“I told my grandmother that it wasn’t worth losing you for. So I gave it all up.”
“Ohhh… kay,” she said. Yup, I’d stunned her. “Then… what are you going to do? Could you come work at the agency?” She scraped her hands through her hair, and I could see her mind turning it over, quickly. “Or maybe… I don’t know, maybe you could start up your own business? I could help.”
She gazed at me earnestly, waiting for my thoughts on this idea.
“You are adorable.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“I love how you immediately try to figure out how to find me a job. And an income. And fix this for me.” I put my hand on the side of her neck and drifted my thumb over her bottom lip. Her pupils dilated at my touch, her mouth softening. “I love that about you, Devi. You don’t wait for some knight to swoop in and rescue you. You take matters into your own hands and you get shit done.” My hand dropped away. “But you don’t need to fix this. I still have a job.”
“How?”
“Because after I left my grandmother’s office, she got in a car and followed me back to my place and told me that I could go, but everything would be waiting for me when I came back. She basically gave me a grace period to fuck off and do whatever I wanted to do, and still come back and have it all.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Nope. I guess she respected the set of balls I’d grown overnight, and decided I was worthy of her legacy after all.”
“That tricky bitch—” Devi caught herself. “Sorry.”
“No worries. I call her Satan myself. You know, in my head.”
She gave me a tentative smile. “She probably knew you were worthy of her legacy all along, Dane. You realize that, right? She was testing you or something.”
“Yeah. She basically told me that to my face. That she’s been testing me.”
“I guess you passed the test.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
I stared at her face. Then I caught her chin and turned her more toward me. I looked at the thin, pale line that snaked across her cheek. I didn’t even register it at first. It looked like maybe a line left behind from sleeping with her face pressed to the pillow. But it wasn’t.
It met the side of her nose and snaked up toward her eye, then disappeared. It was more visible at different angles. Faint, but it was there.
“You have a scar.” I brushed my thumb along it, but she tugged away. I met her eyes as her hand went to her face.
“Sorry.” Her fingers drifted across the scar. She probably couldn’t even feel it, but she knew exactly where it was. “My makeup must’ve worn off.”
I blinked at her. “Did you just apologize to me about your face?”
“I usually cover it with makeup,” she said, as if that was an answer to my question. “I must’ve… you know… cried it off.”
“You… cried? Last night?”
Why didn’t I remember that?
“After you fell asleep,” she kind of mumbled, avoiding my eyes. “I might’ve cried a bit.”
“Why?”
“Because,” she said, in barely a whisper, “I’m just… glad you’re back.”
“Devi.”
She still wouldn’t look at me. Her fingers were still hovering, like she was trying to cover the scar.
I took her hand and removed it from her face. “It’s barely noticeable. I didn’t know you had a scar left.”
