“Yes. One of my favorite things in the world.”
Gabriel strokes my hair and lets me listen to his heart. Somethingbangs at the back of the brownstone, and I startle upright.
“It’s fine.” He pulls me back down to the pillows. “It’s just Nate and Lydia coming in.”
“Coming in fromwhere?”
“The roof.”
I push up and look at his perfect, beautiful face. “You didn’t tell me there was a roof.”
“Elise, obviously there’s a roof. It’s above us. All the time. Watching over us.”
“You didn’t tell me you could go up there!”
“I usually don’t. Jameson’s the one who found the weird stairs. They’re in a closet, for some reason. I prefer to live my life inside the house, where it’s furnished.”
Footsteps in the hall. They’re trying to be quiet. The bathroom door opens, then closes.
“You didn’t tell me they were up there,” I whisper.
“I was busy licking your sweet, perfect cunt until you cried,” he whispers back. “And I don’t actually care if he goes up there to smoke weed.”
“Oh myGod, Gabriel, you can’t let him smoke weed!”
“It’s better if he smokes weed here, where it’s safe.”
“Fine, but…”
“If it’s the smoke you’re worried about, he’s not going to buy any more. He agreed to switch to edibles.”
I can’t believe it. “Gabriel, he’s sixteen.”
“Yes? He’s sixteen. And if he wants to have an edible every so often, I’m not going to be a prick about it. We talked, Elise. It’s not some secret addiction.”
“It’s illegal.” He gives me a look, and I let myself fall softly to his chest. “Okay, okay. I get it. I just want to do a good job at this.”
“At what?”
“At…getting Nate and Lydia through life. At being with you. At everything, really. I want to be different from my parents.”
He skims his fingertips down my spine. “Funny, because I’ve always wanted to be like my parents. After they died, I didn’t think I deserved it.”
“Well, you do.”
“Sometimes I wonder what they would think of me if they’d lived, but…” He sighs. “If they were alive, I wouldn’t have become this person. I might not be with you.”
“I would give anything to have them back for you.”
His hand splays out on my back, warm and steady. “Would you?”
“Totally.” My heart is still huge and sensitive from the sex and from…everything else. “Because you wouldn’t be in pain. You’d probably be living in a penthouse with Jacob.”
“Mmm. I wouldn’t want to displace Catherine.”
“I wouldn’t want Lydia to be with my parents.”
“I wouldn’t want Nate to be on the street.”