The drive to Sunny’s house was quick and I laced her fingers through mine, pressing them to my chest, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t feel like I could say anything until we closed the door behind us and sealed ourselves off from this day and everything that had led up to it.
The dogs were waiting at the door and they yipped and nosed at us like they couldn’t believe Sunny had gotten into more trouble and they hadn’t been there to help. With a hand between Sunny’s shoulder blades, I steered her toward the bedroom. “Go,” I ordered. “I’ll feed the pups. I want you in that bed when I come back.”
“I was only taken hostage, Beck,” she called as I headed into the kitchen. “I don’t need to be babied.”
“Can I speak to your manager?” I called back. “Because none of that makes sense.”
I heard her laugh while I prepared the dogs’ bowls. The sound warmed me all the way through. It was a sunbeam right to the heart and I couldn’t believe I’d ever lived without it.
I took my contacts out in the bathroom and then pulled together some food and two glasses of water. I knew we were both going to crash soon, but we loved midnight snacks in bed.
When I stepped into her room, I found Sunny sitting up in bed examining her cast. Her hair was tied in a loose ponytail and she wore a baggy t-shirt withThe Soggy Dogscrawled across the front. I set everything on the bedside table and started unbuttoning my shirt. “How’s the arm?”
“Eh, you know,” she said, gingerly rotating it from side to side. “It’s still broken, and maybe a little more fucked-up than it was this morning, but I don’t think it’s going to fall off or anything.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” I tossed my shirt and tie to the chair in the corner and went to work on my trousers. “We make a pretty good team.”
“It’s nice how you say that now, but from the first minute that you walked in there—”
“I believe I broke down the door, thank you for noticing.”
“—all you could do was complain about how I knocked the knife out of his hand and broke his nose and nailed him in the balls—”
“All I was trying to say was that you didn’t have to take those kinds of risks.”
“—as if I wasn’t fully aware of what I was doing. I’ll remind you I managed to get my watch off and throw it hard enough to trigger a call to emergency services—”
“At no point did I suggest you were anything but capable. I simply suggested that you didn’t have to take down the bloodthirsty maniac by yourself.”
“—and I did it while tied to a chair, Beck! I wasn’t tied especially well but the point remains and I had no reason to believe you or anyone else would notice what was going on over there—”
“All I do is notice what’s going on over there. I’ve been staring at your café since the day you told me to stay on my side of the street.” I settled beside her on the bed and pressed a finger to her lips. The evil glimmer in her eyes told me how much she liked that. “I’m just sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”
She nipped at the pad of my finger with a small smile. “I need you to lower the bar for yourself,” she said. “You’re not always going to be able to show up the minute the bloodthirsty maniac decides to set the building on fire.”
“Maybe we plan on this being the only incident where a bloodthirsty maniac sets a building on fire with you inside it.” I shrugged. “Just an idea.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” She leaned in, kissed the corner of my mouth. “Just so you know, you don’t have to do any of the things you said while I was a hostage. It was a crazy moment. Crazy things happening. We don’t have to live by all the crazy things said.”
“Sweetheart, that was a legitimate negotiation. Don’t tell me you’re backing out of our deal.”
“It was really scary in there,” she said by way of explanation. “It’s possible we didn’t mean all the things we said.”
“And byweyou mean me?” I tapped my chest. “Or you?”
She lifted a shoulder, let it fall as she ran the edge of the blanket between her fingers. “I don’t know. Anyone who might want to rethink anything they said while I was in mortal danger.”
“There is no more honest moment than the one that could be the last.” I ducked to meet her eyes. “I meant everything I said and it’s tough shit if you want to back out because I’m not going to be able to let you out of my sight for at least three years. Most likely four. I didn’t plan on falling the fuck in love with you, Sunny, but that didn’t happen tonight.”
“I love you too but I don’t want you to make any big decisions about—about anything.”
I studied her for a heavy moment. I knew what she was doing. And I knew I couldn’t let it happen. “You were right when you told me to let myself be vulnerable. To open myself up. To let myself be part of this place without constantly looking for the exit. And I’ve learned that—”
My fucking phone started ringing.
“Ignore it.” She motioned for me to go on, but a second after the ringing stopped, it started up again. “Okay, get it and turn it off. Nothing’s happening that requires our attention.”
I held up the screen to Sunny.
