A sad smile pulled at Caden’s lips. “Am I a superhero now?”
“You know what I mean. He lives to pick you apart, and it kills me that you let him.”
Caden’s jaw hardened. “I keep thinking if I try hard enough, if I become more of the man he expects me to be—”
“Screw that!” I snapped. “That just means you’d become like him, and that’s not a very good person. You’re better than he’ll ever be, and I don’t want you to lose that.”
Caden shifted, framing my face in his hands. “You make me want to be a better man.”
I closed the distance between us, brushing my lips across his. “You don’t need to be better. You’re already the best.”
He wrapped his arms around me. “I’ll start looking to see what else is out there.”
I swallowed against the dryness in my throat. “Good.”
“We’ll find a way, Gigi. I’m not going to lose you when I just got you.”
I burrowed into his hold. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
* * *
The beeping soundpulled me from sleep, and I shifted in Caden’s hold, groaning.
“What time is it?” he grumbled.
I sat up and reached for my phone. An alert from my glucose monitor flashed on the screen.Crud.
I swung my feet over the side of the bed.
Caden sat, instantly on alert. “What’s wrong?”
“My blood sugar’s trending down. I need to get some juice.”
He quickly got to his feet.
“You don’t need to get up with me.”
Worry filled his eyes. “Of course, I do.”
I pressed my thumbnail into the pad of my forefinger to keep from snapping at him. “I’m used to this. It’s no big thing.”
But Caden still followed me into the kitchen. My phone alerted again as my blood sugar dipped lower. I picked up my pace, grabbing the orange juice from the fridge.
Caden was waiting with a glass, and I filled it.
“What can I do?” he asked, concern lacing his words.
“Can you grab me a protein bar?”
He nodded, disappearing into the pantry.
I chugged the juice.
Caden unwrapped the bar and handed it to me. “What will this do?”
I took a bite and chewed. “I need the instant jolt of the sugar in the juice, but this will help slow the absorption because there’s fat and protein.”
My alarm went off again, and I muttered a non-curse.
