She nods. “Cleo is…Cleo. I think she always knows exactly what to say to make me feel–” She breaks off.
I kiss her temple. “It was so wrong of her to blurt it out like that, baby. She had no right.”
Rosie hums but doesn’t continue, instead pressing a kissto my skin and snuggling closer, running her hands across my torso.
“What does this one mean?” she asks, lightly tapping the tattoo on my chest.
“It’s Taranaki Maunga, a mountain a few hours north of Wellington. My dad and I used to hike it every summer. There’s a bunch of tracks and we were planning on doing all of them.” I tighten my arm around her, unable to voice that we never managed to finish it.
“Are there any easy ones left?” Rosie asks, tracing the ink. “I could give it a go, though you’d probably have to pull me along.”
I grin pressing a kiss to her hair, “I’ll carry you if I have to.”
The room darkens around us and Rosie’s breathing slows until I’m almost sure she’s fallen asleep.
“Will you stay?” Rosie mumbles into my chest.
I gently tilt her head back. “I don’t know if I’ve made myself clear enough, pretty girl. I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Her eyes flutter closed and I press a kiss to her nose, tugging her closer to me and inhaling her berry shampoo.
The next morning,I wake to an empty bed. I lie still for a second, listening. The apartment is so small that I can already hear Rosie clattering around in the kitchen.
I contemplate stepping into my jeans but it’s barely eight am and all I want is my woman back in bed with me.
Rosie’s back is to me, her hands in the soapy kitchen sink. I gently approach her, wrapping my arms around her. She relaxes into me, her head resting on my shoulder.
“Come back to bed,” I murmur into her neck and press a kiss to her skin.
“I woke up hours ago with Smudge doing flips on my bladder and then I couldn’t get back to sleep.”
I cup her belly, and lightly nip her ear, loving the fact that she’s adopted the nickname. “Come back to bed now.”
She turns in my arms, leaning up to kiss me. “If you insist.”
Her phone vibrates on the counter and she freezes in my arms. She steps out of the circle of my arms to pick up her phone.
I pretend that I’m not curious and start drying the dishes on the rack. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Rosie slump slightly before she puts the phone face down.
“Your parents?”
She readjusts her glasses as she steps around me, “Uh, no. It was just a message in the work chat.”
She starts fluttering around the kitchen, moving items from one counter to the other. I gently grab her hand and pull her to a stop, wrapping my arms around her as she buries her head in my chest.
“They’ll come around.”
“I doubt it,” she mumbles.
I acted on instinct last night. I’ve picked up on all the hints that Rosie’s accidentally dropped over the last few months, but she’s never outright said that her family’s actions affect her. Always just shrugging it off and changing the subject.
“Hey,” I say, tilting her chin up. It breaks my heart seeing her big blue eyes water. “I’ll be here, no matter what.”
I haven’t made the career I have, had the life I have, without cutting out the people that don’t want to be in it. Igot lucky with my family, lucky that I’ve never had to question their loyalty to me.
She nods her head. “I just don’t know why they don’t like me.”
Ice shoots through my veins as I tuck her closer to me, wrapping my arms around her and swaying her in place.
