Page 76 of From A to Us

“Eli asked you to call me?”

King grunted a reply.

Nolan hadn’t spotted Eli, so he kept going. He’d circle the airport and be back in another couple of minutes.

“Why did he ask you to call me?”

“Guess he thought you might need someone to talk to,” King said. “Why aren’t you talking to him?”

“Because—” Nolan stalled there, unsure of the answer. Maybe he’d needed an objective third party who hadn’t been part of the search for Freddie from the start?

“Because you’re not serious about him?” King asked.

“I don’t know,” Nolan said, the question sending his heart rate haywire. “It’s only been a few weeks.”

“Sometimes a few weeks is all you need.”

“Says the guy who hasn’t had a long-term relationship since university.”

King didn’t say anything to that, and Nolan winced when he replayed his words. King had his reasons for remaining single—Nolan didn’t need to be an ass about it.

“Sorry,” Nolan said. “That was mean.”

King sighed. “Look. I may not have been serious about anyone in a long time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand that every relationship develops at its own speed. A few days, a few weeks, a few months, a few years. Eli obviously cares about you, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked me to call you when you wouldn’t talk to him. So if you’re not serious about him—or open to the possibility of getting serious, at the very least—then it might be time to break it off. Let him find someone who’s willing to give him everything.”

“Absolutely fucking not.”

Break it off? The mere thought had Nolan’s haywire heart rate skyrocketing up into the stratosphere.

“Guess that answers that then,” King said gently. “Anyway, I’ll let you go. I’ve got to head out.”

“Where to?” Nolan asked, back in Arrivals and looking for Eli. “A wild Friday night out?”

“More like a quiet road trip up to Barrie. AJ has another emergency.”

Nolan smiled thinking of King’s youngest and much flightier brother. “The bury-a-dead-body kind of emergency or the I-locked-myself-out-of-my-house-again kind of emergency?”

“With AJ, either could be true. Or both. Let me know when you find out who Freddie is.”

King hung up as Nolan spotted Eli. He pulled up to the curb, his heart still somewhere up in the atmosphere.

Eli tossed his duffel into the back seat with a “Hey” and a smile, then climbed into the front. He leaned over the center console, and Nolan obliged him with a kiss that he deepened with a groan and a cupped hand behind Eli’s neck.

Eli laughed into his mouth. “Hi.”

He looked good. Tired yet energized, which was always how he looked.

Nolan gave him another quick kiss, his heart settling into its normal rhythm now that Eli was back. “Hi. How was the taping?”

“Good.” Eli buckled his seat belt as Nolan navigated out of the airport. “The secret ingredient wasn’t peppermint. It was marshmallows.”

“Is that better than peppermint?”

“So much better. Marshmallows should be in every baked good.”

“Even apple turnovers?”

“Okay, maybe not every baked good,” Eli amended. “But you know what I mean.”