She then held out her arms for him, and he took her from Ben who then went forwards to help with some hammering.
‘I’m going to paint it red and white and blue.’
‘They will be patriotic squirrels then.’
She gave an elaborate sigh. ‘You’re just being silly. Can we go buy the paint now?’
‘We probably have some if we look.’
‘No, Miles said it has to be special because paint.’
‘Special because?’
‘Yes. Because they might eat it.’
‘Okay. Well, maybe tomorrow. So, where would you like to go most in the world next week if you could?’
‘Disneyland!’
‘Somewheremuchbetter.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Russia?’
He kept his snigger inside. ‘I have never told you that Russia was better than Disneyland,Moye Solnyshko. No, somewhere Miles has been but you have not yet.’
She got it and flung her arms around his neck. ‘Can we go and get the paint now?’
* * *
They went back to the house together and Ben went straight to the fridge to find something to eat. Aleksey eased down at the kitchen table and studied his rear view.
He had not realised just how much Ben had changed over the previous six months. Perhaps he had some justification for this lack of observation: he’d been focused on himself, his own healing—physical, but also mental, he supposed. Another transformation had clearly been ongoing which he had not seen. He wasn’t the only one, apparently, who’d made promises. Only Ben’s had been unspoken ones. He did not entirely understand Ben’s assertion to the moron, what the atonement reference had meant, but he got the essential message.
No one in his whole life before had presented themselves as his saviour, his protector, his guardian. Not even those whose sole job it had been to accept that role. But apparently Ben had. Sure, Ben had saved his life many times, physically leaping into the fray, putting himself in danger whenever it was needed. But what he’d avowed to his friend had been different. It had been a quiet, calm, almost psychopathically rational statement of fact: you hurt him and you’ll regret it. No frills, no need to elaborate, wouldn’t need a reason. Do you want to risk it? Apparently the moron had not. Ben, the least aggressive of the three of them in many ways, a man negotiating his way through his new role as a doting father…and yet, forhim, the least deserving of all people, Ben was willing to bedeadly.
He smiled ruefully to himself.
He had a protector.
His warrior angel was also apparently his guardian one as well.
He got up and went over to Ben, wrapping his arms tightly around him, kissing into the side of his neck. Ben tipped his head over thoughtlessly, giving him more access. ‘What do you feel like? I’m hungry but don’t wanna cook anything.’
‘When is the last time I told you that I love you, Benjamin?’
Ben smiled into the soft words at his neck.
‘Just after I broke you leg, I think.’
‘Ah, pain induced declarations. They don’t count.’
‘Hmm, let me think then.’ Ben twisted around, hopped up on the counter and pulled him between his thighs, crossing his legs around him to keep him pinned. ‘Nope, can’t remember.’
Aleksey quirked his lip. ‘Maybe you just know it intuitively, and I don’t need to actually say it?’
Ben shook his head ruefully. ‘I don’t think so; I’m not a very intuitive person really.’ He began to rearrange some of Aleksey’s blond strands.
‘All the nice things I buy for you say it for me?’
