Thirty-Three
Izzy
Izzy stretched a little, feeling deliciously sore nearly everywhere. Her sleep-fogged brain tried to remember how many times she and Tanner had made love but lost count somewhere between the shower and the couch in the space designated for a living room. The small size of the piece of furniture resulted in a few new, creative positions.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” Tanner’s voice was soft and rumbly and…There was no way she could possibly be turned on again, was there?
She kept her eyes closed, unwilling to acknowledge the morning or the sun or anything other than more sleep. The thing that hadn’t seemed all that important last night. “Not morning. Sleeping.”
Tanner’s deep chuckle made the bed vibrate. She shot a hand out to pull him down to lie next to her again, but when she connected with flannel instead of bare skin, her eyes flew open and she sat up. “You’re dressed?”
His gaze roamed down his bare chest and pajama-clad legs, then over Izzy and the thin sheet covering her, and he grinned. “Well, maybe more dressed than you, but certainly not fit for public display.”
The smile fell from his face, and he swallowed. “Sweetheart…I…you…” He sighed. “There’s something you need to do. We need to do.”
Her eyes widened. “Aren’t you exhausted?”
He threw his head back and laughed. He got up and dug in the suitcase a few feet away. “No, sweetheart, not that. I mean, yes that, but later.” Tanner held up one of his shirts and motioned for her to get out of bed. “First put this on, because hot damn, Belle, looking at your body isn’t going to help me concentrate.”
She obediently stood in front of him, completely naked, and smirked when he sucked in a sharp breath and quickly dropped his shirt over her head. The hem skimmed the tops of her knees and the neck nearly slipped off her shoulder, but apparently it offered enough coverage he could start to breathe again.
Tanner pulled her hand over to the bathroom and sat down on the toilet. She scrubbed a hand over her eyes and tried to understand. She hadn’t gotten enough sleep to follow his thoughts. “Tanner, you’re gonna have to spell this out for me because I need about a half a pot of coffee to even remember my name right now.”
He leaned over to the sink and pulled something off the counter holding it up between them. Her confusion only grew when she realized it was an electric hair trimmer.
“I want you to shave my hair off.”
She felt like she’d been punched in the gut. “Wh-what?” She started shaking her head vigorously and immediately her hands flew into his hair wanting to protect each strand from the very suggestion of being shaved. Tanner had never had hair longer than about two inches, but the thought of nothing was almost unbelievable.
He set the clippers back on the sink and held her hands, looking up at her with earnest, open blue eyes. “I can’t undo what happened, sweetheart, but if you’re willing to give me this gift, the least I can do is try to make it as fresh of a start as possible.” He released her hands and held the electric device out to her again with a wide smile. “It’ll grow back in a few months.”
“And then it’ll be just ours again.” The words barely made it past her clogged throat. She clicked the switch on and jumped at the buzzing sound. Her eyes bounced from the razor to Tanner and back. “A-are…Tanner, are you sure?”
The smile vanished. “Belle, I would lay down my life for you. Do you think losing a few strands of hair is going to bother me in the slightest? And I want you to be honest with me: will this make you feel better?”
There was no way she could answer him. She simply nodded, and the smile spread across his face again. “So I get to have a happy wife and the hottest freaking barber in the world. How exactly is this going to be hard on me?”
Her hand was shaking and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself as much as possible. Was he really offering this?
“Tanner—”
“It’s okay, Belle.”
She swallowed and made a line through his hair with the razor. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks and landed on his head.
His hands grasped her hips and he gave a gentle squeeze. “Keep going, sweetheart.”
Izzy had no idea how long it took to shave the rest of the hair from his head. She stopped several times to use the sleeve of Tanner’s shirt to wipe away the tears and clear her vision. When she made the last swipe, she clicked it off and threw it in the sink.
She grabbed a towel from the rack behind her and brushed all the hair off his bare chest and shoulders. As soon as she was done, she sat on his lap, buried her face against his neck, and sobbed.
They sat there for several long minutes before Tanner lifted her against his chest and carried her back to the bed. He stretched out beside her and held her close. She sniffled a few times as the tears began to subside.
Izzy lifted her head and looked in his eyes. A piece of her heart she hadn’t realized was still broken slowly began to mend. “Thank you, baby.”
Tanner’s mouth fell open. “You…you haven’t called me that in a long time, sweetheart. I-I missed that.”
She pressed her mouth against his. “I know. I love you, baby. And I love that you’re mine.”