When the group began to leave, Ryker met Tai’s gaze across the room and shook his head.Don’t you try escaping.Tai nodded, a promise. In a few minutes, only he and Claireremained. By now he’d folded the blanket and put it away in the ottoman. The chill really did pass faster when he dealt with it.
They convened wordlessly at the dining table, Leslie and Ryker on one side, Claire and Tai on the other. Here it came.
Of course, Ryker didn’t bother with a segue. “Extra cold? How long has that been going on?”
“Since middle school,” Tai said.
“What the—?” Ryker shoved his hand through his hair, mussing it in his signature gesture that, unbeknownst to him, only made his blond spikes look cooler. “Tai, what’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Claire connected me with another bloodfiend, and we talked for a long time. He gave me words for things. Taught me things. I’ve always ignored being cold, because I thought it was just…” Tai shrugged. “Me. My fault. But it’s not.”
Ryker rested his arms on the table and leaned forward. “This sounds like a big deal.”
Under the table, Claire set her hand on Tai’s thigh, and he set his hand over hers. He said, “It’s still new, but yeah, it’s big.”
“Can we hear about it from the beginning?” Leslie said.
So Tai told them. In the last week, he’d turned his heart inside out over and over—talking to Peter, then to Claire, disclosing his condition to a group of near strangers, and now telling the story again to his closest friends. By the time he finished, he was a little tired and a little lighter. Every inside-out moment of the last week had chipped some of the heaviness off the old burdens of loneliness and shame, until by now he might rise up out of the chair and float toward the ceiling.
Okay, maybe more than a little tired. Maybe more like emotionally exhausted.
“Gosh, Tai,” Leslie said. “I’m so freaking proud of you.”
He probably didn’t deserve anybody’s pride, but Leslie’s meant the world. “It’s been a lot.”
“And I’ve been completely clueless for years,” Ryker said.
“No, man. You’ve been solid, the best friend I could’ve asked for all this time. You couldn’t have known stuffIdidn’t even know.”
“I guess not. Dang, Tai, Leslie’s right. You faced your hardest thing.”
“I…” Another chip of the weight fell away. “Yeah. I did.”
“So what can we do?” Leslie said. “As your friends, to help?”
A smile pulled one side of his mouth. “The blanket helped.”
“Consider it your designated blanket whenever you come over. Anything else?”
He let himself consider it, really open himself to the possibility of asking. “This doesn’t change that I’m mostly okay, day-to-day. I’ve just got more information now, a better perspective on myself. I… There might be times…” Yeah, this one was hard to admit. But he needed to. “There might be times I need to slake early, not because of exertion, but just because.”
“Let us know any time,” Ryker said. “If we’re out somewhere or if we’re hanging out at home, just let us know.”
“I will.” It was a promise to himself too.
Twenty-Three
Over the next two weeks, Claire saw Tai less frequently. He’d gotten busy at work with several events to coordinate, none of them as formal as the gala they’d attended together. For each event, Tai picked her up at her condo, wearing tailored black suits livened up with bold ties—sapphire, tangerine, emerald, bright plum. Claire played a game with herself of guessing the color of his tie before he came to her door. She glammed up in cocktail dresses of blush-pink, lavender, and sage, all of which set off her dark hair and indigo eyes. She got to wear her favorite sparkly heels. She recognized faces now, conversed on her own terms. Darlene remained her favorite person of all Tai’s colleagues.
She still enjoyed watching him take a stage, own a room with his communication skills and passion. She wasn’t sure this would ever get old.
Of course he wanted to spend both Saturdays with her, and she hated telling himnothe night of her next mission as Verena the Vigilant. But falling in love wasn’t allowed to distract herfrom justice. If only he could know what she was doing that night…he’d understand. He might even offer his support.
But he couldn’t know. Not yet.
Instead of Tai, when she headed home at three a.m., she texted Nova.
Good morning, worrywart. No interest. On my way home.
