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I smiled dreamily up at him. “How about I love you? Have I said that enough yet?”
“Never.”
He was getting so much better at speaking, even if it was still difficult for him to use his own voice. There were some words he might never be able to pronounce right, but nobody cared. For those times, there were always the sounds he’d captured like recordings, and there were ways other than words to communicate.
“I’m so proud of you, Ghost,” I said, and kissed his jaw.
The little bulb on his forehead flushed pink. “What for?”
“For being you. You know, that’s harder than it sounds.”
“Axel makes it easy,” he said, squeezing me.
“You’re such a flatterer!” I gave him a light shove.
He retaliated by tickling me with his tentacles until I shoved him away. With a sigh, I sat up. “You want to go for a swim?”
It was a rhetorical question. Ghost would’ve lived in the Olympic-sized swimming pool out back if I let him. So would I.It was the best part about our relocation to Eden. Well, second best part. The best thing, of course, was being closer to my friends. The pool just gave me an excuse to hold a party anytime I wanted, as long as the weather was warm enough.
Ghost was clamoring for the door before I ever got out of bed. He disappeared through it while I was still trying to find my shorts.
“Hey! Wait for me!” Shit, where were my shorts? Ah, crap. I must’ve left them in the yard the night before when we’d gone skinny dipping in the pool. Of course, Ghost was always skinny dipping since he never wore clothes.
Grumbling at my own stupidity, I slid open the side door, which led directly to the yard. Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself” was playing on the ancient boombox Honor had dug out of the old house. The sun was high and bright, and it was hot enough out that heatwaves danced in the air.
“Whoa!” Honor held his hands up and turned away. “Put on some clothes, would you, kid?”
“Like you’ve never seen my bare ass.” I paced over to grab my swim shorts from where I’d left them in the grass the night before.
“Doesn’t mean I want to see it now, especially knowing what you were just up to.” He sank further into the plastic lawn chair he was sitting on, sipping from his beer.
“I have to work, Honor.” I snapped the waistband and did a little stretch.
“Hey, Axel.” Ziggy waved from where he stood next to the big stone grill we’d made last month. One of Hopper’s dragons huffed fire into the charcoal beneath the metal. “You want a hot dog?”
“Hell yeah, man. Did you find the sweet relish in the fridge?” I pointed both finger guns at him as I walked by.
Ziggy smiled and held up the jar.
“Good man.”
“Oh, Hopper called,” Ziggy said, opening the package of hot dogs to lay them on the grill. “He said Phoenix, Bud, and Junior were in town.”
“Call ‘em back and tell them to come over. I’ll give Junior swimming lessons.”
Water suddenly erupted from the pool and washed over me in a tidal wave. I shook it away and narrowed my eyes at Ghost as he emerged from underwater.
He kicked over to the side of the pool, lips pulled back in a big grin. “Cannonball?”
I picked up a beach ball from the ground nearby and threw it at him. Ghost avoided it by diving underwater.
“Not getting in the pool?” Honor asked me as I plopped down beside him in a lawn chair.
“In a bit. You got another one of those?” I pointed to the beer in his hand.
He grunted and went digging around in the cooler next to me before tossing me one. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” I said, and we tapped our bottles together.
