“I’m joking. Put something on and we can talk while watching it.”
7
Chapter Seven
Mac
We’ve been sitting on Lelonie’s couch talking about everything and nothing for hours. She shuts things down pretty quickly when I bring up our families, but she’s let me in just enough to understand that the Fischer’s are her family. They seem to operate not too differently than my family, only hers isn’t intertwined with the mob, and mine doesn’t have parents.
I haven’t said anything, and I won’t, but she looks tired. I’ve noticed her eyes blink a little longer than would be considered normal for the past few minutes. She readjusts her position often as well, trying to paint an expression of indifference on her face when she does, but I can see the flash of discomfort in her eyes. Somewhere in between us talking about how we got into our field and the third episode of this show about some guy who has four wives, Lee tucked her feet up on the couch.Her eyes are fluttering, and my heart twists at her making herself stay awake because I’m here.
“I’m so sorry. I haven’t been feeling well recently and the fatigue must be lingering.” She yawns out.
“Do you want me to leave so you can rest?” I ask cautiously. I’d rather stay here and talk her into lying on me while she naps, but I’ll do whatever makes her comfortable.
“No, no I’m up. It’s fine.” I can’t help the grin that pulls at my lips. So she wants to hang out with me too? Maybe this isn’t as one sided as I thought.
“How about we both nap, we’ll set an alarm then we’ll wake up and continue our questions?”
“You don’t want to do that. I’ll be okay.” She begins to sit up, but I grab her foot and gently tug her back down until her head rests against the armrest and her feet lie on my lower stomach.
“Stop, I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t want to do it.”
All the fight leaves her as the exhaustion becomes more apparent. “Fine, but only forty-five minutes.”
“Deal. Sleep now, Beautiful.” I set the alarm on my phone, then show her the proof. I’m not going to sleep, but she doesn’t need to know that.
Her eyes flutter closed as she whispers, “Thank you.”
Settling back against my armrest, one of my legs is off the side of the couch, and the other is pulled up so my foot is rested near her hip. Taking one of her feet in my hands, I gently begin to rub it. My fingers pause for just a second when I feel the swelling in them, that’s weird. I wonder what she was sick with. I’m just about to ask her when I hear her breathing even out. Peeking over at her my heart twists, she looks like a fucking angel. I take out my phone and my flask.Using one hand to take a picture of the perfection in front of me, and the other to warm my veins.
Her dark brown hair frames her face perfectly. Her bow shaped lips are parted slightly, and her face is the picture of perfect relaxation. She looks so much like the kid I knew fifteen years ago when she’s asleep. When the world isn’t weighing down on her, and her trauma isn’t plaguing her, she just looks like my childhood best friend. The girl I declared to my brothers at just five that I was going to marry. After putting my phone and flask away my hands start to work her feet again, switching back and forth while she peacefully naps, and forty five minutes later, when the alarm goes off, I turn it off quickly before she wakes up and give her an extra fifteen minutes.
* * *
“No!” Lee’s giggle rings out throughout the entire apartment. “You didn’t?”
I let her sleep for about an hour, then gently woke her up. She’s seemed fine since then and even made a joke about friends who nap together, stay together. I can’t wait until we’re past the friend stage and I can fuck that word right out of her vocabulary. Since then we’ve been talking about our siblings, which brings us to me finishing my story.
“I did. I was only like thirteen. Rowan and Declan were so pissed. They had homecoming the next day.”
“You put bleach in their shampoo the day before homecoming!” She howls, tears streaming down her face from laughing so hard. She’s so fucking pretty.
“And they never called me a runt again.” I can’t help my smirk. “They deserved it and I stand by that even nine years later.”
“I don’t understand why they’d call you that anyways. You’re a giant.” She settles down, wiping her eyes.
“I was small until I started high school. Then the summer before ninth grade, I shot up six inches and was taller than everyone else. I was six-four by the time I was seventeen then I just stopped growing.”
“I was really small when I came to live with my family too. You know how Nix and I know each other, so you know my younger years sucked. But I remember also being smaller than everyone until high school.”
I smile at the thought of teenage Lee. I just know I would have had the biggest thing for her back then too. “Do you have any pictures of middle school Lee, you know, for research purposes.” I fight to hold back my laugh.
“You just want to see them so you can make fun of me, don’t you?” Her eyes narrow and I can’t hide my laugh anymore.
“Oh, come on. I’m sure your braces were very cute back then.”
“Fuck off, Mac. You can leave.” She tries to act like she’s serious but I can see the laughter dancing just below the surface.
