Page 61 of Escape from the Green

"He always look at you like that?"

"Like I have no clothes on?" I asked, wrinkling up my nose. "Yes."

"Asshole," he concluded, turning to take a bag from Smoky, but not taking his arm from off my shoulders. "You have everything?"

I took one last look at my apartment, letting myself feel the loss, exhaling out my disappointment. "Yeah."

"You can have it again," Drake told me as his friends moved ahead of us, sure-footed, confident, leading us back toward the veil, heads swiveling now and again, vigilant, keeping an eye for Cass and his minions.

"Have what?" I asked, sticking close to his body even as the humid air started to make my shirt stick to my skin.

"Something of your own," he explained. "Something full of yellow and green and pretty things. You'll have that again. I will make it happen."

My heart swelled a bit in my chest even as I tried to remind myself not to get my hopes too high, not to let myself dream of something that may not be a possibility.

I understood how many things were in The Green, how most lived.

Not in big estates like I had grown up in.

In little huts they had built with their own two hands.

But, somehow, I liked the idea.

"Could I help?" I asked.

"Help with what?"

"Making a home for myself. Can I help build it? I know nothing about it, but I would like to be a part of it."

"I'd like to see that," he told me, eyes dancing at the very idea. "It wouldn't be so different, furnishings aside," he added. "Your home in the human realm is about the size of the average home in my land. Someone can show you how to make dye from flowers and berries to decorate with. How to make your own pots and cups and such. It's not exactly like the life you were living in the city, but it can be fulfilling in a different way."

"I think I would like that."

I liked finding little treasures for my space, never having been allowed to choose my own decor growing up. I imagined it would be even more fun to make them myself, to be a part in it in a bigger way.

"Would I see you?" I asked, gaze watching my feet on the sidewalk.

"Hm?"

"When we go into your land. Will I be seeing you?"

"Of course you'll be seeing me. I'll be right there whenever you need me. I know it will be scary at first.Can I level with you?"

"Sure." My head swiveled and lifted to inspect his profile, curious.

"I think it might be a little... uncomfortable," he decided, not quite wanting to use the word scary to describe his worries about going home after so long, "for me at first. It would be nice to have a friendly face around."

"You'll have your family back," I reminded him. "I mean... if you had..."

"I had family," he cut me off. "And they'll be happy to see me. But," he sucked in a breath, exhaling it hard.

"But what?"

"But they will be expecting a man who no longer exists," Smoky supplied from several feet in front of us, making me uncomfortably aware of the idea that she had been eavesdropping on us.

"Yeah," Drake agreed, nodding. "Can't say I am going back there the same man I was when I left. It is going to take them a while to adjust, I think. They'll try to understand, but I think only you can really get it. Being there, seeing things... knowing who I am now."

"Well, you'll always be welcome at my place. You know, after we build it."