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“No, Bessie would find you.”
“—being eaten alive by crows and wolves and coyotes and—and ants, possibly raccoons—”
“Kind of anAnimal Kingdomversion of Golden Corral, I guess.”
“—if anything happened to you. I love you so much, I would die if I lost you. Probably.”
Jem couldn’t help it. The grin burst out.
“Well, I don’t know for sure,” Tean grumped. “From a scientific standpoint.”
“That’s ok. I can accept probably.”
For a long, quiet moment, Tean looked at him. The sound of the lake came through the open slider, and the smell of water, and that muggy blanket of heat weighing down every inch of exposed skin. “I would die,” Tean said softly. “But it’s more than that, Jem. We have two girls depending on us now. It’s not just us anymore. I feel like a hypocrite saying that, because I know I’m the one who wants to learn the truth about Yesenia. But—but I can’t do this on my own. You can’t take risks, not without talking to me, not without telling me. I need you.” He swallowed, and for the first time, tears slid down his cheeks. “And I know I’m at fault too. I know I—I owed you more than what I showed you tonight. More trust. More loyalty. It’s hard for me, when everything from the past comes back like that, but you deserve better. And I’m going to work harder on showing you how proud I am of you. How proud I am that you’re in my life, that you’re willing to put up with all of my—my bullshit, and that you do it with a smile and with so much kindness that most of the time, with you, I feel normal, and that’s something no one has ever given me before. I’m going to make sure you never feel like you’re anything less than special and wonderful and perfect for me.”
Jem reached up and thumbed away the tears. Tean’s ragged breathing made him tremble.
“We’ll both do better,” Jem said. “How about that?”
Tean nodded.
“And I’m getting that Fresh Prince haircut.”
Tean closed his eyes.
“I’m not going to be deterred by one small setback.”
“Oh my gosh,” Tean whispered.
“Deterred is a good vocab word.”
More tears spilled down, but Tean gave a watery laugh and nodded.
“And don’t think I missed that ‘bullshit.’ Swear jar.”
This time, the laughter sounded solid.
“Because they’re clearly finished, John,” Emery said from the other side of the door. He knocked hard, the sound covering part of what he said next. “—don’t have time to wait around while they fish each other’s dicks out.”
Tean’s eyes bulged a little.
“To be fair,” Jem said, “I was about to fish your dick out.”
It was fun, after years together, to still be able to make him look so horrified.
Emery was knocking again by the time Tean reached the door. The big man gave him a cursory look and said, “A number of NGOs and non-profit organizations exist that are willing to compensate local poachers and traffickers at equivalent rates for doing conservation work.”
“Did you look that up?” Tean asked.
“I’m sorry,” John-Henry said. “He got bored, and he has his phone.”
“It’s a valid point,” Emery said to his husband. To Tean, he said, “Well?”
“Uh, you’re right?”
Emery didn’t exactly puff up, but he did stand a little straighter, and he pushed past Tean with a satisfied grunt.
“Thanks,” John-Henry said as he came into the room. “I’m going to be dealing with that for a week.”
