He rolled onto his elbow facing me and edged a tiny bit closer. “Silas?”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, Silas…The world could endtonight…”
I shifted my head to watch himwarily.
“I really don’t want to go home right now,” he said. And then he leaned toward me slowly, so slowly that I could see the golden light play off his beautiful green eyes and memorize every single flicker of emotion I read there. Caution and hope and affection andwant.
His lips met mine for a second before he pulled back to watch me, likehewasn’t sure howIwas going to react. It would have been comical if I’d been capable of laughing in thatmoment.
“Come back to my house,” I blurted, but we both knew that I was offering more. Offeringeverything.
Hell, he could have any damn thing he wanted, all he had to do wasask.
But all he said was, “Okay.” And then he stood up and reached down a hand forme.
I let him help me to my feet, then wrapped my arm around his waist and led him to my truck, which was parked on the side of the road by theschool.
We walked slowly, and I helped him in slowly, just as I had that night a few weeks back. I drove us back to my place slowly, and drove slowly down the driveway to park right in front of the garage. I wanted to give him every opportunity to think, to rethink, to test all of his suspicions and superstitions and come to adecision.
Because once I got close to him again, I didn’t think I’d be able to go slowly atall.
“Come on.” I nodded at the garage. “I have something to showyou.”
I climbed down and unlocked the garage door, then rolled it up to reveal the mostly-disassembled pieces of what had been my grandfather’s pride andjoy.
“What is it?” Ev said, stepping forward to run his hand over the primer-coated quarter panel. “A sportscar?”
“Mmm hmm. A 1984 Porsche 944. It used to be orange. My grandmother used to call it my grandfather's midlife-crisis-mobile.”
He smiled. “And you're restoringit?”
“Kinda,” I acknowledged. “I haven't touched it in a while. I like knowing it's here. But, uh, here's what I wanted to showyou.”
I nodded at the box in the shadowy backcorner.
He looked from the box to me, then back again, and frowned. “Are those…mine?”
“Your art supplies, yeah. I drove over to Rushford and grabbed them out of your car last week before it got junked, just in case you wantedthem.”
“This is what you were going to show me Saturdaynight?”
I nodded. “Before I got calledout.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, but a small smile played over his lips like he was pleased and surprised. “Are you likely to get called outtonight?”
I shrugged. “I don’t think so, but I never know. It couldhappen.”
“Well, I really, really hope that doesn’t happen, Silas.” He stood and stalked toward me. “I wantyou.”
“Are you sure?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Be sure,Everett.”
“Positive.”
That was all I needed to hear. I grabbed his hips and hauled him against me, loving the way the breath huffed out of his lungs at the contact. He smelled like green grass and sunshine, and I savoredit.
Ev surged forward so his lips pressed against mine, but I pushed him back justslightly.
