I know where it leads. “Why don’t you save it for another visit?”
He grips the knob and twists it, and since his arm is still around my shoulders, when he comes to a stop, so do I. His phone’s light splashes over the navy crib with the planet mobile, the four hand-painted wooden letters sitting on a shelving unit full of colorful board books, and the purple-and-blue galaxy wallpaper that’s bloated on one wall from a recent leak.
I crane my neck to look at him. Only his eyes move. The rest of him has turned solid. Even his lips, usually supple, are pressed into a firm line. I thread my fingers through the hand he’s set on my shoulder and squeeze. The gesture brings him back to life. The lines on his face soften first and then the rest of his body follows.
“Is it weird that I’m jealous of this kid?” His voice is so scratchy it makes my heart churn.
I shoot him a smile, which he doesn’t catch because he’s staring at the R, E, M, and Y on the bookshelf. I let him look his fill and then squeeze his hand again before releasing it. “Come on. Let’s go shower the ghost gunk off ourselves and get some food in our bellies.”
His Adam’s apple jostles as he gazes around the bedroom one last time. “Are we talking shared bathing?”
I duck out from underneath his arm. “You just never stop.”
“There are two surefire ways to get a woman: wooing her and wearing her down. Since you keep objecting to being wooed, I’ve elected to wear you down.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I have so much to say about that, but first,whenandhowhave you tried to woo me?”
“I bought you dinner.”
“You mean, after you called me a teenage librarian and left me sitting alone at a table?”
“You looked like you’d rather have been sitting with someone else.” He’s asking me about Adrien and my unrequited crush. A question I obviously can’t answer when the man in question is standing a floor below us, tapping his powered-off phone against his thigh and staring up.
“You two ready to go?”
I nod slowly. “We’ll be out in a minute.”
Still drumming his phone, he jets out of the house.
I turn on Slate, my hands slipping onto my waist. “Okay . . . so let me spin that question around. Why would you hit on me when you’re into someone else?”
He crosses his arms in front of his chest, creasing the black cotton. “I’m into someone else? Who am I into?”
“The girl you saw in the well. I know you keep saying you don’t love her, but you obviously feel strongly about her if she’s the person who appeared.”
A thick curl falls into his eyes.
“Is she the type you woo or wear down?” I grit out.
Could I sound any more jealous? And why am I bringing her up again? Right. Because I don’t want to be the other woman . . . the Brume fling. He said he wasn’t dating anyone, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t involved with her in some other way.
“She’s the type you wear down.”
Not that I liked being the wear-down type, but now I’m jealous of sharing that status with this other girl.
“She’s a lot like you, actually.”
Great.
“She has these really intense blue eyes. So clear they look like glaciers, but ringed with this dark, deep ocean-blue.” His lips barely move as he adds, “I’d never seen eyes like hers. Well, until thegroac’hin the well used them to lure me.”
That’s not true. He’s seen them on me.
His arms drop from their knot, and then he’s shoving one hand through his hair. “And here I thought you’d figured it out.”
“Figured what out?”
He lets out a long breath. “I sawyouin that well, Cadence.”
