I reach out, offering him my hand, and he takes it. “It’s nice when people want us around, isn’t it?”
Darcy holds his breath for a beat, but he snorts, shaking his head with a reluctant smile. “Don’t tell him that.”
I laugh and bring his hand to my lips, kissing his knuckles. “I’m an excellent secret keeper.”
He releases my hand and jerks his head toward the door. “Come on, the firing squad is probably waiting to adopt you.”
I follow him out of the room, watching that tight ass move in those indecent skinny jeans of his. “Adopt me? You mean it?”
He shoots me a grin over his shoulder, catching me staring. “Romily gets attached, and Fox gives him anything he wants like an addict in need of a fix,” he says as he descends the stairs.
I carefully follow him down. Stairs on crutches are a challenge, and on the third step my balance wavers, so I sit my ass down, wait for Darcy to hit the landing, and send the crutches clattering down ahead of me. “Hold those, will you?” I call down as I scoot down the steps.
Darcy turns, catches the crutches and picks them up. “Be careful.”
“My parents installed a slide on our stairs when I was a baby. I know how to get down stairs on my ass.”
A scrubby guy with resting bitch face joins Darcy at the bottom, looking up at me through dark brown eyes. He’s wearing a black A shirt and black yoga pants and watches me intensely, but I don’t get the feeling that he’s unwelcoming, just intense.
I wave at the dude. “Yo. I’m Elijah. Is this your house?”
The guy dips his chin once. “Fox.”
“Cool. Thanks for the hospitality. Not sure why Darcy brought me here, but the bed’s comfy, so it’s cool.” I hit the bottom of the stairs and take the crutches from Darcy, levering myself back to my foot and offering Fox a hand as soon as I’m stable.
He shakes it once, then indicates with a jerk of his head to follow him.
I watch him weave through the tables all over the place. There are far more tables than any other type of furniture in this place. “I love the little tables that match the big ones,” I comment as I follow, careful not to trip myself with the crutches.
Fox shoots me a look over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes as I plan each hop. He frowns before making his way back to me and shoving the tables out of the way.
The scrape of the table legs across the hardwood floor makes me grimace. “That’s not good for the floor’s finish. You should probably get some of those little felt stickers to put under the table legs. It makes them easier to move and protects your floors. And thanks for making a path. I know you probably had them where you wanted them, but I appreciate it.”
Fox grunts, lifting a smaller table and placing it atop one of the larger ones.
The watch on his wrist dings and he pauses to check the notification. “Obviously,” he calls loudly toward the kitchen where a cute blond guy wearing a crop top and bedazzled skinny jeans is.
The guy looks up with a wide smile and waves enthusiastically at me. He immediately looks down to his phone and starts typing. I finish the journey to the kitchen, where Darcy pulls out a chair from the table. He looks at me, pointing to the chair to let me know it’s where I should sit, and then he sits on the table in front of the chair.
I sit, resting the crutches against the wall, and he puts his socked feet on my leg. Fox’s watch dings, and Darcy’s phone buzzes. They both check their messages, and Darcy says, “Romily says,”—he makes air quotes—“‘Hello and welcome to the family!” What in the incredible voice acting is this? Darcy completely drops his accent like he doesn’t have one and the deep bass of his speaking voice flips to a light tenor that doesn’t suit him at all. “I’m Romily, the guy who took care of your plants over the summer. They’re fine, by the way. You can see them in the windows all over the brownstone. I’m making brekkie—haha, Darcy had to say brekkie—I hope egg scramble is ok. We’ve had an absurd number of squash ripen all at once andI’m trying to use them up before they go off. Do you know how to can? I’ve never done it, but I need to preserve the vegetables somehow. Yes, I have instructions, but you know, it’s nice to have company that knows what the fuck they’re doing when trying new ventures, amiright?’”
As I listen to Darcy, I watch Romily’s facial expression morph from pleasant and smiling to shocked when he realizes Darcy changed his voice for him, then pleased as punch and laughing when Darcy says “brekkie.” He doesn’t make any vocal sounds during the whole reading, merely huffing his breathy laughter rather than vocalizing it.
“Totally,” I agree. “I do know how to can. My MawMaw and Mom can a couple of times during the growing season, and everyone in the family helps. I can totally do that with you. I’d offer you my phone number, but I was kidnapped and the demons that abducted me stole all my stuff, so I’ll have to get that replaced. Oh…” I turn to look up at Darcy. “I have to do that today. I told my Dad I’d call him tomorrow so he can pay for my semester.”
Darcy’s eyes narrow in thought. “We can getcha a new phone after breakfast.”
“I’ll also need to replace the things in my wallet and stuff.” That’s as inconvenient as the tables all over Fox’s house.
I take a deep breath and let it go. I can’t change what happened, all I can do is deal with the consequences.
The phone buzzes and Fox’s watch dings.
Darcy says in his Romily voice, “Why don’t you just have Darcy track your shit down. He is the best tracker in all the realms according to some opinions.”
Darcy shoots a glare at Romily. “Iamthe best tracker in all the realms, and I was gonna do that.”
Romily smiles breezily and nods approvingly. He’s glad Darcy’s going to help me out. He points between the two of us and looks at Darcy expectantly.
