She swatted my arm. “You knew it before that. How?”
“It’s something I picked up on pretty quickly.”
She shook her head. “But how?” she repeated. “I have never told anyone because until you, I never realized how much I needed it. Craved it.”
I shrugged, the cave floor hard beneath my shoulder blades. “I pay attention to you, Devon. I always have.”
Her eyes flared and shuttered as a range of emotions played across her face. She shifted and tensed, before seeming to try and force herself to relax again.
I cradled her face with my hands. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Take your time, Devon. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
She cupped my hand with hers and huffed out a dry laugh. “You might be the most emotionally mature man I’ve ever known, Aaron Joseph.”
I grinned, desperate to keep her here, with me, and out of her head. “Thanks?”
She rolled over and stood, then held her hand out for mine. I took it and hauled myself up. She pulled her hair into place and nodded to the waterfall. “We should get back.”
I leaned to kiss her, unwilling to let her shut down and knowing that touch was the way to do it. “Lead on.”
16
DEVON 4 MONTHS, 28 DAYS TO GO
I launched the text to my brother without a second thought.
We need to talk.
Worst phrase in the history of mankind.
I thought that was ‘I’m pregnant with twins’?
I’m currently watching those twins play in the bathtub since you’re hanging out with my wife this evening.
This house is a money pit.
So are my twins.
You’re a mechanic.
Last time I checked.
What’s your HVAC knowledge?
Fair to middling.
I’ll take that. When can you swing by?
This weekend?
Sounds good. As thanks, I’ll be sure to get your wife totally wasted tonight.
That’s not how this works.
That’s exactly how this works.
I grinned and clicked my phone off, looking forward to this evening.
I felt…lighter. I couldn’t explain it and if I looked too hard, things got fuzzy. Even though I’d been here just over a month and hadn’t heard from any of the out-of-town jobs I’d applied for, I wasn’t as worried as usual. No plan to speak of still made me itchy, but there were so many things to do at Gigi’s that I couldn’t honestly see myself leaving anytime soon. The air conditioner wasn’t cooling the house below seventy-nine, the electrician hadn’t managed to fix the issue upstairs, and now I had to deal with mold in the basement. And no way could I think about trying to redecorate the place or anything—everywhere I turned it was manufacturing delays and supply chain issues. There was no easy, or fast, way out of this.
But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if everything took more than six months. And even though it seemed impossible, because I fought the guilty memories of Jason near-daily since getting here, I was beginning to think that maybe I was okay with staying longer. Maybe it really was okay that I didn’t have a job lined up.
Wait. Did I mean that? I patted my legs and arms, confirming I was indeed still here and I hadn’t spontaneously combusted or something. This kind of thinking was very new. I felt my forehead: no fever.
Huh. If I told Ceci and Jodi, they’d know exactly who to blame: a certain hot paramedic who wasn’t letting me focus nearly as much as I needed to.
I busied myself around the kitchen, needing to put the introspection aside. Because right now, it led me to thinking about the things Aaron did with his tongue, and the news I’d gotten at my check-up today. Which did not, unfortunately, bode well for my tongue. Or my jaw.
That whole “unwiring in two weeks” thing had become “we’ll see you back in two weeks and don’t plan on getting unwired” thing. I eyed the tequila and seriously considered a pre-game shot.
Beside me, Samson woofed and perked his ears.
“Hellooo,” Jodi’s voice called from the front. “Your two favorite women are here!”
Unable to help myself, I grinned and hollered back. “Then get into the kitchen and let’s have some margaritas!”
Ceci came in first, clad in black yoga pants and t-shirt, her jean jacket in one hand and a bottle of tequila in another. Jodi was next, wearing a blue, polka-dotted A-line skirt and a white button down rolled at the sleeves. Her red lipstick was flawless as ever. She wrapped me in a hug, enveloping me in her coffee-and-pastry scent.
“Thanks for having us,” Jodi said as she pulled away. “I needed this like you couldn’t believe. Hey, Samson.” She leaned down to pet him.
