Page 156 of A Matter of Time

“Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?”

My mind was racing. “How can you just give me your name?”

“I was adopted and received my name. My parents are gone, you know that, and there was only my father; he had no brothers or sisters, and his parents both passed before I was even born. There is no other Harcourt that I’m related to, so there’s just going to be me…and now you. We’ll make our own history.”

I stared up into the gray eyes I knew so well. Funny that earlier I was thinking he was home. Turned out he really was.

“And I will get married one of these days, and you’ll stand up with me. After I have children, you’ll be an uncle and come every Thanksgiving and Christmas and have dinner with your family on Sunday nights. You’ll bring your partner along with you, and someday, I’m sure, kids of your own.”

The air had been sucked from the room, and I felt my heart pounding in my chest.

“This is what I want.” He smiled down at me, hand on the side of my neck. “All right?”

I couldn’t speak.

He let out a quick breath. “This one time,” he whispered hoarsely, and I saw the muscles in his jaw working as I inhaled sharply. “I want you to be my brother. I—you know. I want you to stay. Just agree.”

All at once I understood, and the simplicity of it was staggering. He loved me. He couldn’t say it because the words were too much, they would weigh too heavily between us, but I saw it there in the steady gaze, felt it in the warmth of the hand on my cheek, and heard it in the way he was holding his breath. Waiting for me. He would wait forever if I asked. I nodded because I couldn’t speak.

His arm slipped around my neck as he drew me close, hugging me tight, his chin resting on the top of my head as he thanked me.

“I should thank you,” I croaked out.

“No,” he said, shoving me away. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we⁠—”

“I’m taking you home to my place. I don’t trust you to be safe anywhere else.”

“But you don’t hafta leave all your⁠—”

“Do you have anything we need to pick up?”

“I left my duffel with the hostess.”

“Excellent.” He kept his hand on the back of my neck. “Let’s retrieve your things and head home. You’re crashing so hard you’re barely standing.”

“That’s not—” I began even as I almost tripped over my own feet. “Shit.”

He chuckled as he steered me back to the others. When he announced that he had to leave—family emergency—the delight in his tone was not to be missed. His friend Jude smiled at me, and I was congratulated on a choice well made.

Dane lived in a very exclusive building downtown, close to the water tower. There was a security guard who sat behind the desk when you came in and another who hung out by the elevators. They were medium-sized guys, really nice, nothing menacing about them, which was somehow spookier than if they had been big and scary. You got the idea that they could become dangerous very quickly. The fact that they were both packing didn’t change the image. If you tried to hurt someone in Dane’s building, you could be shot. It had to be comforting for the residents, even if it gave visitors the willies. That was probably the whole point.

Inside Dane’s apartment were two floors. The bottom was an open concept, the living room, dining room, and kitchen all sort of blending together. There was a half bath on the first floor as well.

A steel staircase rose from the first floor to the second, and his office, bedroom, and bathroom. Two guest bedrooms and two more bathrooms were there. He had a sunroom where the pool and sauna were that led out onto the balcony that faced Lake Michigan. On the first floor was another balcony that looked out in the other direction, toward the city. It was a dazzling place to live, and even more exciting that he could simply come down in his elevator and be downtown where all the night life and shopping was. I had always loved it and got really excited when he went out of town and I got to house-sit. As I stood in the living room looking out at the balcony, he walked by and passed me a set of keys and a card for the elevator.

“I have a set of keys for your place,” he assured me, yawning as he climbed the stairs to the second floor. “I’m going to make up the other bedroom for you. Just give me a minute.”

He was freaking me out by acting like everything was normal. And to him it probably was. Because my new status was his decision, he had been given the time to work through it in his head. I was the one who had woken up in the twilight zone. I turned on my phone to call Sam, to let him know that his witness, me, was safe, and the second I did, it rang. I answered it without even checking the number.

“Jory.”

“Hey.” I sighed. “You all right?”

“Tell me where you are.”

I flopped down onto the white leather couch. “I’m safe, don’t worry.”