AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, it’d be a bad time?”
“Yes, but I also got your note.”
“I wanted to apologize to you in person. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”
Bron shrugged as if to say“no biggie,”but Darcy reached out to him. Tipped up his chin so that he’d meet his eyes. “Hey, I mean it. I’m sorry. It was genuinely very wrong of me.”
Bron exhaled in relief, though if anything he felt himself too hot. Embarrassed by Darcy’s apology. He shrugged again and blinked to clear away the tears that threatened to form. “Thank you for saying that.” Bron allowed Darcy to caress his cheek, to stroke the back of his ear. It was his turn to say something now. “I’m sorry too. I … I shouldn’t have pried.”
But when Ada came in, they righted themselves, Darcy quickly returning to the kitchen sink. Bron prepared himself for whatever emotions she was to bring up at having not yet found Birdie.
“Good news, team.” She pulled herself up onto a stool near the island and grabbed quickly for a pencil. Producing a sheet of paper, she crossed out the last line on her list and held it up for all to see. “That’s Papa’s bedroom clear. That means all the rooms have finally been searched.”
Darcy shut off the tap and ambled toward the door. Bron side-stepped to block him from leaving.
“Well,” Bron said. “Are you … are you sure we’ve checked absolutely everywhere? I could check my room again. Or maybe Darcy’s.”
“Hell no,” Darcy said.
“Oh, we don’t need to do any more searching,” Ada said. “I found Birdie ages ago.”
“You—you did?” they said in unison.
“Yeah. Flying about in the breakfast room and perched on the little ledge. She was staring out the window so beautifully. Of course I went to grab her, but then I thought, ‘Hey, she’s a bird. She’s meant to be out there, flying free.’ And so I opened the window. And she took off. It was wonderful to see.”
Bron paused before stumbling over whatever words tried to come out of his mouth, and then looked up to Darcy, who looked equally baffled.
“Well, that sorts that then,” Darcy said. He sidled up to Bron’s shoulder, gave his arm a little squeeze, then whispered into his ear, “The little liar.”
Bron brought his hands to his mouth to cover his smile.
“Wait,” Ada said, jumping to her feet. “Darcy, where are you going?”
“Out. Some urgent business.”
“Alright. Bron? Will you come upstairs and read to me?”
“I—”
“No, he can’t. Sorry, Ada, I’m afraid I need to ask a little favor of our Bron. This business of mine, it’s very urgent. Very urgent, indeed. I’m in need of his expert hands.”
“What expert hands?”
“Run along now, Addie,” Darcy said, and guided Bron from the small of his back out into the hall. From there, he pulled him into the breakfast room and secured the door shut. “That girl. She’s bound to be a politician, the way she can lie so easily through her teeth like that.”
“Maybe she wasn’t lying.”
“What? You think that while one bird flew loose through the house, another identical bird justhappenedto swoop in and justhappenedto land in the jaws of my whippet?”
“It’s possible?” Bron started, but his entertaining of this non-fact had Darcy clutching at his stomach, and soon they were both laughing.
“I suppose it’s better off this way. That in some revised version of the world, the blasted thing made it out alive.”
Bron ran a finger through his hair and looked to the sash window, the pane securely shut and much too high for Ada’s reach. He felt Darcy, the height of him, press against his back. He could let himself fall into him, if he wanted, rest his back onto the hardness of his chest, curve into the pit of his stomach, and linger there a while.
“What are you looking at?” Darcy asked quietly.
When Darcy rubbed his shoulders, as if to release the tension from them, he inadvertently let out a sigh. He dropped his head back and pretended, for a moment, like this was completely normal behavior between the two of them. That there were no ghosts in the closet to be revealed. No strain in the way they justwerewhen they were together. The different worlds they occupied. “Nothing. I was just thinking that I should probably go upstairs. Plan a lesson for Ada or … or something.”
