“These are stunning,” Noah had breathed, running his hands over the smooth surface.
Elliot grinned with pleasure at the compliment.
I’d had very little in the way of either time or money, so I’d put together mason jars of dry goods—cookie mix, brownie mix, dried beans with dried onion and spices—and given those to Lulu with the promise to ship anything they couldn’t get back on the plane. I’d also raided the only used book store in Shawanoand found a couple murder mysteries that, thanks to some kind of Christmas miracle, Noah hadn’t actually read.
Noah had gotten me a couple, as well, which I naturally hadn’t read, since the only mysteries I read I got from Noah in the first place. He’d also gotten me two honest-to-God alpha-gal cookbooks. I hadn’t known such things even existed. Elliot had stolen one and started looking through the baking section immediately.
I’d gotten Elliot a pair of earrings, tiny hanging pieces of meteorite set in copper. He kept running his thumb over them, a small smile on his lips, even after we’d finished our unwrapping, so I think I chose well.
It was late by the time we finished and cleaned up, and Elliot yawned as he shuffled down the hall to the bedroom.
I leaned against the doorway, feeling oddly protective as I watched him brushing his teeth—it was funny, how something so utterly mundane as watching a man brush his teeth, toothpaste foam building up at the corners of his lips, hair coming loose, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he waited for the buzzing electric toothbrush to stop, could cause such tenderness to well up in my chest.
“Uht?” He’d caught me watching him, meeting my eyes in the mirror, a slight furrow between his eyebrows.
“Not a thing,” I replied, shaking my head with a smile.
The furrow deepened “Uht?”
I laughed, then stepped up behind him to plant a kiss on the back of his head. “I just love you,” I told him.
“’S nah juft.”
I couldn’t help laughing again. “I have no idea what you just said.” I kissed his dark hair again.
The toothbrush stopped buzzing, and he bent over and spat out the mouthful of toothpaste, then used his good hand to splash a little water on his face to wash away the lingering foam.
“Isaid, ‘It’s notjust.”
“What’s not just?”
“You loving me,” he replied. “There’s nothingjustabout it.” He turned and put his arm around me, tucking himself against my body. “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said softly.
I kissed his forehead, squeezing him gently, careful of his shoulder and splinted arm. “It’s notjustfor me, either,” I told him. “El?”
“Yeah?” He’d nuzzled himself into my shoulder.
“Think we can move my stuff here before the end of January?” I’d made up my mind. I knew I could live on my own—I could keep doing it, if I wanted to. But I didn’t. I wanted to stay here with Elliot.Especiallynow that Buettner and his buddies had all been arrested. Now that it wasn’t a matter of safety or necessity. Now I just wanted to live with him because I wanted to live withhim.
Elliot went very still, and I heard him swallow. “Baby,” he said softly, “I could have you moved in here tomorrow if you wanted me to.”
40
Elliot Crane
When are you coming home?
It’s been 38 hours.
He wasn’t wrong.It had been thirty-eight hours and twenty-two minutes since the first call came in on New Year’s Eve about a bullet that had been shot in the air coming down—as bullets do—and killing someone. Usually, shots fired into the air weren’t fatal—but they were still beyond stupid because they very easilycouldbe, and they were highly likely to do property damage or cause injury if they didn’t happen to kill someone.
The someone in question had been one of the other party-goers at the same party at which the gun had been fired, which meant that the shooter had actually managed to point the thing straight up. Usually they were at an angle so that the bullets came completely unexpectedly out of nowhere as far as the victims were concerned. At least this time they knew what had happened. They just hadn’t thought it would happen to them.
And from there I went to a DUI wrapped around a tree.
Then a bar that had been broken into and robbed that needed a once-over for fingerprints at five in the morning.
Then a hit-and-run with a cow.
