Page 96 of Out Of A Fix

“I need you to stop and let us all breathe, all right? You said I deserve to be happy too, remember? So allow me the time to sort this all out.”

“You’re not supposed to become involved with your fixer,” I said, because it was true and because I needed to say something.

His laugh, man, I could not get enough of the sound. “I bet if I called Shaw right now and asked him how many fixers Torus Intercession loses to love, it’ll be a pretty big number.”

It was more than half over the years. “No,” I lied.

His chuckle was filthy as he slipped his hand up under my heavy shawl-collar sweater, under the T-shirt, to my skin. “Another amazing thing about you is that you’re a terrible liar.”

Everywhere his fingers touched, I felt heat and ripples of need, and it was hard to get my breathing to even out.

“Could you please give in? You have to give me a second to figure out my life,” he murmured, gently knocking his forehead on my shoulder. “I deserve that time.”

He did, but honestly, so did I. And if he decided it wasn’t me, that he didn’t want a man, then what was I supposed to do?

“I would never say it wouldn’t be you.”

That wasn’t true at all, but all I could do was wait.

TEN

Nothing ever goes how you think it will.

Saturday morning, every parent and guardian was texted the news that Mrs. Burch, the geology teacher, had gone into labor that morning, two weeks early. In my opinion, she should have already been on maternity leave, but she loved teaching, and the kids, and had been looking forward to the field trip. She was clearly one of the good ones, and mom and her twins were thankfully doing great. As Mrs. Burch would not be making the field trip, she had asked a colleague from the University of Washington, Dr. Cameron Attwood, to take over for her, and he would be delivering a lecture and tour at the Pacific Science Center.

Griff and his buddies did not want to go, extra credit be damned. Darwin volunteered to go in his brother’s place and take copious notes. I ended up driving the three boys, plus a very excited thirteen-year-old, to Seattle.

“You just went to the stupid Science Center,” Griff reminded Darwin. “Why would you want to go back?”

“Because it’s awesome,” he told his brother, sounding ready to cry with happiness, which was what mattered.

It soon became clear that Dr. Attwood knew nothing about teenagers. He spoke over their heads and hit them with statistics and graphs. A few of the chaperones had glazed-over expressions, and one father fell asleep and woke himself up with a snort that everyone quietly cheered. The one kid Dr. Attwood did appreciate was Darwin, who asked insightful, thoughtful questions. Poor Griff wanted to die. So did Benny and Sean. I myself felt lucky to have survived.

We got home right after three, having dropped Griff’s buddies off first, and there was an SUV in the driveway with out-of-state plates. A rental, my brain immediately supplied.

“Oh,” Darwin said, leaning forward from the back seat between me and Griff. “I bet Nana and Grampy are here early. They don’t usually come until the day before Thanksgiving.”

“Your grandparents come for Thanksgiving?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Darwin assured me. “Every year.”

I was going to kill Luke for not telling me.

Once we were in the house, I heard the washing machine running. I called out for Luke and Tatum but got no answer, and taking in the stillness, I realized the house was empty. The note on the kitchen counter confirmed it, explaining that Luke, his parents, and Tatum had gone to the store to purchase everything needed for holiday cooking.

“I thought I was cooking,” Griff said miserably.

“Even with your grandparents here?”

“I thought we would make a new tradition.”

“You should probably have let them know before now and it would have been nice to inform me.”

“I thought Dad would’ve said something.”

“Next time, don’t assume, just tell me.”

“I will.”