“We don’t have to talk. To be honest, I’m not exactly bursting with energy myself.” He closed his eyes and put his feet up on the mattress. It felt good to be off them. “Nice to hear your voice, though.”
“You should probably rest yours,” Carter said wryly. “Was it a good concert? You sound like you deep-throated an elephant.”
Jeff blinked at the ceiling. “That’s… evocative.” He was pretty sure he couldn’t handle an elephant. He could barely handle Carter. “And generous.” But he definitely was a little hoarse.
Heh heh. Elephant. Hoarse.
Possibly he was a little punch-drunk.
“You know what I meant.” He could almost see Carter’s ears turning red.
“It was a good concert.” He smiled. “I have to go do this talk show thing tomorrow. It’s possible someone will ask a question about my personal life. Would it bother you if I’m vague?”
“Do what you gotta do,” Carter yawned. “I’m probably not prepared for the level of chaos that would descend upon my life anyway. And people at work will be nosy.”
Kara was definitely going to be nosy. Jeff could guarantee it. “Are you going back tomorrow?”
“Desk duty,” Carter confirmed. “But at an actual desk. And I get to do campfire night, albeit with an assistant to do the literal heavy lifting.”
“Good,” Jeff said. “I worry about you sitting at home. I have this image of you deciding to remodel your house while your foot’s broken.”
“You’re not far off. I was so bored tonight I almost started peeling the paint off the back door. It’s chipping.”
“You could get a new back door,” Jeff pointed out, his eyes drifting closed.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. It just needs a coat of paint.”
And someone with the time and energy to sand and paint it, Jeff thought but didn’t say. And new weather stripping. And to be completely reframed because it leaked air around the edges. If Jeff had noticed that much in two days…. “Uh-huh.”
“Anyway, it’ll be nice to get back to doing something that at least feels like it’s making a difference.”
Jeff opened his eyes and made himself sit up against the headboard. This seemed, from the actual uncharacteristic undertone of bitterness in Carter’s voice, like it might be important. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know…. It’s dumb.”
Far be it from Carter to imply he was anything other than entirely satisfied with the hand he’d been dealt. “It’s not dumb,” Jeff said, fully awake now. “I want to understand, okay?”
“It can wait until the morning—”
“Carter.”
Carter laughed through his nose. “Fine, you win.” There was a soft thud. “I probably told you back in the day I wanted to get into conservation, right?”
“I seem to recall you mentioning it a time or two.” Or seven, or a hundred. Teenage Carter was evangelical about habitat preservation.
“Well, that didn’t exactly change. I did a master’s in eco-conservation. But academia is….”
Of course Carter had a graduate degree, the nerd. “Competitive and underpaid?” Jeff suggested. He didn’t have firsthand experience, but he did actually read.
“Yeah. And if you don’t do something right after you graduate, or if you don’t do a PhD, it’s difficult to get back into the field. I started working with the parks service and thought, you know, at least it’s related. I track wildlife populations, invasive species, climate change markers, that sort of thing. I make recommendations to keep tourists away from nesting threatened species, that kind of thing.”
“Except now you’re stuck inside,” Jeff finished.
“I don’t have enough spreadsheets to pretend I’m doing science. There’s only so much I can do from a chair, so I’m assisting with the regular park maintenance admin. Scheduling and dispatch and phone nonsense.”
“I’m sorry. That sounds… honestly, I can’t relate at all, but it sounds boring. And I’m sure the actual pain of having a broken foot doesn’t help.”
“Plus my boyfriend left me all alone to field invasive questions from my family.”
