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“Massive. Faceless executives, the rest of us worker bees.”
“What do they, er, make?”
“Underwear.”
“Like those little ones you have?”
“Exactly.” He chuckled. “I brought more, by the way. Some even smaller.”
I laughed. He always made me laugh, somehow, but this time it made my face hot. “Wondered what you had in all those bags.”
I’d thought he only brought his shoulder bag, but after we’d finished our prolonged hello in the woods, we tucked ourselves back in and zipped up and went to pick up what he called “a few things” he’d left by the portal. And by a few things, he meant three large, shiny-sided suitcases in various bright colors—but thankfully, they all had wheels, so they could be pulled like a plow.
I reached out to brush a curl off his forehead and prompted, “What then?”
“Then I executed Amma’s plan. We told everyone in the US we were moving to India, and we told everyone in India we were going to be on a long, remote dig in Siberia.”
“Siberia?”
“You know, northern Russia? Super cold, very scary? Really scary right now, actually—there’s all kinds of shit going down out there you don’t wanna know about, believe me.”
“There always has been,” I replied with a smile. “So now, no one will look for you?”
“Correct. In theory. And all our mail is forwarded to the Ferry Vale post office.” Another brief pause, and then he added, “And I saw my therapist.”
“Ah. Did you talk about the nightmares?”
He sighed. “I asked her why I was under the bed, in the nightmares, if I wasn’t there in reality.”
“Did she have an answer?”
“She said that I had too little information, growing up. I didn’t know the whole story, so my unconscious mind filled in the gaps. Apparently my mind hates me.”
“No. But there’s too much fear in the unknown. Better to know.”
“Better to know,” he agreed. “I didn’t tell Amma. Don’t want her to feel bad about trying to protect me. Doesn’t matter now, anyhow.”
“Will the nightmares return?”
“With my luck? Oh, for sure. God forbid I’m not quaking in my boots at least once a week.”
“I’ll keep you safe,” I promised.
“I know.” His eyes crinkled prettily. “And I figured, since you hate going into Ferry Vale, I could go in and out to get whatever we need, and turn my phone on to check in on social media and stuff for us when I’m there.”
My heart swelled. “You’d do that?”
“Of course I would. I need to find some way to be useful or I’ll go insane. I can’t just spend all day every day with my face between your legs.”
I laughed again. “You could.”
“Okay, I could. And I probably will, at first.” Then his smile faded. “But I don’t want to go back there. And I do want to stay here. So there’s no doubt on my end.”
“Not on mine, either. All I could think of was you, while you were gone. Felt like a fecking idiot, but it’s true.”
He reached up and touched my cheek with one finger, then slid it downward, over my jawline, and then down my neck. “Maybe the infatuation will fade for both of us. But until then, why not enjoy each other?”
“It’s not infatuation,” I told him, suddenly certain.
