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“What? Why?” Neri asked, accepting the pen and nodding as I tapped the blank box for her to sign.
Only her.
I would once again hide behind her, desperate never to be seen.
“Because he’s selling a Jeep Cherokee, and I want you to test-drive it.”
“You’re buying me a car?” Neri’s eyebrows shot to her hair. “I-I can’t let you do that.”
“We want to,” Anna said. “We want to know you have reliable transport to visit us whenever you want. The apartment has its own carport, so you don’t have to worry about parking.”
Neri finished signing and gave me a smile just for me—a smile full of love and every day of our unfolding future—before standing and launching herself at her parents.
Pressing kisses to both their cheeks, she grinned. “Have I told you how awesome you guys are?”
“Not lately. You’ve been far too obsessed with your shiny new fiancé to even spare me a second glance. I’ve been demoted.” Jack pouted again, his eyes drooping like a sad, demented beagle. “I’m heartbroken and ever so jealous.”
“No, you’re not. You’re ecstatic that I picked him. This way, you don’t have to murder a new boy I might hook up with far away from home.”
“You know what?” Jack grinned, glancing at me with seriousness. “I am. I’m so glad you picked him.” Patting Neri’s behind, he announced, “Now go to the fridge, get your man another beer, your father another beer, your mother a gin tonic, and whatever you’re drinking these days—seeing as you’re only a few weeks from being legal to drink—and then we’re all going to celebrate.”
“Celebrate me leaving home?” Neri laughed. “Who are you, and what did you do with my father who never wanted me to leave the nest?”
He grinned. “I was lucky enough to put you into the hands of a guy I trust with all my heart. It helps knowing he’ll be with you, even when I won’t be.”
Neri rolled her eyes and skipped to the kitchen, all while Jack met my stare, and everything he didn’t say swirled around us.
Keep her safe.
She’s yours now.
I gathered up his silence and gave him my own.
I’ll guard her with my life.
You have my word.
Chapter Eleven
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Croatian: Srce)
“THIS IS ALL OURS?” I ASKED, PIVOTING in my black flip-flops, drinking in the lounge with its white tile floor, patchy and stained walls, rickety glass sliders leading to a weed-filled communal garden, and an open-plan kitchen with some cupboards missing while doors hung haphazardly off their hinges on others. The grimy cream countertop had burn marks and the forest-green cabinets did nothing for the rest of the space, soaking up the late afternoon sunshine like greedy haunted trees.
“I can’t believe it,” Neri breathed, kicking off her own silver flip-flops to drift over the grout-stained tiles and down the short dark corridor to the small bathroom, complete with a showerhead that was so calcified that I doubted water could rain, and the ugliest pink vanity and matching bathtub full of spiderweb cracks and soap scum.
I followed her as she headed toward the bedrooms, peering into each, noticing the slightly mouldy plaid curtains, equally grout-grotty tiles, and the suspicious holes in the wall from either a rowdy party or an angry tenant.
Both bedrooms were a similar size, both with sliding windows with bars over the exterior. Bars that didn’t exist on the apartments above but had been gifted to the ground floor homes only.
“I mean...it’s a little dirty, but it’s ours.” Neri spun on the spot, her hands clasped together over her heart, her turquoise-and-navy ombre maxi dress floating around her ankles. “I never thought we’d get a place this big and on the bus route to uni. I was happy to settle with a studio where our bed was practically in the fridge, but this?” She spun again as if this was a mansion and she was its lady. “Wow.”
I went to her, wrapping my arms around her stunning body and resting my chin on the top of her head. “It needs work, but I’m glad. It gives me something to do. Something new to learn while you’re off playing with microscopes and being a lab geek.”
She chuckled in my embrace. “I think that’s the part I’m going to curse the most.” Tipping her head back, dislodging my chin so she could look up at me, she said, “I’ll miss you, of course. That goes without saying. But I’m going to struggle not being on the sea. My parents have their mobile lab in the spare room and are perfectly capable of their own analysis, but the fact that they made a business gathering data for other firms, rather than being stuck in a lab most of the time was genius.”
“The curriculum for this degree definitely sounds like you’ll be spending far more time in a classroom than on the ocean.”
