All of You by Jasmine Stevens

Author:Jasmine Stevens [Stevens, Jasmine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780648447030
Published: 2019-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

Emma pulled in alongside Ben’s motorbike at The Gold Club. Good. He was here, exactly what she wanted. It was time she told Ben he could call everyone off from taking care of her. As she entered the gym, she saw him on the rowing machine. From her position behind him, she could see the sheen of sweat on the nape of his neck and the wet patches from his workout on his grey singlet shirt. Jamie spotted her and waved to her. ‘Hey, Em.’ She waved in return and watched as Ben immediately stopped rowing and turned in his seat, his eyes piercing her with an intensity that made her suddenly feel hesitant as to what she was about to say to him. ‘You’re back. You must be feeling better.’

‘I am, thanks.’ She walked over to him. ‘Sorry I had to cancel the horse-riding lesson on Tuesday. It took me longer to get over that cold than I thought it would.’

‘Ah, don’t sweat it. I’ve had a pretty busy week, so it worked out good all ‘round.’ His words slammed into her. Was this his way of backing off, was he giving her the cold shoulder? It had been over a week since she’d seen him, and she’d missed him terribly. Even with her sister staying with her for a week, she still found her thoughts centering on Ben, wondering what he was doing and if he was thinking of her. He had texted a few times to see how she and Zoe were doing, but the text messages had been polite without a hint of flirting. Totally uncharacteristic of him. ‘Can I have a word?’ she asked.

Ben placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward. ‘Sure, shoot.’

Scratching her head and feeling dreadfully awkward, she indicated with her head towards Jamie. ‘In private?’

‘Sounds ominous. Don’t tell me you’re chickening out of horse-riding lessons already.’

Emma shook her head vehemently. ‘No, nothing like that.’

Jamie sauntered over and said, ‘I’ll give you guys some privacy.’

Placing a hand on Jamie’s arm, Emma stopped him. ‘Please don’t leave on my account. We can step outside. You stay.’

‘Nah, I was about to head to the shower, anyway,’ Jamie said with a shake of his head.

As Jamie left the gym, Ben looked directly into Emma’s eyes. ‘What’s up?’

‘I…’ she paused, running a hand through her hair, searching for the right words. ‘I wanted to tell you to call everyone off with the round-the-clock protection.’

‘What do you mean?’ Ben stood, crossing his arms, and she felt like shrinking into the ground. This was a hard thing to tell someone who had only shown her kindness and was a wonderful friend to her, but something had to change. She had to set some boundaries.

‘Before I moved here, I was suffocating in a world of people hovering over me, worrying about me and feeling like it was their duty to help me. Part of me moving here was to escape all that.’ She looked directly into Ben’s eyes, hoping what she was saying to him was being made perfectly clear.

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