The place was an eerie combination of warm and far too empty. As long as everyone got to come home, Susan suspected the fridge would be full of casseroles from the neighbors by tomorrow night, and someone would volunteer to help Kandace clean up.
Andrew returned from the room he said was his when he stayed here, and handed her a stack with a T-shirt on top. “So you can change into more comfortable clothes to sleep in.”
“I don’t know if I’m sleeping any time soon.” She took the offering anyway.
Dark circles hung under his eyes, but the glower he’d worn all night had faded. “A shower might help you relax. You can use the one attached to Kandace’s room, if you’re interested. Wash some of the dirt off. Warm up.”
“That sounds nice.” She followed the direction he pointed, until she found the room in question. The master bath was done up elegantly, in frosted chrome and porcelain, with both a shower in against the wall and a free-standing tub. A bath would be amazing right now. It would probably also lull her to sleep before she was ready. Shower it was.
When she emerged, she felt infinitely more relaxed but no closer to sleep. She tugged on the T-shirt Andrew gave her, and smiled when she looked in the mirror. Definitely one of his. Not only did it hang halfway down her thighs, but the text across the chest read, How do you keep a moron in suspense?
The only other thing in the stack was a pair of cotton boxers. She pulled those on as well and wandered out into house. The dark quiet was more calming than she expected. Despite this only being her second time here, the home felt welcoming. There were two rooms on this side of the living room. The second was Lucas’s, she assumed, from the smaller bed, telescope near the window, and glow-in-the-dark stars dotting the ceiling.
Andrew’s room was on the other side of the house, so she made her way back there. She paused in the doorway, thoughts grinding to a halt when she saw him. His jeans hung low on his hips, and he wasn’t wearing anything else. His back was to her, his attention on a dresser against the wall. Faint scars ran along one shoulder, down his back, and wrapped around his arm. Each time he moved, muscle rippled under the skin. His wet hair lay in dark curls along the back of his neck.
It was tempting to stare a little longer, but she found her voice. “Did I steal your only shirt?”
“I got distracted.” He nodded at a series of framed pictures.
She moved into the room, to stand next to him. As far as she could tell, they were all photos of Lucas—as a baby, a toddler, and at various other points in his life.
“I was on the other side of the world when half of this happened.” Andrew’s voice was quiet. “While I was taking naked pictures, Kandace was raising this amazing boy and sending me some of the better shots. And she’s got a point, the more I think about it.”
“About what?”
“If I want to be in his life, I need to be here. I can’t keep running away from this place.”
She couldn’t help but wonder if Mercy went through a similar thought process a few months ago, which reminded her of Dad. Her stomach twisted in on itself. This wasn’t the time to fall back down that rabbit hole. “If you’re looking for me to talk you out of it, I won’t. I think it’s a good idea. Besides, from a purely selfish perspective? I like your company.”
He turned to look at her. He raised one brow as he dragged his gaze up her body, and her skin heated to scorching. “Spending more time with you would be a nice side-effect.”
“What?” she asked when she realized he wasn’t looking away.
“I’m imagining what is or isn’t underneath that shirt. Wondering what it would take to get you out of it, so I can find out.”
She gave him a timid smile, unsure how to respond.
“What?” He mimicked her earlier question.
“I don’t know if you’re teasing or serious.”
“I’m completely serious.” He knotted his fingers in her hair, holding her head captive. “Everything’s that happened tonight has me thinking… I used to be fearless.”
“Used to be?” She forced herself to speak, despite the way his intense gaze drilled into her.
He let out a strained chuckle. “You heard me. Believe it or not, I’m a do no harm kind of guy. After the accident all those years ago, and the events leading up to it… I’d walked away from Lucas and pissed off Mercy to the point we weren’t speaking, because of what I wanted. I swung in the opposite direction after that. Not on purpose; it’s just the way things happened.”
“How do you mean?”
“I kept my distance from Lucas under the pretense of not ruining his life, but it was so I didn’t have to deal with what I might do wrong if I stuck around. In the end, it didn’t matter. He’s caught up in a cycle of self-loathing regardless. I’m not saying he’d be better or worse if I stuck around, but at least the situation would have been honest from the start.”
Susan wasn’t sure what to say. She agreed but didn’t think it was polite to throw that back in his face with took you long enough. She settled for nodding.
“Now that I know he’s going to be all right, this whole realization thing is taking off on a tangent.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “You look amazing, like you always do. Fresh out of the shower, covered in mud, made up for dinner with your friends—it doesn’t matter. I adore you, Suzie-Q. And—fuck—I’m tired of fighting this. I don’t want to lose out on whatever potential lies between us. I desperately want to strip you out of those clothes.”
She didn’t know if it was the tension talking, or if his words meant more. She didn’t care. “Me too.”
He brushed his lips over hers, and a pleasant shiver ran down her spine. When he tightened his grip, yanking back her head, she gasped. He muffled the sound, kissing her hard, gliding his tongue over her bottom lip, then further into her mouth, to dance and tease.