“Grab some of your things and let’s go to my house. You can stay with me.”

Her hands came up to my chest and pushed me away. “Goddamn it. Can you not try to take over once in a while? Is it really that hard?”

“Emilia, I want this to be over. I want us to move past this. I’ll give you what you want. You can go to med school in Maryland. I’ll move for you. We’ll be together—”

She sucked in a quick breath and jerked her face away, turning her back on me.

I wanted to go to her, pull her back into my arms, but I realized then that I might have already screwed up too badly.

Instead I raked my hand through my hair and waited. And waited. She was saying nothing, but her shoulders were shaking. She looked like—

She sniffed loudly. Like she was crying. Her hands went to her face.

I swallowed. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head.

I went to her, put my hands on her shoulders. She tensed, shook her head again, this time violently. “You should go,” she choked out.

Shit. I’d fucked up again. “I can’t leave when you’re like this.”

She turned on me, her face flushed in the dim light, tears on her cheeks. I expected her to yell, to shake her fist at me, to stomp around or even just storm out of the room.

What she actually did, I did not see coming. She came forward and hugged me, pulled herself tightly to me, her wet face pressed to my bared chest, her arms cinching around my waist. It happened so quickly, it almost knocked the breath right from me.

“Emilia, what the hell is going on?”

“I need you to hold me,” she sniffed.

So I did. She wasn’t crying anymore—she wasn’t moving at all. Hardly breathing. The pure helplessness I felt in that moment almost crippled me.

I backed us toward her bed. “Come here.” I laid her down on the bed, then closed the door before joining her. She turned away from me, but pressed her back up against me immediately and I wrapped my arms around her.

“Tighter,” she said.

So I tightened my hold and she relaxed against me, fitting her head underneath my chin.

“Emilia…I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I’ll call my realtor. Have her look into some places where we can live. I can run the business from there. I can’t lose you.”

She shook her head. “Don’t…I’m not moving to Maryland.”

I hesitated, completely confused. Had she not just flown out and spent a week there?

“But…does that mean you’re staying here for med school?”

She said nothing for a long moment, then took a deep breath. “Med school’s on hold for now.”

What the hell? I opened my mouth to ask her, but she spoke, cutting me off, her voice trembling again. “I don’t want to talk about it. Please, Adam. I need you to hold me tonight. Just hold me, please?”

How could I refuse that simple request? I laid my face beside hers, my cheek pressing against hers and I pulled her to me as tightly as I could while still allowing her the ability to breathe. There was a whirlwind of confused emotions blowing inside me. Relief—she was staying here. Concern—she obviously wasn’t happy about it. And medical school was on hold? Why the hell? She’d already put it off for a year because of the test. Now she was pushing it back another year? Or maybe she was pushing it back indefinitely.

Not fifteen minutes later, she was sleeping and I was still reeling from this new development—and yeah I had a spectacular case of blue balls to go along with that frustration. Would she tell me any more later? There were ways I could find out—but I wasn’t that much of an idiot. I wasn’t going to use them—and not only because of the risk of her discovering it again. But also because it was just wrong—a violation of her privacy that I never, ever should have considered and, quite frankly, was now heartily ashamed of.

I’d wait for her to tell me. God, I just hoped it wouldn’t take her long.

I got up, kissing her cheek, when I heard Heath come in the front door. I buttoned my shirt, covered her with a blanket and walked out into the main room. He stopped, startled when he saw me, throwing a long look at Emilia’s closed door.

“What are you—? Well, I guess that’s none of my business.”

I took a deep breath. “We were just talking. She got upset.”

He frowned. “Is she okay?”

I rubbed my jaw, shrugging. “She said—she said she’s not going to med school anymore…”

Heath’s brows shot up. “Did she say why?”