“You’re growing taller,” I said at last.
“Are you just saying that to make me feel better?” he asked with suspicion.
“No, you are. You used to come up to here on me.” I pointed to my sternum. “And now it’s more like here.” I raised my hand to my chin.
“I told you I was still growing.”
“You were right. Did you like those Sloppy Joe’s tonight?”
“They were de-li-cious. So juicy and sweet with just the right amount of kick.”
“I like watching you eat them, getting every last bit of sauce off your fingers.”
“Cipher,” he said softly, my name whispered like pillow talk between us.
“Kitten,” I said, tilting his chin upward for a kiss.
We heard a whooping noise outside the window and glanced down to see Macon, shirtless, with both arms raised and a large fire blooming in the pit he and Kitten had built that afternoon.
“Do you want to go out to the fire?” I asked.
He shrugged, looking sly, and batted his heavy eyelids suggestively. “Maybe later. First, I think there was something you wanted to show me? Something involving a very naughty number?”
I smiled wide at the prospect. “A promise is a promise.”
FOUR
KITTEN
Within five minutesof meeting Marion Langley, and despite her still recovering from a tiger attack, the woman was what my mother would call a “get it done kind of gal.”
After introducing myself and answering a few questions about where I was from, we got down to the business of unpacking supplies from the boxes and crates that had either been donated by the hospital or retrieved from her packhorse’s trailer prior to her going missing. Using a cane to support herself, Marion directed me where to put things and how to order her books on the shelves–there were so many of them to organize! I’d told her already that I was hard of hearing, so she made sure to stay on my left side.
The hair at her temples was gray, the rest of it was an ash blonde, pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail. I guessed her to be about my mother’s age, and I kind of wanted to ask, but it was rude to ask a lady her age so I didn’t.
“Should you maybe sit down for a bit?” I asked after three hours of nonstop work. I was sticky with sweat and a little out of breath too. We’d finished her office and reception area and were now working on setting up one of the examining rooms.
“Are you tired?” she asked with concern.
“No, I’m fine, but I thought you might be. I could even take you to lunch at the cafeteria, if you’re hungry?” I motioned to a wheelchair we’d parked in the corner of the room. It was then that my stomach growled ferociously, giving me away.
“I’d love for you to take me to lunch,” she said with a warm smile, so I wheeled the chair over to her, and she took a seat, laying her cane across her lap, which reminded me of Cipher with his machete.
“You have a lot of books,” I said as we passed by the many shelves of books organized by topic and title. Most of them had to do with pregnancy and childbirth, but there were others that looked more like textbooks on a wide range of topics.
“Education is key when it comes to the human body, especially now since we can’t ask a colleague or look it up online,” she said.
I agreed, and even though we’d just met, I decided to take a gamble. “Do you have any books about sex?”
“I have several books about sex.”
“What about gay sex?”
I was glad she was facing forward and couldn’t see my face because I was sure to be blushing like crazy.
“Sex between men? I have those too.” At my continued silence she said, “Would you like to borrow a couple of my books, Joshua?”
I swallowed and forced myself to reply, “Yes, ma’am, I would.”
