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They finally got the board off and Tully dumped it on the pile with the others. Taking him home sounded like a really good idea. “Tully,” I said.
He looked straight over at me and came inside. “Are we going? Please tell me we’re going?”
I nodded. “I’m tired.”
He put his hand to my belly and slid his arm around my waist. Displays of affection in front of people would definitely take some getting used to. Especially in front of his parents.
Then I remembered that I’d kissed him in front of them, and that made leaving sound even better.
We said goodbye to everyone, and Tully got to Ellis. “You coming?”
“I will. Tomorrow, if that’s all right. I might stay here tonight,” he said.
It was understandable.
“Plus, I’m pretty sure I don’t wanna hear what noises’ll be coming outta your room—”
Tully snatched the cordless drill off his father and tried to get around the couch to kill his brother. Rowan and their dad tried to intervene, the kids all joined in, laughing and squealing like it was all the best game they’d ever played.
I sighed and gave a nod to his mum. “Thank you for the food.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Maybe one day you can tell us about the hero story the news crew talked about and that nice-looking fireman mentioned.”
I smirked. “He was nice-looking, wasn’t he?”
“Hey, I heard that,” Tully said. He was no longer holding the drill, but he did have one nephew over his shoulder. “He was nice-looking. Until he opened his stupid mouth.” He made a face. “Errrr, the blue-eyed weatherman, said the brown-eyed fireman. What a dick.”
“Tully,” Zoe chided. “Language.”
“How come you noticed his eye colour?” I asked.
“Yeah, Tully,” Ellis chimed in. “How come you noticed?”
Tully was about to have another go at Ellis, but Ellis was under a pile of nieces and nephews, and he was smiling for the first time since we’d got back. Tully added another kid to the pile, and with a smile aimed at his mum, we took the box with the bird in it and went home.
It was still daylight outside, but his house was completely boarded up and pitch-black inside. He shone his phone torch around, and everything was just as he’d left it.
No broken windows, no damage.
Not that we could see, anyway. There was certainly no missing roof and demolished house like Ellis’ and countless other people’s.
We were so very lucky.
Tomorrow we would learn more about the widespread damage, and the death toll numbers would start to come in.
But for now, like the boarded-up windows, we could block it out and, for a few hours at least, pretend the outside world didn’t exist.
We put the box with the bird in it on the floor. “Good luck, little guy,” Tully said quietly. Then he led me upstairs. “No power also means no air conditioning,” he said. “But it also means no hot water. Hell, I don’t even know if we have cold water.” He led me straight into his bathroom and put his phone torch up on the sink. “Quickest shower ever, then bed. And I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m too tired for sex.”
I snorted. “Honestly, same.”
He pulled his shirt off. “But not too tired for kisses or cuddles.” Then he pulledmyshirt off. “Right?”
“Right.”
He stopped, and putting his head on my chest, he fell against me. I was quick to hold him up. Apparently the cuddles were starting early.
“Thank you,” he murmured. “For making me go back to Mum and Dad’s. You were right.”
