Time. To be a different person. Love.
But I patted the spot on the bed next to me instead, going with the next best thing.
Those dark eyebrows rose straight up his forehead.
“What the hell are you thinking about?” I snorted. “Talk to me.”
I couldn’t tell if he was smirking or smiling.
“What? I missed arguing with you. I missed your grouchy little face too. And I have so many questions I couldn’t ask Hiromi or Selene, even though I like them a lot.” I smiled. “They aren’t you.”
Part of me expected him to grunt, but he gave me a long look instead and made his way around to the other side of the bed. From one blink to another, he was lying next to me, his long legs stretched out in front of him. He’d even pulled the pillow up to pad his back from the headboard before crossing his arms over his chest.
There went my Grumpy Goose.
Honestly, he was my favorite. This version of him. All bark and no bite.
He slid those purple eyes toward me, and even though his mouth was flat, I didn’t think he was really all that crabby about having to talk to me. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. “What do you want to talk about?”
I rolled onto my hip and twined my fingers together. “Things I had too much time to think about since you snuck out of here a month ago.”
“I didn’t sneak out.”
I snorted. “You were gone by the time I woke up the next day, after you slept in the same bed as me. If that’s not sneaking out, I don’t know what is.”
“Not sneaking out.”
My mouth went flat, butfine.It didn’t matter. I knew what had happened, and so did he. We didn’t need to talk about it.“Were you really three when you learned how to fly?” I asked, bringing up that conversation from a month ago.
“That’s what you want to talk about?” He sounded so surprised, like he didn’t understand how or why I remembered that tiny fact.
But he wasn’t the only one who paid attention. “I’m just getting you warmed up. Don’t get excited. I’ve been thinking about it for a month, and you said I could choose so….”
His biceps bunched under his T-shirt. “Yes.”
“Flying-flying? At three?” I hadn’t believed it then, and I didn’t believe it now.
“With my mom. When I was six, they let me go with Alana.”
I’d bet it was the cutest thing in the whole world. So cute it was hard to picture. “How amazing is it? To be able to do that?”
“It’s the same as walking. Until I couldn’t, it wasn’t something I really even thought of. You just… do it.”
You just do it.Like breathing. Oh, how I fucking wished.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing, I’m just a little”—I lifted my hand and held my index finger and thumb about an inch apart—“jealous. I would trade ten years off my life to be able to fly.” I side-eyed him. “Do you ever offer rides?”
“Rides where?” he asked like he didn’t know exactly what I was talking about.
I pointed upward, mostly joking.
Mostly.
That got me a subtle snort. “Hell no.”
“Never?”
