My brow furrowed hard as I tried to process the words.
“I’m surprised you didn’t notice earlier. Although they didn’t outright announce it, they basically told the entire town they were together at the diner,” Atlas said.
My mouth flapped open a couple times, and finally landed on, “Aren’t they brothers?”
“Step,” Atlas said with a smirk. Obviously, they weren’t related by blood, considering they were of different races. “And it doesn’t matter. Not when they’ve been in love since they were kids. Well, at least Dan has, from what I’m told.”
It took me another second for my brain to catch up andstop freaking out, because this meant that Atlas wasn’t getting together with Clay! Who the hell cared if he fell in love with his stepbrother or whatever as long as it wasn’t Atlas.
“Yeah, I’ll definitely give them my congrats when I see them next,” I said easily.
Atlas’ smile was bright again, and he let go of my face, continuing to ruffle his hair with the towel.
“You know you really shouldn’t only focus on the kitchen and maybe pay a little more attention to the dining area.”
If only he knew just how much I paid attention to the dining area and a certain man inside it. But I’d never tell him that.
“So, uh, what were you and Clay talking about at the party?” I asked, mainly to get back on topic. Atlasdidn’t need to know how much real estate he took up in my mind.
“Oh, you know,” he replied, shrugging his shoulder. “It was nothing important.”
He was lying to me. Atlas had every right to keep his conversations a secret. He didn’t need to tell me everything. But it was in the way his shoulders tensed just a bit that told me the conversation was a lot more important than he was letting on.
I placed a hand on his shoulder, which immediately had Atlas turning to me. I didn’t make the initiative to touch him often. It was always him making the move with little grazes of the hand or accidental bumps of the hips that lit a fire under my skin.
“You can tell me anything, you know that, right? If you came across a problem or something, I want to help.”
“Yeah, I know,” he breathed. He gently grabbed my hand and nuzzled his cheek into my palm, his eyes closing just barely like he was enjoying the touch too.
And once again, he’d captured my entire fucking heart.
Atlas chewed on his bottom lip. When he opened his eyes again, there was a hint of worry there. “You know, I was thinking that maybe we should get a security system for the place? At least the upstairs. I found a company that’s willing to come to our town to install it. Of course, I’ll take care of all the costs and?—”
“Wait, wait, Atlas. Where is all this coming from? Asecurity system? In Kither Springs?” I asked. He probably had to find a company outside of town because a security company didn’t exist here. Crime was basically nonexistent. The townsfolk would probably say the only criminal around these parts was me.
He nibbled his lip again. “Yeah, yeah. You’re right. I’m being stupid.”
“No, I never said that. You just caught me by surprise. I never thought about needing a security system before.”
Atlas nodded. He guided my hand away from his face and let it fall onto his lap. We both watched as he played with my fingers with both his hands.
“I was just thinking about it since our home is only separated from the diner by a staircase and a single door. And since it’s getting a lot busier recently, especially with more tourists coming in after seeing Wren’s vlogs, I thought it might be smart to take more security measures. You know, just in case?” he finished with another one-shoulder shrug.
“Okay.”
“Yeah?” Atlas looked up to meet my eyes.
“I can see you’ve been thinking about this a lot, and if it’s that important to you, then of course we’ll get it done.”
Maybe he was used to more crime where he was from. Even though the stories he’d told me about Christmas Falls made it seem like the place was practically the North Pole, but hey, what did I know?
If this was something he wanted, then there was no argument. And Ireallyliked how he called this placeourhome. Even if we were only roommates, it was still a place that belonged to us.
Plus, with the way he was shining those happy eyes at me, I couldn’t have said no to him even if I wanted to.
Chapter Four
ATLAS
