“Eat, bruddah.” Max tipped more eggs onto my plate. “No sleep and an empty belly ain’t allowed in myhouse.”
My plate was already overflowing with eggs, vegetable hash, and Max’s homemade bread, but I nodded anyway and kept on eating. We’d come home to find him waiting on the doorstep. He’d locked eyes with Jed, smiled, and then disappeared into the kitchen, muttering about chips and old blocks. I’d looked to Jed for clarification, but he’d merely shaken his head andwalkedaway.
He didn’t come back until the rest of us were done eating, and he waved away the plate Max offered him. “Maybelater.”
Pete glanced up. “Youokay?”
“Yeah.”
Pete held his gaze a moment and then nodded and went back to the coffee. I was about to hustle him to bed when a vehicle approaching the cabin sent the dogscrazy.
“Oh God.” Max peered out of the window. “It’s my sister. I told her not to come while you were here, Ash. But it looks like sheignoredme.”
“Your sister?” I got up from the table. “Why wouldn’t she come whileI’mhere?”
“Because she’s nuts about you. She’s an art dealer and keeps a big collection of your pieces in her gallery. She’ll want an autograph, and then she’ll talk your ear off for hours. Trust me, you’ve got to be well rested for that nonsense. Go to bed. I’ll get ridofher.”
I deliberated as a willowy woman, who was the image of Max, parked her Jeep in the mud. Hiding from Max’s sister seemed wrong when he’d been so hospitable, but I wastired. And as much as I wanted to be polite, going to bed with Pete was a primal urge I couldn’tignore.
“Go,” Jed said quietly. “She knows better than to rock up here when we asked hernotto.”
I could live with that. I took Pete’s hand and tugged him out of the kitchen as a car door slammed. We slipped into our borrowed bedroom and shutthedoor.
Pete flopped down on the bed. “I’d have stayed up if you’dwantedto.”
“I didn’t.” I pulled my T-shirt off and lay down beside him. “You know I get freaked out when people I don’t know get up inmyface.”
“Uh-huh, but you said that’s why you have to talk to them. So you don’t reinforcethefear.”
I elbowed him in the ribs. “Not that kind of freaked out. I just can’t be assed with itrightnow.”
“I know. I’mkidding.”
“Oh, you are, huh?” I rolled over and sat up on my elbows. Studying him was one of my favorite things to do, and with paint splattered over his scruffy jawline… Yeah. I could stare at him all day. Sometimes I did. But exhaustion was stronger, and I yawned long and hard, much to Pete’s obviousamusement.
“Get into bed,”hesaid.
I swapped my jeans for sweats and crawled under the covers. Pete was a heartbeat behind me, and I lay on my back with him curled against me. His hair smelled of wood and turpentine, and my body responded—at least my dick did. The rest of me was too tired to move, and Pete’s distant chuckle told me he felt much the same. He drew absent patterns on my belly and sighed sleepily. “Thankyou.”
“Huh?” I opened my eyes and glanced down at him. “Whatfor?”
“For keeping me up all night. I haven’t figured out why yet, but I will, Ipromise—”
His own yawn cut him off, but the sentiment broke through. I closed my eyes again and counted his heartbeats against my ribs. He was still a little lost, but he was trying, and I’d never ask him foranythingmore.
* * *
Wakingup alone always unnerved me, especially now, when I’d gotten so used to Pete needing an earthquake to disturb him. I sat up in the unfamiliar bed and pressed a hand over my pounding heart, unsure of what had woken me. Was it a dream? I checked my skin for the telltale beads of cold sweat, but there wasnothing.
A clap of thunder shook the cabin. Lightning followed, lighting up the bedroom with an eerie flash, and my heart skipped again. We got plenty of thunderstorms in Chicago, but so far from home, this felt different, and the cold empty space beside me seemedominous.
Idiot. He’s probably in thebathroom.
I pulled myself together and retrieved my T-shirt from the floor. The cabin was as toasty warm as always, but walking around without a shirt wasn’t my bag unless Pete and I werealone.
Dressed, I ventured out of the bedroom. The cabin was silent; only Zola came pattering up the hall to see what I was doing, and I apparently wasn’t that interesting. She regarded me briefly and then turned back the way she’d come. With Pete nowhere in sight, I followed her, passing the empty kitchen on the way to the living room. In there, I found a crackling fire, Desta and Zola on the rug, and Jed asleep on the couch, but no PeteorMax.
Another crack of thunder stopped me from checking the workshop. Instead, I found my phone and called Pete, but his phone didn’t connect, which had happened a lot since we’d left Chicago. Damn fucking Verizon. I wondered if Max’s cell number would be tacked up in the kitchensomewhere.
