Dragging my lips over the inside of her wrist, I said, "Thank you."
She arched a brow. "For?"
"Everything." I met her eyes, hoping she saw the brutal, endless truth of it in mine. "For all of it. Always."
Her gaze traveled over my face, quiet and thoughtful. A smile ticked at the corner of her mouth as Bagel and Percy ran past and I knew she was feeling her way around the perimeter of those strange puzzle pieces. Turning them until they met at all the right points.
Then a shadow seemed to pass over her expression. "You're lucky I let you in the door last night."
"I know."
"You left me hanging for a really long time," she said. "Jamie and Ruth will probably kick your ass the next time they see you."
"I would expect nothing less." I ran a hand over the grass. "Getting a little overgrown," I said. "Does your yard service come once a week? Or every other?"
"It's pretty much whenever I remember," she said. "And then once I remember, I have to find the motivation to actually do it."
I peered at the expanse of her backyard, not huge but enough lawn to require an hour or two of weekly upkeep during the peak summer months. "You're mowing this? By yourself?"
A nod. "For the past few years, yeah."
I couldn't stop staring at the side of her face. "With what?"
"Some really big scissors. I started out with regular scissors but it just took too long." A minimum of thirty seconds passed before I realized she was fucking with me. "I have a lawn mower, Jude."
It wasn't that I didn't believe Audrey could do this. It was that there were moments when I became uncomfortably aware that she'd been on her own for a long damn time with no one to look after her. She had friends ,and their partners had seemed willing to engage in some light waterboarding so I had to assume they'd also pitch in if needed. But she was the one to shovel out her driveway in the winter. To deal with roof leaks and drafty windows and yard work.
It didn't bother me that she had to do all of this; it bothered me that she had to do it alone.
"Where's this mower? I want to take a look at it."
"You're not taking a look at anything," she said. "You'll start that, and the next thing we know, there will be eight million lawn mower pieces spread out across my driveway."
"I think you're aware I can put it back together."
"Yes. Yes, you can. But you'll also tell me why it's a shitty mower or how I should've changed the oil or that you can see I must've mowed over some rocks last year and that's why there's always a weird strip of grass that doesn't get cut." She rolled her eyes. It was adorable. "Don't you have better things to do right now than that anyway?"
I considered this for a second. Aside from the fact I'd been forced to clear my entire calendar over the past few weeks and my life was a special kind of shambles, I had plenty of work to do. There was also a small yet growing mountain of legal issues headed my way. And school was starting in about six weeks and I was no closer to finalizing plans for Percy. But I asked, "Where's this mower?"
"It's in there." She pointed to the far side of the yard, to where a weathered stack of wood that met the loosest definition of a structure stood under a massive maple tree. Another project, then. "Have fun with that."
"What else is on your to-do list?"
She laughed. "How long are you staying?"
"As long as you'll let me."
"Will you please be serious?"
"I am," I shot back.
"Then, what? You're moving in with me?"
I tucked some hair over her ear, let my fingers linger on the curve of her neck. "Weareengaged."
"We are not engaged," she cried, slapping the grass.
"Did you forget about me telling you the ring is real? I'll go get it?—"
