She whips back around fast as a bullet. “Yes?”
“Thank you for everything. Really. I couldn’t have had this breakthrough without you.”
“You’re welcome.” She turns around again, stops and faces me. “Devlin?”
Why is my heart thundering against my rib cage? It’s beating so damn hard it feels like I might have a heart attack. “Yes?”
She twists her fingers together. “I was thinking. Will you need some help making the invention work?”
I break out into a smile. “Yes, I will. Hands can only do so much. Would you like to help me?”
“I would love—I mean, sure. That would be great.”
I grin. “Swing by tomorrow morning and let’s see how far we can get.”
A wide smile breaks out across her face. “Great. See you then.”
Then she enters the house and I drive off, feeling the best that I have in years.
25
For days we work on the womb, but without luck, and without kissing, if you can believe that. Finally I say to Devlin, “Tie the thing to me.”
Hands, who’s been standing on the counter mixing a potion, stops pouring and turns. He’s still wearing the bandage, but the wound is mostly healed. I know because I made Hands show me, which the appendage reluctantly did. Devlin still doesn’t have proof about who attempted the break-in. The security images haven’t been helpful, and I’m pretty sure he still thinks that it was instigated by Storm.
Speaking of Storm—he’s still out of town. He’s texted a few times and I’ve replied—always. But my heart’s not in it.
The only thing that my heart is into is making this artificial womb work.
Anyway, Hands is staring at me, stock-still, after I asked Devlin to tie the womb to me.
The handsome inventor has also stopped. He rakes his hair from his face and stares at me in disbelief.
“What?” I ask, not understanding why they look so concerned.
“Tie it to you?” Devlin folds his arms and frowns. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
Hands makes all kinds of furious gestures that honestly look like he’s cussing in sign language.
Devlin picks up a potion book and flips through it, his gaze dropping to the pages. “Hands is right.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that it’s dangerous.”
I point to the pink womb and scoff. “If it’s dangerous for me, then it’ll be dangerous for a mother. Devlin, you’ve got to try it, otherwise you’ll never know if it’s viable. I mean, you can’t wait until a baby is born prematurely before testing the contraption. That could be catastrophic.”
Hands pivots toward Devlin and signs something. Devlin nods before letting the book fall with a thud onto the table. He shifts his weight from hip to hip, considering, and stares at the book, but speaks to me when he says, “You have a point, but I’m not willing to risk it.”
“Iam.”
He drags his gaze from the table up to me. Clearly, this is his way of letting me know that the conversation is over.Just stare her down and maybe she’ll stop talking. Well, it’s not working.
I cross to him and slap my hand over the pages of the book so that he can’t read it. “Just try. We can always disengage if it becomes too risky.”
He brushes me away, and I wonder if the electrical pulse that throbbed in my fingers when we touched happened to him.
