As I wrap my arms around him, he feels bonier than the last time. It’s hard to notice it in his expensive-looking black shirt and tan pants, both of which hang loosely on him. His hair is a little too dark blonde and not purple, like the last time I saw him. When he steps back, the bags under his green eyes concern me. But nothing can ever take away the spark in his eyes as he grins widely.
I turn my gaze up at Nicholas, who now looks relaxed. “Now that we’ve established I’m not getting abducted again, can we take this party inside?” I carry one of Sam’s giant bags and haul it inside.
“That’s a lot of bags to carry for a trip on a hostile ship,” Nicholas mutters as he carries two bags, with Sam following him with the last one.
We look at the bags we’ve assembled beside the couch. “Wow. You guys are exemplary hosts. I’m feeling very welcome.”
I snort but otherwise ignore Nicholas’s frown still trained on the bags because it’ll be a long, distracting conversation about Sam’s need to pack separate shoes for each one of his elaborate outfits. There are hats involved, too. I’veneverseen Sam wear a hat. I take a deep breath to calm down. Right now, I have more pertinent questions, like where the fuck he disappeared off to after dropping a nuclear bomb on my life.
Nicholas’s head snaps to mine with a smile. “Don’t you think it’d be rude to leave now when Samjustarrived?”
Sam flops down on the couch. “It would be rude, yes.”
Nicholas points at Sam. “See, I should cancel. I’ll just cancel.” He nods.
“Give us one second,” I tell Sam, grabbing Nicholas’s arm and dragging him to the doorway, just out of Sam’s line of sight. Not that there’s any hope he won’t eavesdrop. Sam’s nosy. No werewolf hearing required.
I meet Nicholas’s eyes, standing just far away so I don’t have to crane my neck up. “Why don’t you want to see your friends? You love them.”
He averts his eyes. “I’m not avoiding them.” Sighing, he pulls me closer with his hand on my hips. “I guess… I’m just not ready to step out of this bubble.”
I cup his face with my hands, his stubble prickling my skin. “They’re your people, right? As annoying as they are, I like to believe it’s because they care. At least enough to march down here in large numbers and interrogate me about your disappearance if you decide to meld yourself into me like that gross movie you made me watch. So, you have to go.”
Nicholas snorts. “I wish we could meld something, alright.”
I shake my head, pushing him away. “No. That’s it. Now I need a break from you.”
He laughs, pulling me back in. Dropping a kiss on my head, he finally lets me go and grabs the doorknob.
I stare at him as he walks away, feeling lost. How can you already miss someone who hasn’t even left yet? Ugh, I’m just as bad as him, aren’t I? At least I have the decency not to put my thoughts into words.
“See you soon, Sam,” he shouts over his shoulder, then, with one last glance, he’s gone.
I come back to find Sam has already made himself at home. He’s leaning back, his feet planted on the coffee table with a coffee mug cradled in his hand. When did he have the time to make coffee? Nicholas drank the last of it in the morning.
“Took you long enough. Detective Fussy gone?” he asks as if he didn’t hear the entire conversation.
I collapse onto the couch beside him. “One meeting and he’s demoted from McHottie to Detective Fussy?”
“He was demoted the day he talked to me like I’m a five-year-old when that old fart abducted you.” He takes a righteous sip of his coffee of unknown origin.
I smile. “I wish someone had thought of recording that conversation. I’d pay good money to hear it.”
“Of course, you would. You’re obsessed with me,” he says.
I snort. “Anyway, where were you the entire last week?”
He waves me off like disappearing for days without so much as a text is completely normal. “Eh, it was nothing. I have a more interesting question. Did I sense some trouble in paradise there?” He wiggles his eyebrows twice.
“What? No, of course not. Nicholas had work, but he was enjoying his vacation a little too much.” And he wanted to avoid his best friends because I was making him lie to everyone he loved. But Nicholas looked completely normal when he left. I’m almost sure it wasn’t even the mask of goofiness he has on most of the time because he thinks he needs to keep everyone happy.
But we need to have a conversation about this sometime soon. As Nicholas said, the blissful bubble we’d created for ourselves has popped. That’s future Elliot’s problem though. Besides… “Don’t distract me. What happened to you?”
He’s trying to keep things light, but it’s hard to miss the tiredness in his eyes. He sighs. “Fiiine. I was on a cruise to Japan when you stopped answering my calls, so I had to take a creative way back to avoid staying at an almost abandoned island for two weeks to take the next flight out,” he says like that explains it all.
“And your creative way included a hostile ship? What does that even mean?”
“Well, technically, they weren’t our friends. But they loved money. Until the ship was attacked by pirates, but then I helped one of the pirates set up a permanent direct network on his ship, so he could talk to his daughter. God, he was so cute. She told him about her science project and the man couldn’t stop smiling.Adorable.”
