AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When I go to claim it, Darwin climbs in with me and cuddles me to his chest.
“Let me share your throne?”
“Always,” I say, pulling the plaid over us and settling in for the winter.
I try to tone down my ridiculous happiness, particularly because Rachel is still moping around red-eyed and ratty-haired. Gabe and I plot ways to try to cheer her up, but nothing really works until Wyatt brings a pretty, ginger sophomore to the Hump Day party we throw to christen the flat. Rachel drinks herself into a stupor and spends the night in my snuggler chair, but in the morning, after she showers off her hangover, she’s almost aggressively cheerful.
“I’m done trying to get him back,” she tells me as I plate her up an extra greasy grilled cheese sarnie.
“Moving on?” I ask before taking a bite of my own crispy, oozy cholesterol-fest.
“Moving on.” She nods. “It’s better this way. I couldn’t offer him anything he’d agree to anyway. I won’t give up ...”
She buries whatever she was about to say in her sandwich.
“You won’t give up The Mr. Black?”
Her pale blue eyes lift to mine. “How did you guess? We’ve been so careful.”
“You’re together in the future. I met you. You’re right badass, you. Knives strapped all over you. You can turn invisible or sommat. Prolly walk through walls. You’re fierce and strong and brave and my only consolation if I hadn’t been able to get back to my own Time was that I could’ve stayed and fought beside you. Oh, and Lords fucking adores you. Couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
She blushes, the tip of her nose that’s still stained with an alcoholic flush going bright red. “Really?”
I nod, my mouth too full of grilled cheese to answer.
“Have you told them?” she asks.
I chew and swallow. Cheesy heaven. “Yeah, we don’t keep secrets.”
She sighs and takes another bite of her sarnie. “Evan will be annoyed you know, but it’s a relief, Teddy. I’ve wanted to talk to you about him. The sneaking around was fun at first. Lately, it’s weighing me down. I want to do things with him that aren’t just sneaking over to his house every night. I know there’s a big age difference. I wouldn’t drag him to keg parties or anything. I just want to be able to meet him for a coffee after class.”
“You should,” I tell her. “You’re not doing anything wrong. He’s not a teacher. He’s not even a school administrator. There’s no appearance of impropriety or whatever.”
“He says there is. He says he has to appear impartial.”
“Sure, if you were involved in a security problem, I can see that. He’d have to let another crow handle it. But you’re not. His favoritism doesn’t get you anything because he’s not giving you a grade.”
“I’ve tried telling him all that.” She regards her grilled cheese woefully. Pretty sure the sandwich isn’t the cause of that look. “I wouldn’t ... love him so much if he wasn’t as firm as he is about things. He has all these ... convictions. I can’t talk him around.”
“Then stop trying,” I say. “Beatin’ your head against the wall hurts your head a lot more than the wall. Give it up. Enjoy being with him on whatever terms. Sommat the boys have taught me? It’s not the little things that matter. It’s seeing them walk into a room and feeling like the sun just rose in your heart. It’s falling asleep in their arms and knowing there’s nowhere else in the world you’d rather be. Focus on the important shite.”
She nods and looks around the otherwise empty flat. Gabe and Dar are eating lunch together at Treetops today, since it’s close to their afternoon classes. Charlie’s with his coach, the team captain, and the assistant team captain, working on something they call the play bible. No idea what it is, but they’re dead serious about it. Chaz has been walking around muttering things like, “they’d need to cut right,rightfor Screaming Eagle Flies Over the Mountain, not left” all week, poor bastard.
“You’re happy with all three of them?” she asks.
“Never happier,” I say. “It wasn’t an easy ride getting here and there’ll always be some tussle between me and Darwin, but this is it, Rach. This is the dream. It’s everything I want, these three boys. I’d do anything for them.”
She spins her plate around on the counter, where we’re sitting to eat rather than the dining table, since it’s just the two of us. “That’s the way I feel about Evan.”
“Then give it time,” I tell her. “I know it’s easier said than done, and if you’d told me to just give it time with Darwin I’d have punched you. But give it time and see if you can get to a happy place with Evan. It’s worth it.”
She sighs and gives me a small smile. “I’m trying really hard not to be jealous.”
“Don’t be. We still got a long Path to walk.” I sigh and poke at a sarnie crust. “Finals and Yule are comin’ fast. I haven’t figured out who killed Jade, and I still have to face my Da.”
“Teddy, that’s not on you, Jade’s murder. Evan hates that you’re involved in the investigation. He worries about you.”
I flick at the crust, scattering crumbs, which I’d better clean up before I go to class or Princely will have a full OCD meltdown. “I’ve been good. I’ve stayed away from Evanda Hale. Done nothin’ to draw attention to myself. But I’m gonna have to step up. Yule’s a convergence. I can feel it. If we go to Thistlemist without having stopped the Vitrim—” I tap my plate pensively. “It won’t be good. I won’t let that future happen. I won’t.”
