His hand still sits heavy, holding my knee, but not gripping it. He hasn’t slipped his hand higher; there’s been no groping between my legs.
“On a scale from one to ten, how freaked out are you right now?” Garrett asks.
“You want me to put a number on it?”
“Yeah, I do. Where zero is you’re so chill, you could sleep like a baby. And ten is you’re mentally trying to crawl down off the ceiling, and your body feels like it’s covered in fire ants.”
“I think I was just a six but am back to a three.”
“I like it when you’re honest with me, Isla. It’s the only thing I’ll ever ask for. Was it that I talked about your hair?”
I shake my head. “It was thinking about the person I was at the club.”
“You don’t need to be anyone other than who you are while you’re here.”
I look down at the soup bowl and stir it mindlessly for a second or two. All they’re offering is friendship, right? They’re a gay couple. It’s wrong that my insides have been twisted by both of them today.
“Thought of a second thing I might ask for,” he says.
When I look up, there’s a tenderness in his gaze, as if he’s fully aware of my internal confusion. “What’s that?”
He tips his chin at the bowl. “That you feed me the rest of that before it goes cold.”
And just like that, the mood shifts. “Oh, right. Yes. Here.”
Garrett, with my help, makes short work of the soup.
“You want some more?” I ask, putting the bowl down on the side table. “There’s plenty left in the pot.”
Garrett leans his head back in the pillow and closes his eyes. “No. That was perfect. How’s Kai doing?”
“Inhaled two bowls. He was asleep in front of the fire before I came up here. Does he always sleep that heavily?”
Garrett shifts a little, trying to get comfortable. “Today shook him. He hides it well, but he’s been holding himself together with string since he witnessed me get hit by that truck.”
“I overheard Grudge and Kai talking about it. I just assumed you skidded, at first.”
He opens one eye and shakes his head. “I can handle my bike better than that. Kai thinks it was deliberate because of the way the guy responded after. He fled the scene. Then, with the windows getting bricked just before it. Seems like it’s all connected.”
“Oh my God, that’s awful. No wonder Kai is so shook up about it.”
Garrett tries to move again and winces. “I like that you care about him.”
“I care about you both.” Even if I’m not certain what my definition of care means.
The corner of Garrett’s mouth twitches in a smile. “It’ll take him a couple of days to come around, and then he’ll shake it off.”
Time loses its meaning as I sit and talk to him. Somehow, my body begins to believe I’m safe here. “How long have you two known each other?” Perhaps focusing on their relationship will put things into perspective for me.
“Four years, five months, sixteen days.”
The accuracy tells a story all on its own. “How long have you been a couple?”
“Me and Kai have different answers to that.”
He reaches for my hand, and I let him hold it. It feels like the kind of thing friends would do when the other is hurting. But the way he then rubs his thumb over the back of my hand, doesn’t.
“Why would your answers be different?”
