I couldn’t tell you how long afterward we stayed just like that—my body pressing hers into the mattress, her arms and legs wrapped around me.
But the sweat felt cool as I rolled off to her side, curling her onto my chest, my hands drifting lazily over her.
My fingers drifted up into her hair.
“Alara?”
“Mm?”
My lips curled up at the come-drunk sound.
“This is the part where we talk about this.”
“Talking is overrated.”
“Yeah, but it’s what adults do in this kind of situation.”
“Boo,” she grumbled, but sucked in a deep breath and sighed it out. “Fine. But you start.”
I guess, between the two of us, I was the one more equipped for hard conversations. I mean, when you had to tell your little niece that her mom was dead, you could just about talk to anyone about anything. Even something as uncomfortable and intimate as feelings.
And Alara, well, Alara was someone you sometimes had to pry information out of. She’d learned as an observant and empathetic little girl to tamp down all her own feelings to try to ease the tension in their household.
Then, as an adult, she closed her personal world off to everyone. So much so that Brio told me that Ezzy worried about her because she rarely expressed her feelings if they weren’t the anger or frustration she was comfortable sharing. Because they cost nothing. Not like the softer emotions did.
And asking about her feelings regarding a relationship, that shit was all soft.
“Where’s your head at about all this?” I asked.
“That’s not you starting.”
A small laugh escaped me.
“Okay, you pain in the ass. I’ll go first. I wasn’t sure at first.”
“No way! You hid that so well,” she said, and I could hear the eye roll in her voice.
I swatted her ass in retribution, getting a little giggle out of her.
“And, yeah, the Brio thing and the age thing were most of the hangups.”
“Most?” she prompted, her fingers drawing lazy shapes on my chest.
“There was also the kids.”
“What about the kids?”
“Decisions I make, they aren’t just about me.”
“I get that.”
“The three of us are a package deal.”
“Really? I thought guardians ship the kids off to boarding school when there’s a new woman in his life. Or maybe that’s just what the movies I grew up on said.”
“Be serious.”
“You’re being serious enough for the both of us. I know that Charlotte and Liam are a package deal with you.”
