More off than usual?” she asked.