Page 36 of Jay Bird

“How’s Lily?” he asked.

“Out cold.” Willow smiled. “I don’t think she has moved since I put her in bed.”

“I thought you’d be sleeping too.”

Willow looked down at first and then looked back at him. “I’m just getting some water,” she said.

“Well, the kitchen is still where it was when you saw it earlier.”

Her sweet laugh came easier this time. “You’re a smartass.”

He smirked. “So I’ve been told.”

Willow walked into the kitchen, and Jay Bird forced his attention toward the television instead of watching her cross the room. He heard the freezer open, followed by the quiet clink of ice dropping into a glass. A minute later, she headed back toward the hallway, then stopped near the edge of the living room. She was holding her water with both hands, shifting her weight slightly from one foot to the other. She looked like she wanted to say something.

Finally, she looked at him. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Of course,” Jay Bird said, reaching for the remote and shutting off the television. The sudden silence settled over the room. He nodded toward the sectional, gesturing for her to sit.

Willow walked over and sat at the far end of the couch, putting enough distance between herself and him, which Jay Bird noticed immediately.

He didn’t take it personally, though after Chen, he was honestly a little surprised she was even willing to sit in the same room with him at all.

He shifted slightly in his spot to face her and gave her his full attention.

She took a drink of water. “First, I wanted to thank you again.”

Jay Bird grinned. There it was again. She really might be the most relentlessly, almost stubbornly grateful person he had ever met.

“I think that’s the seventeenth time you’ve thanked me.”

Her eyes widened. “I haven’t thanked you seventeen times.”

“You’re right. It could be twenty.”

“Now you’re exaggerating,” she said, shaking her head, but smiling.

Fuck, she’s so cute, Jay Bird thought.

But then her expression became hesitant. “I also wanted to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Are you...” She paused, and then made a little circular motion with one hand. ‘Is there anyone who might show up here and find Lily and me living in your house and decide she wants to murder me?”

He stared at her

She immediately grimaced. “That came out badly.”

But then Jay Bird laughed. “No.”

“No, it came out badly, or no, nobody’s going to murder me?”

“Both,” he said, still chuckling.

Willow tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I just meant, are you seeing someone? Because if you are, I don’t want us being here to cause problems.”