My chest tightened.
There were people who talked about grief like it was a wound to close. Bliss talked about it like it was a room she kept decorated for someone who wasn’t coming home.
“Then bring it,” I said.
Her brows pulled together. “Where?”
“To dinner.”
Her expression changed, soft and startled in a way that got under my skin instantly.
“If it keeps her in the room,” I said, “bring it.”
For a second, Bliss just looked at me.
Then she glanced away, and the hand holding the marble curled close to her chest.
“You can’t just say things like that before tacos.”
“I’ll try to schedule better next time.”
“Please do. My emotional availability is very limited and mostly powered by salsa.”
I smiled because she needed me to. Because if I didn’t, she might cry and because if she cried, I had no idea what I would do with my hands besides reach for her, and I didn’t know if she would let me.
She set the marble on the side of all the others and turned toward the kitchen with theatrical briskness. “Okay. Potatoes. Tacos. Then my father’s house, where you will pretend to eat whatever he burns because you have manners.”
“I have survival instincts.”
“You have Manhattan cowardice.”
“I have taste buds I respect.”
She opened the cabinet and rose onto her toes for the baking pans, even though we both knew how this went now.
I let her try for two seconds then I moved behind her. Her body stilled before mine got close enough to touch.
That right there was why I was in trouble. Not because she was beautiful, though she was. Not because she made me laugh, though she did. It was because I was starting to know the difference between her scared stillness and this stillness. The one where her breath caught, but her shoulders didn’t tighten. The one where she waited like she hated that she wanted to.
I reached over her and pulled down the pans, setting them on the counter beside her.
“There,” I said.
She turned her head just enough to look at me. “Show-off.”
“You keep pretending you can reach things.”
“You keep pretending you’re useful.”
“I brought tacos and emotional support height.”
“Fine. You may stay.”
“Generous.”
“Temporary.”
“Liar.”
