Adair’scrochet hooks and yarn.
It was too fucking much to handle, and all I wanted,despite my exhaustion, was to catalogue every inch of him. To make sure he was okay after not being able to see for myself for two long days.
Early Wednesday morning, I’d woken to a call from Nurse Emily that had dragged up anxieties that had only just started to mend.
“He okay?” Adair mouthed silently to me as he patted a distraught-looking Cole consolingly on the back. Cole was going back home to Georgia today and was apparently having a very hard time.
I nodded, then looked pointedly at Cole, mouthing back the same question.
Adair gave me a grim look before making one of those “so-so” motions with his free hand. I snorted, the stress from being back on a couch at Zinnia House and watching over Dad ebbing away from just that small interaction.
It’d only been a cold, but I’d seen too much at Zinnia House to trust even the most minor of sicknesses not to take horrible turns.
Before Dad’s cold, the first part of the week was busy too. Ari had been in overdrive, sending emails at all hours and insisting on meeting all over the place, like doing itinerary planning while we sunbathed at the beach and applying for permits online over lunch at her favorite little seafood shack on the Coast.
But the most memorable meeting had been when her nephew Vinh finished the website. She’d invited me, Dad, and Pops to the Zinnia House theater, where the guys watched an old Western and bickered the entire time while we looked through the website on Adair’s laptop.
The easy way she’d become a big part of my life panicked me some, but there was no stopping it.
Cole let out a noise of distress, bringing me back to the moment just as Delly walked into the house, unclasping thechin strap of her helmet, and shaking her long hair out in the entryway. She put her board beside mine by the door and smiled as she joined us in the living room. “I love being able to ride back here for lunch.”
I edged away from her, and she frowned at me.
“Germs,” I explained.
She gave me a flat look. “You wouldn’t bother doing that if you saw the kind of things I came into contact with at work every day. Seriously.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t seem worth the risk.”
Delly’s gaze bounced over the room, and something devilish took over her expression. “I think my brother would disagree. Look how sad he is.”
I glanced at Adair, but Cole sighed dramatically, drawing our attention before I could see what she meant.
“That’s because of me. He can’t take me leaving him, and I can’t either. Going back to the apartment, toGary, it’s just… it’s too much.”
Adair loosely crossed his arms in front of him. “You have to work this weekend. You said so yourself.”
Cole frowned. “I’ll quit.”
“You’re a volunteer firefighter. That’s kinda wrong, man.”
“You’re wrong,man,” he said with a scowl, then groaned. “Sorry, babe. I didn’t mean that.” Thankfully, he dropped the pitiful act and straightened his shoulders, looking around the room at all of us. “I really am sad about leaving. It’s been nice.”
“You’ll be back in a few weeks,” I pointed out, though why I was trying to comfort this grown man was a mystery.
Maybe it was because he’d texted me with updates on Adair’s healing while I was gone without me having to ask him to.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” he said with a sigh. “Anyway—” He stood up from the couch, slapping his hands on his thighs. “I’d better hit the road. Y’all have kept me here long enough. Traffic is gonna be a nightmare.”
Delly huffed. “You are truly exhausting.”
Cole nodded seriously. “I know.”
As they stared each other down, I sought Adair again, but his neck was bent as he readjusted his pillow pile, hiding his features.
“Talk soon, Apple Jack,” Cole said, whatever was going on between them seeming to resolve as they hugged. “Text me if you think of anything you need from Georgia, and I’ll bring it back with me.”
She said something to him, but I was too caught up in looking at Adair, who had just straightened in his seat, to hear it. I knew Cole was joking, but Adair did look sad. His eyes were tired, and there was something defeated in his posture he was trying to hide by straightening his shoulders every few seconds, only for them to droop again.
