Her eyes flicked to his, as if searching for an answer to a question she hadn’t asked yet. “You’re… okay with that?”
“I wouldn’t have offered that day in the cell if I wasn’t, Blue.
She studied him longer than was comfortable. “You don’t have to do this, though.”
“Blue—”
“I mean it. I know you like your space, your routines and quiet, just like I do. We’ve lived alone for so long, you and I.”
She wasn’t wrong. He liked quiet because there had been so much noise growing up. Quiet meant no one was yelling. Minimal chaos.
And now Blue was standing in one of his bedrooms with a bag and carrying his unborn child. He knew that along with her, there had to come some chaos, but the thought didn’t scare him as much as her leaving now would.
“I can adjust,” he said.
“You shouldn’t have to.”
His mouth curved slightly. “I’m going to have a baby, too, Blue. Adjustment is happening whether we want it to or not. So maybe this will help us learn to deal with what’s coming.”
That got a real smile. She then stood and walked past him into the hallway toward the next bedroom. This one had white walls, a hideous painting that looked like Sadie had drawn it, and a bed with pastel coverings Zoe had made him buy.
She walked out of that bedroom and went to the next room. His room. She opened the door and stared inside.
“My room, and you’re welcome to share it, like I said.”
“I don’t think so. That’s how we got into this mess,” Blue declared, stepping in to get a better look and clearly not giving a damn that it was his private domain.
He had a huge bed, with a patchwork quilt June Matilda had given Jay because she and the quilting club had made it for him. When she’d arrived at his door and handed it to him, she’d just said it was a gift made with lots of love just for him and that she hoped he felt it when he slept under it each night.
Jay had stuttered out a thank you, his throat tight with emotion. She’d just smiled and patted his cheek, then left. To this day, he wasn’t sure why they’d made it for him, but he treasured it.
“Nice quilt,” Blue said.
“The quilting group made it for me.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “You must be special, then, because they don’t do that for just anyone. I know my dad got one when they heard he’d been sick. Then Red and Dee’s middle kid because she got bullied at summer camp. Then there was Larry Limpet’s wife, but to be honest, I think that was just because she was married to him,” Blue added.
“True. Can’t have been easy.”
She looked around his space and saw how he liked to live. No clothes lying about the place, closet doors closed, nothing on his side tables except for a lamp and a book.
“Are you one of those freakishly neat people?”
“Not freakishly, just normally neat,” he corrected.
“I’m neat, but maybe not to this level,” Blue said, waving him out of the doorway so she could leave his room.
He could feel her starting to relax the more he talked to her. The more she walked around his house.
“It’s okay. I’ll give you a couple of days to pick up your game,” Jay drawled.
“Haha.”
It was the last bedroom, the one closest to his, she chose. Slightly bigger, this one had an en suite, which, had he been thinking clearly, he would have known would have been the best option for her. It also looked down into the yard below, which tomorrow would offer her more light and a view of his office.
White walls, another big bed, this one draped in some kind of homespun spread, and Zoe had put way too many pillows on it.
“I would like to have this one please,” Blue said, walking into the room.
