Harvey
In hindsight,I was no longer convinced that sleeping on the couch had been a good idea. My back and neck were in agreement, for once, both of them punishing me for a terrible decision.
They weren’t in great shape at the best of times, but I’d clearly crested thetoo old to sleep on the couchhill at some point. Next stop, knowing when it was going to rain by the ache in my bones. Soon enough, I’d just dry up and crumble into dust. And what did I have to show for it?
Something was licking my hand.
I looked down very,verycautiously and breathed a sigh of relief when it turned out to be Theo. Considering how many things had gone wrong over the past twenty-four hours, a stray raccoon wouldn’t really have been a surprise.
“Hey,” I murmured, petting his tiny velvet-soft head. “Theo’s a weird name.”
He looked at me like he understood exactly what I was saying, and I instantly felt guilty.
“A cute name, though! Youareadorable,” I added, scooping him up and holding him against my chest.
He licked my chin, then nibbled it.
I wasn’t clear on whether or not I should stop him, so I let him do it until he lost interest and tucked his wet, cold little nose under my jaw.
It was just possible that this was his tiny revenge for last night.
I still wasn’t sure I’d made the right call there—aside from the fact that sleeping on the couch had clearly been a mistake, chiropractically speaking.
My phone buzzed.
Still in the pocket of my sweatpants.Dammit.
I pulled it out and found it unsurprisingly on seven percent battery. Great. Fantastic. Now I had to worry about it exploding the moment I plugged it into the in-car charger in the Volkswagen. I was convinced the car was cursed.
Seth:1) how’s Iggy?
Seth:2) suit fitting in 30
Shit. Just as well he’d reminded me, or I would have forgotten.
I set Theo down on the floor and crept my way over to Iggy’s bedroom door, peering inside through the few inches it’d been left open, probably for Theo’s benefit.
An Iggy-shaped lump rose and fell with slow, shallow breaths, morning sunlight making his hair look like it was spun from gold.
To wake, or not to wake?
On the one hand, if he needed something, I wanted to be able to do it for him before I left. On the other hand, he needed the rest.
Also on the other hand, I was a coward who wasn’t quite ready to talk about last night yet.
Iggy was facing away from me, but I couldjustmake out the scar through his eyebrow—the one I’d come back one year to find still stitched closed.
I’d been so fucking scared when I saw that. Terrified of the thought that I could’ve lost Iggy while I was away, that he might’ve died or hit his head hard enough to forget me.
The first two weeks of that summer had been spent convincing Iggy that the thing I wanted to do most in the world was sit quietly with him and get a head start on our reading lists.
I hadn’t been scared like that again until yesterday, when Iggy passed out in my car on the way to the clinic—and I’d taken a turn for the hospital instead.
He was fine, but that feeling was still lingering like something sharp under my heart. The feeling that I had a fragile thing in my clumsy, stupid hands, and I was going to break it.
The next breath caught in my chest as Iggy sighed and rolled over, but he wasn’t waking up. He snuggled into his pillow with a soft little smile on his face, stretching one hand out across the bed.
Looking for someone.
