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She waited for him to add a sarcastic twist, but instead he simply smiled down at her. It was an expression he seemed to be using more and more with each day, and one he wouldn’t have employed nearly as often before he’d forgotten who he was.
“I can tell it meant a lot to your friend to have you offer to celebrate her baby with her,” he added.
His observation cut straight to her heart.
“She’s wanted a baby for longer than I’ve known her,” Bunny told him quietly. “It’s the least I can do.”
“There’s more to it than that,” he insisted, refusing to let her explain it away so easily. “You’re putting someone else first while you have so much going on yourself, because you know it will make them happy. If that’s not angelic, then I’m not sure I know what is.”
Okay, flabbergasted wasn’t the word. Downright speechless only covered the top of the iceberg. Her breath felt like it had been stolen from her lungs, the way it would if she’d jumped into an ice-cold river, only a thousand times more pleasant. She blinked in surprise, fishing for a reply but coming up empty-handed.
“I don’t really know what to say to that,” she confessed, looking away. She knew by now her blush must have her face lit up like a damn Christmas tree—she could feel it.
“Say thank you and accept the compliment,” he said, his tone nothing more than companionable as he backed away from her to give her a little more room.
“I suppose I should,” she managed to ping back, seemingly much more able to find a foothold now that he wasn’t sharing her turf. “Not like you hand them out on the regular.”
His brows shot upwards at the sass, and she realized too late she’d revealed something about his former self she hadn’t meant to give away.
Damn.
He didn’t waste any time jumping on the opportunity, either. “Tell me what I am like on the regular?” he asked, lifting his chin as he looked her dead in the eye with amusement.
Double damn.
She floundered for a moment, her brain flitting straight off to that magical land where she housed all the private things she liked to think about him. But then she remembered she’d only just managed to gain some ground back, and she was desperate to hold on to it. At least for a little while.
“It’s not polite to fish for compliments,” she told him airily, sidestepping him to head for the couch. When she made it, she flopped down and reached for the remote, catching him grinning as he joined her.
They watched some more TV in companionable silence, both seeming to be content with their own inner monologue for the time being. After an episode of their drag queen show ended, Death turned to her during the credits.
“Why doesn’t she share the celebration with the babies' father?”
Oh boy. How the hell was she supposed to explain this?
“She doesn’t know who that is,” she said at last, deciding to start at the beginning and keep it simple.
“Really?”
His confused tone made Bunny meet his gaze directly. “Pippa got pregnant through a medical procedure,” she explained. “A man donated his half of the babies to her, in a way, but she’ll never know who that man is. And there’s probably a clause to prevent the babies from ever finding out either.”
Death frowned as he tried to understand the situation. “It sounds complicated.”
“It can be,” Bunny shrugged.
“Then why go ahead with it?” he asked, interested.
“Because her desire to have children of her own outweighed any potential future complications,” Bunny said matter-of-factly. “Pippa’s a grown-ass woman, and if she wants to have babies and support them and raise them and do all of that without a man’s input, then more power to her, I say.”
Death nodded contemplatively. “Fair enough.” He paused a moment as the show started its next episode, and then Bunny caught him sneak a glance at her through the corner of his eye. “She mentioned some hot guy you’d met through your work.”
She narrowed her own eyes, turning her head back to the TV. “I really don’t want to get into it right now,” she said, shutting out all possibility of that becoming their next conversational topic. Not only would it be weird to talk about guys with Death, but it would be even weirder because he was the guy she’d told Pippa about.
“Oh,” he replied, sounding a little huffy. “Okay.”
Bunny blinked and swiveled her head in his direction, eyes wide in surprise. Was he jealous? Even though he couldn’t remember anything about his life before their kiss, was he still feeling their connection? She chose not to mention it, opting instead to explain to him the next drag queen challenge.
But as the evening stretched on and she enjoyed her Mexican food before settling in for the night, there was something unspoken in the air between them.
