His silence had me finding his grouchy face.
“It worked. You don’t need to be mad,” I told him.
“You could have broken your neck.”
“Maybe.” I pressed my cheek a little tighter to his shoulder, focusing up on the beams of his ceiling. “I had faith. You told me you wouldn’t let anything happen to me, remember?”
He tensed for a split second. “I remember.” I felt his exhale. “I’m never going to let anything happen to you.”
Oh boy. I swallowed that statement for safekeeping. “For the record, that was the most exciting thing to ever happen to me.”
“You all right with that?”
I snorted and closed my eyes, taking in the sweet scent of him. “Are you kidding me? I dreamed of that my whole life. Thank you for not letting me down. It was my choice, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted.” I paused. “It was totally worth it.”
His “hmm” puffed against my hair.
And I hoped he believed me when I reached over and wrapped my fingers around his index and middle finger.
I held on real fucking tight.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
He was gone.
Tapping the pad of my finger against the note on the kitchen counter, I blinked. Then I read the note again like there could possibly be some kind of secret message hidden on the back of the grocery store receipt.
Call Selene if you need something
Other than a cell phone number and a four-digit code below it, that was all that was written on it. Right beside the paper, he’d left what I was pretty sure was a house key, what definitely was his car key, and the same card he’d let me use to buy my laptop.
Had he made his decision about continuing to be The Defender? Was he back on duty? How long would he be gone? Where was he going? Last night, we hadn’t talked about what it meant that he was able to fly again, and we’d laid on his bed and talked for a while, mostly about his secret comic book career.
That sneaky son of a bitch. Of course he’d told me the truth in the most disbelieving way.
I really admired him.
Too much, and that made me mad.
We were both skirting around the vision thing again, and I damn well knew it. I was going to keep doing it too. So was he, from the feel of it.
He liked me as a friend. He liked my boobs, but so did random strangers. Him staying in my life in a positive way was the most important thing, and I wouldn’t let myself forget it.
Because in what universe would a man like him end up with someone like me?
I folded the note and slipped it into my pocket. His handwriting was scribbly, and it made me smile that there was one thing he wasn’t good at. I could make fun of him later and remind him about that time he’d lost at the carnival over and over again.
It was while I was thinking about that, that a knock came from the front door.
My first thought was that I shouldn’t answer, but then I remembered where I was. In the safest place I could be. But just in case, I grabbed my phone and pulled my new multi-tool out of the back pocket of my jeans as I crept toward the front door just as another knock rattled it. I flipped the sharp blade out.
My skin prickled suddenly. A strong buzz shot through my spine. And I felt it.
Oh boy. I didn’t need to use the peephole to know who it was. I flipped the blade back into place and put my multi-tool in my pocket. I opened the door, already mentally bracing myself for the force of nature on the other side.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Standing there, holding a cane with a big red rock that might or might not be a ruby, dressed in a simple cream button-up shirt and navy slacks, was Alex’s grandma.
