“You know who.”
“It’s more fun for me if you say it.”
“Fun? I thought you were my therapist. Doesn’t that mean you shouldn’t torture me?” Eric shoved his last piece of now-cold fish into his mouth then stood with his plate.
“Like I said, this isn’t my kind of therapy. This is me talking to my friend.” He grinned. “And maybe enjoying his reactions.”
“You know what? You’re uninvited from my hypothetical dinner.”
“Who’d you picture, Eric?”
He scraped the food remains into a compost bin and set his dish in the sink.
“Nikolett.”
“As a friend?”
“No, she was pregnant with our second kid.” Eric scrubbed his hands over his face as Elijah started to laugh. “The first one was a little girl and she had a sword.”
Elijah leaned against the fridge, still laughing.
“So what do I do about it?”
That had Elijah straightening. “What do you want to do about it?”
Eric stared down at the dishes in the sink. This moment should have a more momentous visual memory. Maybe he should go stand on the balcony in the rain.
“Marry her.”
The wash of relief that swept through him took him by surprise. It was as if his body had been waiting for his brain, and now his body could finally relax since his brain was on board.
“Can you?” Elijah asked softly. “She’s a territory admiral. You’re the fleet admiral.”
Eric waved that away. “I can step down. I don’t care about the fleet admiral title.” He grimaced. “They may not let me, but even if they don’t, there’s a solution to the job issue, even if I’m not sure what it is right now. Nikolett is the smartest person I know. She’ll figure it out.”
Eric walked out of the kitchen, needing to move. He stalked to the windows, looking out at the rain, but deciding not to actually go out on the stone patio. Elijah stepped beside him.
“The real issue was always me. My belief that loving her would kill her. I would remember my wives’ deaths, Josephine’s head in the basket. But now I don’t feel that raw terror when I think about them.” Eric looked over. “Thanks for that.”
“You’re welcome.” Elijah put a hand on the glass, which was double-glazed but seemed an insubstantial barrier as rain and wind lashed the glass.
“It’s one thing to admit I love her. That wasn’t a secret apparently.”
“Not from the people closest to you.”
“Admitting I want a family with her. That I want to love her until the day one of us dies…” Eric let the slap and patter of rain lashing glass overtake his words. They stayed there, separated from the rage of nature by thin glass for several moments. “This is a real storm.”
“Think it’s going to get worse?”
“Yes.”
Elijah looked over. “You’re not talking about the storm outside, are you?”
“No, I’m not.”
Elijah just waited.
“Nikolett is the storm.”
