“I can do that.” He brightened up again. Shifting in closer, his tongue swiped over his bottom lip, making it gleam. “I’mreallygood at talking.”
I laughed louder than I’d meant to and nodded. “That ye are.” Making myself take a step back, I waved at the plates. “Clean them off and put them in the sink. I’ll deal with them when I get home. Go help our boy clean up, yeah?”
Giving him a final smile, I forced myself to turn around, my entire body warm with need. I wasn’t going to give in to my desire, though. Not yet. Fallon was young. Naïve. I wasn’t sure if he was ready for a serious relationship, but before I gave him my heart, I had to know.
Time was the solution to figure out if he was ready or not, and we had plenty of that.
EPILOGUE - PART V
DR. VAIL MIFFLIN
Aspen and Cillian were gone and I couldn’t help but mope. I’d woken up early a week ago today to tiredly kiss them as they left. I wasn’t embarrassed to admit I cried after their car pulled away, not much, but it had happened, and in a way that made me feel better about them going. I was sad, but they would be back. Fallon had still been dead-asleep because Cillian had been working him to exhaustion.
But my sadness hadn’t disappeared quite the way I’d thought it would. I’d had a lot of people fall out of my life in the last year, and I didn’t like how quiet things were with two less people in the house. I sighed and stared at the ceiling in Aspen’s room. It was entirely ridiculous, but I swore the pillows didn’t smell as much like him as they usually did. I turned my head and buried my face in one—no, the scent of his cologne was fading, I wasn’t wrong.
There was a knock on the door and I didn’t bother turning to look. “Yes?”
“Dr. Mifflin?” Lor’s timid voice stirred me out of my funk, and I sat up to smile at him as he came into the room.
“Hey,” I said, sitting up and crossing my legs on the bed. I glanced down at my red boxers, but it wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen me this way in the past. “What are you doing here?”
He sat down next to me, smiling. There was pink streaked into the white stripe in his hair, and he preened a little until I noticed he had a new nose piercing. The tiny skull that twinkled above his right nostril wasn’t a big surprise.
“Oh, that’s cute,” I said, and it was worth it to see the smile that spread across his face, but it quickly wilted.
“Everyone’s worried about you.” He gave me big brown eyes, and as always, they were so innocent. I knew him better now than I used to, but this particular look from him never failed to elicit some guilt in me. “Fallon said he’s never seen you sad like this, and I said it can’t be worse than the two weeks before finals, but he swore it was at least that bad... and it looks like it is.” He nudged my shoulder with his and grinned. “You didn’t get dressed yet. You miss them?” He glanced around the room, and I figured someone must have told him where to find me, so he probably knew it was Aspen’s space.
“So much.” I groaned and dragged the pillow up to bury my face in it while he chuckled. “I know I’m being ridiculous,” I mumbled.
He tugged at the pillow. “I couldn’t hear you.”
Dropping the pillow, I repeated myself.
“Oh, it’s okay,” he said and gave me a small side hug. “I understand. If I had a... a partner, I would miss them if they left.” He flushed and shrugged. “Two people gone is something to feel a way about.”
“But I still have two people who love me here. It’s silly.”
He nodded and shoved some of his dyed black hair back behind his ear. He had on a fun shirt with a dancing skeleton that I thought might glow in the dark if we hit the lights. I reached over and touched the new skeleton piercing because it glinted in the light, and for some reason I thought it should be cold, but it wasn’t. He gave my wrist a squeeze, kind of like a hug, and his smile was as sweet as ever. “It’s okay that you miss them. I think it’s nice, but they wouldn’t want you to be sad while they’re gone. It doesn’t matter that you have Rowen and Fallon here, you can still miss people even with other people you love around. Uh, but let’s try to do something fun and shake it off. Everyone loves you and doesn’t want you sad, and I’m just your friend, but I feel the same way.” He flashed me a big smile.
Staring at him, I nodded slowly. Rowen had been trying to tease me out of my bad mood all week and couldn’t manage it. Fallon had cuddled me any chance he got, and I thought maybe he missed everyone, too. “If I ever marry any of my guys, you’ll be my best man, because even though you’re half my age, you are one of the nicest and smartest people I know.”
He ducked his head and smiled.
“Okay.” I nodded and glanced down at myself. I hadn’t showered yet today because I wasn’t scheduled to be anywhere, and it was almost three o’clock. “Let me just... get ready. What are we going to do?”
There was another knock on the door and Fallon peeked in. Maybe he’d been waiting right outside, perhaps even listening. I smiled at him. “Sorry if I worried you.”
“No, don’t be sorry, but you mentioned skating the other day. I checked and there’s a skate park about three miles from here. It’s sunny and beautiful outside. We need to go get skates or something for Rowen and we can go.”
“Oh no,” came from just out of sight, and Lor began to snicker. “We do not need to get Rowen anythin’.” I grinned as Rowen’s head popped around the doorway, quickly followed by the rest of him. “I’ll watch ye and wave as ye pass me by. I’m not putting wheels on me feet.”
“Oh, come on!” I was surprised it was Lor who piped up, but he wriggled on the spot. “Skating is fun! I have my skateboard in the car and I have a pair of roller skates.”
“See,” Fallon said, nudging Rowen, who raised his hands in surrender with a frown.
“Look, lads, I don’t know....” He sort of patted the air in front of him as if to ward off our plans for his less-than-fragile body.
“Please!” Fallon said, being as obnoxious as possible.
