The Heart That's Meant to Love You [COMPLETED]

Chapter 87: Morning

A pounding headache pulled Naomi out of the confines of slumber. Her inflamed cheek didn't help matters, either.

If she opened her eyes, what would she find? Naomi remembered running, then huddling in a half-open hiding spot since Kieran's apartment building had been locked. Was she still there? The world around her seemed more comfortable than brick and boxes.

Groggy, disoriented, and sluggish, Naomi pried her eyes open and winced as morning sunlight hit them.

Through the pain, she tried to make out her surroundings. The ceiling above her didn't seem familiar, and Naomi found she couldn't move enough to view the rest of the room. The blankets—and that's what the softness was, she now realized—were wrapped too tightly to allow her free movement.

"You're not dead."

The voice, dry and too familiar, sounded like music to Naomi's ears. That music wouldn't last long. It never did. But for a moment Naomi found a breath of fresh air in its lullaby.

Trepidatious every second, Naomi lifted her head until she could see over the blankets around her.

Kieran sat perched on the foot of the bed, too nonchalant to be calm and too focused on the window on the other side of the room to dare look at Naomi. Over their weeks together, Naomi had come to understand such behavior. Kieran was about to lie to her again, all because he couldn't let her see what lay inside of that tough exterior of his.

Naomi took the first shot. "You brought me in."

"Don't expect it to happen again. It won't."

"Then why did you do it this time?"

Kieran didn't move, except the tensing of his shoulders. "It isn't safe for anyone to be outside on this street in the middle of the night. It's a miracle you survived for me to find you."

"Miracles happen a lot between the two of us." It was a risk to say it, but Naomi needed to break his walls. Only then could they have a decent conversation.

The comment elicited a wry chuckle from Kieran's lips. "Those were never miracles. Those were planned."

So, he wouldn't give in on that front. Might as well drop it if she wasn't going to get anywhere. Naomi chose the element of surprise and changed the subject.

"Why am I a burrito?"

That question, phrased so unlike anything that Naomi had ever said to him, caught Kieran's attention. For the first time since Naomi woke up, Kieran turned tolook at her.

"Do you not remember last night?" Kieran asked.

Naomi shrugged, realized he couldn't see that, and then dropped her head back onto the pillow. "It might be easier to talk if you unwrap me."

"It might be easier to deal with you if you didn't say things like that." Kieran muttered the words, but Naomi heard them loud and clear. How could she not, in this silent apartment?

Stubborn as Kieran was, Naomi expected to continue their conversation at this distance, all toasty inside the blankets.

But the bed shifted as Kieran's weight lifted off of it. His feet padded across the floor, soft but firm. And then he took a seat at Naomi's side, leaning forward until she had no option but to look him straight in the eyes.

"So what happened, Naomi?"

As if she could think straight enough to answer him. Kieran's close proximity always managed to fry her brain. Hence, Naomi's lame answer. "What do you mean?"

Kieran's fingers lifted, hovering in midair beside Naomi's cheek. As if he didn't dare touch. As if he wanted to, though. His hand fell away as quickly as it raised. "You're injured. How did that happen?"

Right. Her cheek. Naomi tried to reach up for it, but once again her burrito of blankets kept her trapped.

"Did those guys from the convenience store find you again?" A tick in Kieran's jaw belied the anger behind his question.

Naomi shook her head, slowly so as not to make the headache worse. "It wasn't that."

Kieran's lips parted, and somehow Naomi knew he meant to push the issue. But then he didn't. He leaned back, recomposed himself, and huffed a sigh. "You should go home now."

"I can't do that, either." Naomi took a breath of her own, steeling her nerves for more of Kieran's rejections. "The injury came from my mother. I think she and I both need some time away from one another."

Clearly surprised, Kieran raised his brows at Naomi's revelation. But he didn't pitch in one way or another. "You said you had nowhere else to go. I guess that's what you meant."

"I said that?" Naomi didn't remember much after she settled down in the rain to wait for Kieran. She hadn't been thinking straight and the cold rain had soaked her to her bones. All that trauma piling on would make anyone forget some things.

Kieran rose from the side of the bed, padded around the room for a minute, and returned with Naomi's phone. "Call someone to come get you. You can't stay here."

"But I'm sick. My head hurts." Naomi tried the pity card, already knowing that it wouldn't work.

Kieran checked the time. "I gave you a fever reducer two hours ago. Don't take any more medicine for at least another two hours."

Of course he would ignore her. Kieran had a gift for dampening Naomi's spirits at the worst possible moments. Naomi pouted at him.

Kieran merely pulled the blankets out from around Naomi's shoulder and held up her phone. "Call someone to get you."

"I can't go home, I just said that. I can't ever go back to that golden cage. You ruined me for that life."

"Just make the call."

Naomi could push it, or she could listen to him this once. She hadn't made up her mind yet when her mouth opened to ask a question she shouldn't have wondered.

"Where's that Tawny girl? I thought she lived here."

"We split." Kieran pushed the phone into Naomi's hands. "Either you make the call or I do."

They split. Which meant that Kieran was single again. A glimmer of hope turned into a flame within Naomi's heart.

"Kieran... can you... can we..."

"Don't ask it, Naomi." Kieran shook his head, his eyes filling with sorrow that Naomi could not fathom. "I'm sorry I ruined you, but that's why we can't be together. We both need to figure ourselves out first."

First. The word rang in Naomi's head like the pealing of a treaty bell. Kieran hadn't said that they could never be together. He had only said they needed to work themselves out first. Fine. She could wait. Naomi had been waiting her whole life. A little longer wouldn't kill her.

Feeling a little lighter and a bit more docile, Naomi dialed Claire's number and waited for her to pick up.