“It’s okay. Again, another mistake. Sometimes we get overwhelmed in good ways. I bet you really liked the coloring and forgot all about the surrounding world.”
I nodded in agreement, but I also let oddly ashamed. I was a functioning adult, wasn’t I? I’d gotten sucked into this thing like I was five years old or something. I had responsibilities and gods, I’d almost caused trouble for Luke, too.
“Hey, stop thinking that.”
I snapped my gaze to his. “W-what?”
“Whatever you were just thinking. Stop thinking it.” He smiled still, looking at me with such kindness it made me want to smile back a little. “Again, we’ll agree this morning was one big mistake. We’ll learn from this and move on.” Then he went to the door and grabbed his jacket. Grinning, he pulled something out of the pocket. “Here. I know you think you’ve been bad today, but you haven’t.”
He was holding two lollipops at me. Smiling, I went to grab them. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.” He put the jacket back on the hook by the door. “Let me go change my shirt while you clean the lunch dishes, and then you can quickly show me what you colored before I leave.”
“Okay!” I quickly cleared the table and made sure everything was presentable. When Luke came back, I led him to the living room.
He sat on the edge of the couch and held out a hand. “Can I see?”
Feeling a bit shy, I grabbed Tonya and put her under my arm, then pushed the coloring book I’d started into Luke’s hand.
I stood there, rocking from my heel to toes and back, while he flipped through the handful of images I’d colored.
“These are really good, Bear,” he finally said, lifting his gaze. “I like it when you’ve used your own colors.”
At my confused expression, he pointed at the snow leopard with the blue spots. “Like this one. These are your colors, not the ones you’d see in nature. I really like that. Shows creativity.” He grinned at me and reached his hand to tap my hip. “And your silliness, which I really like too.”
I blushed crimson and squeezed Tonya to my side. “I really like you too.”
He cleared his throat again and got to his feet, giving me my coloring book back. Then he checked the time. “I’ve got to go. The client will be back at the shop soon.”
“I’ll cook something later. After I’ve finished my work for the day.”
“That sounds good. Thank you, Bear.” As he opened the door and was about to step out, he gave me this kind of wistful little glance I didn’t really understand. “Bye.”
“Bye!”
Much later, as I was putting together a salad, I realized what I’d said.I really like you too.But he hadn’t said he likedme.
Groaning, I hung my head and sighed. I was such a loser. Then I groaned again and pushed the lollipop I hadn’t eaten yet closer to the coffee maker where it would be obvious. I didn’t deserve it anymore. Damn it.
At least there wasn’t a rule for cussing.
Luukas
I spent the walk back to work by trying to make my brain settle down. I knew my heart wasn’t going to play ball, so I ignored it like I had ever since Elio passed.
“I really like you too.”
The pure innocence in those words had thrown me for a loop. Hell, rushing home because Bear hadn’t answered my texts and then calls had been one thing. Finding him on the floor, coloring without a care in the world had… cracked something inside me. The instant relief of that moment, of seeing him like that, had just... It had filled some space within me that had been broken for a long time.
After Elio, I’d tried to patch up the broken parts, but Bear in his little headspace had taken a lollipop-shaped sledgehammer into those patches and here I was now.
At the ripe age of thirty-four, I was having an identity crisis.
Grumbling under my breath, I reached the door of Magpie Ink and stepped inside. I had fifteen minutes until Mal would be there. Then it hit me: It was Mal. I could talk to him about this thing while I worked on adding color to the piece we’d worked on for a few months now.
I nodded at Sara, who raised their brows but said nothing. I guess me busting out of there earlier had been enough to tell them I was going through things I would only talk about on my own accord.
I made my way back to my room and continued the prepping I’d been doing when the urge to check up on Bear became too much to handle. As I finished setting everything up, including some bottles of ink I wanted Mal to pick between, the man in question knocked on the doorframe.
