The world could burn.
Nothing mattered because within him, I was home.
I held him until the yellow light of Seattle drifted and sleep claimed us both.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
nine
Daphne: The Things That Keep Us (A Memory)
Seven Years Ago
“Shut up!” Thay teased, pulling me in. “You’re so goddamn annoying.”
“Yeah, but you love me for it,” I joked, falling into the slow burn of his scent. He smelled of ivory soap, caramelized tobacco, and blood.
“Maybe,” he squeezed me tight. “Maybe not.”
I nudged him in the ribs, and he laughed, lifting my chin to search my eyes.
“I can’t believe you’re eighteen,” I said, noting the way the blinking city lights haloed his face.
The number did not quite add up to the man in front of me or the woman screaming inside. We had been ancient since the day we were born.
“What do you think they’re going to change your name to?”
“Who knows?” his eyes darted left before falling to the wet pavement below. “What time are the boys supposed to get here?”
“Any minute,” I soothed, tracking his emotions while I pressed a kiss over his heart. “Thay, can I ask you a question?”
The edge of his perfectly shaped brow tilted in my direction.
I was fond of the way his nose crinkled whenever he thought something was funny, and the three freckles that played over his left eye.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” I panicked. “Do you ever think about it?” I blushed, biting the corner of my lip.
“You’re going to have to be more specific than that.” Thay bent low, keeping his hands on my waist. “I mean, I can usually read your mind when it’s not hiding behind all those stupid shades of pink.”
“Me, Thay,” I mumbled as my heart pounded. “Do you ever think aboutme?”
I knew I was crossing a line, but I couldn’t help it. Lately, it was all I could think about; him inhabiting my body the way he did everything else, suppressing the inborn need not just to hold him, but to touch him for real.
“Daphne, you areallI think about.” He shot me a look like I had lost my goddamn mind before tucking a piece of hair behind my ear in a flirty attempt to end the conversation.
“I mean,naked,” I blurted, shaking my head because he had seen me without my clothes on a million times. Thay smirked. “You know what I mean.”
“Do I?” he peered over my shoulder, searching for anything he could use to distract himself from the question.
“Come on, Thay,” I pressed, studying his face for any sign of an answer. “I guess I do not understand why you fuck all these girls when I sleep right next to you.”
His body tensed, but he didn’t let go.
“Maybe I don’t turn you on, or I am not your type?”
I glanced down at my curves and the fullness of my breasts, remembering the eighty-pound waifs he usually pushed through the door.
