? ? ?
Something warm pressed into my hand. My lids fluttered open at the brush of lips over my forehead. Not soft, like my mother’s. Scratchy whiskers tickled my skin. My eyes adjusted to the dim light. Reece’s face hovered over me, his tired eyes shadowed under a chaotic mess of hair.
I inhaled deeply, not caring that he wasn’t showered or shaved. The smell of his jacket was warm and reassuring. I crushed it between my fingers and it creaked as he settled next to me on the bed.
“Sorry it took me so long to get here. I can’t ride my bike, so I’m stuck taking the bus.” He shrugged his right shoulder. His jacket hung limp under the empty sleeve. “I would have called, but you keep losing this at very inconvenient times.” He tapped my hand where it curled around his phone.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” I shut my eyes, the gunshot still echoing in my head.
“It’ll heal. I got released this morning, but you were sleeping. I’ve been at the station all day getting my ass chewed by the lieutenant.” He brushed the hair back from my face. “I nearly missed you. They’re getting ready to send you home. I came as soon as I could.”
“Why?” I asked.
“What do you mean, why? Because I wanted to see you.” Reece’s shoulders sagged. “And I wanted to give you these.” He opened his jacket. His right arm was bound tight to his chest and wrapped in a blue sling. His hand spilled over with purple thistles. “I thought you might like them.”
I smiled behind the bouquet. “That’s not what I meant. Not, why did you come.” I liked to think I knew why he was there. “Why did you get your ass chewed?”
“Oh, that,” he said, dismissing it with a wave of his good arm. “I’m in a little hot water for interfering with a homicide case that I shouldn’t have been involved in. But I wouldn’t have done anything differently, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Wait, I don’t understand. You’re in trouble for protecting me?” I sat up, the monitors jumping in response to my heart rate. “That’s ridiculous! They told you to follow me, and I wasn’t guilty—”
“Calm down, it’s okay.” He glanced at the monitors and pressed me back to the mattress with a firm hand to my shoulder. Then drew it down to trace a finger over the naked skin where his pendant used to be. His touch was tender and sweet. “Do you remember when you asked me why I was following you?”
I nodded, his finger tracing slow patterns over my heart.
“I never followed you because I had to, or because I thought you did anything wrong. I did it because I care about you.”
He shifted, reaching behind his head to unclasp his pendant. When his hand found mine, the silky metal chain, warm from his body, spilled into it. He threaded our fingers together. He felt different. Peaceful.
I leaned forward and let him fasten the thistle around my neck.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you . . .” His eyes flicked nervously to mine. “. . . About the ads.”
“What about them?” I asked, ready to tell him the truth.
“Before this all started . . . before TJ started writing the ads . . . what were you looking for? In the personals, I mean.” I’d never heard Reece stammer before, never heard him sound unsure of himself. A twinge of jealousy leeched through our joined hands. He wasn’t asking me about my father. My cheeks warmed.
“I’m not sure really,” I said, thinking back to the way Friday mornings felt before TJ’s first ad. “But I think maybe I’ve found it.”
He leaned in slowly, tilting his head to brush his lips against mine. Every rule, every shred of hesitation I’d felt before, dissolved away. I wanted him, every part of him, and we could mess with outcome later.
Reece grinned and pulled back too quickly. “Oh yeah? And what about the no touching thing?”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in. “It was a shitty rule anyway.”
His mouth moved to my chin and kissed a slow trail down. “What are you going to do now?” I asked.
“Make out with you.” His voice was a deep purr and it tickled my neck.
“That’s not what I meant.” What I meant to ask was where he would be and when I would see him again, but it was hard to concentrate. The beeping of the monitors picked up speed and the screen flashed with irregular peaks. I tugged his jacket and slid over, making room in the bed.
As if reading my mind, he said, “I can’t stay.” But his kiss said otherwise. He eased down into the bed, careful of his sling and my tubes, though neither one of us wanted to be careful. “I have to get back to the station. I’m getting transferred.”
“Transferred?” I pushed him back so I could see his face, hoping I didn’t sound as clingy as I felt. “To where? Summer break already started.”