Dax nodded, eyes fixed on the building, its bared windows on the second floor giving away some of its voracious nature.
“If the rumours are even close to true, I can’t imagine going through something like that as a kid. It was never your choice like it was for me. I knew what I was getting into when I enlisted. Sort of.” He swallowed and looked dangerously close to arranging his features into one of those sympathetic looks that I hated.
“Do you still think about it?” he turned to face me again.
“Honestly? No, well I didn’t. Except in my dreams. But now…”
He nodded again. “You can’t control it?”
I kept my gaze on the bottle in my hands as my eyes grew tired. There was nothing I hated more than not being in control of the things in my life.
“Do you still think about it? The war, I mean,” I asked, stretching out on my back to shift the focus away from myself.
“Sometimes, but not like I used to. It’s not intrusive anymore.” He opened another beer.
“Sounds like heaven. How long until that happens for me?”
He snorted. “I didn’t get there on my own,” he said, his mouth twitching in the moonlight.
“Brain transplant?” I teased, propping myself up on my elbow. I loved relying on other people’s help to feel better.
Not.
He rolled his eyes at me and grinned. “You think you’re ready for it?”
“Give it to me,” I replied before I grimaced at the opening for a that’s what she said joke and was grateful he missed it entirely.
Dax sat up straight, glancing sideways like he wasn’t sure he could trust me with his big secret.
“Yoga,” he said. The top of his neck flushed pink.
I snorted.
“Well, specifically yoga nidra,” he clarified, ignoring my amusement.
“And that really works for you?” I asked, barely concealing my snigger. “Like with an om and a tree pose and all that stuff?”
“Not exactly. It’s more of a meditation. But I don’t mind that other stuff. It’s actually harder than people think. You should come to a class sometime.”
I squinted at him, but his expression stayed completely sincere.
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
Also known ashell no.
I crawled over to the cool box at his feet to grab another beer. I was acutely aware of what being on all fours might look like. Maybe I was ovulating. Maybe it was the moonlight. Maybe I just liked him better when his head wasn’t attached to his phone. Or up his own ass.
That darkness I’d seen once before flashed briefly in his eyes as I settled beside him. It was gone a moment later, but my heart started beating faster. I imagined his shirtless body under the moonlight and tried to shove the fantasy back into the faulty vault in my brain.
“Shhh,” he hissed, his body stiffening. “Did you hear that?”
I froze, straining my ears.
There it was. A rustling. Far too close for comfort.
Dax slipped silently from the back of the ute and motioned for me to stay put. Was he mad? This might be my unwanted house, but it was still mine. I followed, ignoring his eye roll in the moonlight. He held a finger to his lips.
A creaking noise followed. Something rubbing against bark. It was getting louder. Closer. Then it stopped. We waited.
