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She stepped out of the way and he knelt, then poked his head between two hanging blankets. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah!”
He crawled in next to Finn and laid on his side, propped up by an elbow. “This is a great fort.”
Finn beamed at the praise. “I know. Did you ever build a fort?”
“I sure did. My brother and I built a ton of them. We even let Sage come in once in a while.”
“Were they as good as this one?”
J.T. looked around. “Hmm. I don’t know. I think this might be better. We had a treehouse too, like the one you want to build. It was really cool.”
“Is it still there?”
“It is. But it’s not safe to go in anymore. It’s kind of falling apart. We haven’t been there in a long time.”
Finn hugged Henry to his chest. “Maybe we could fix it up?”
“I think it’d be better to build you a new one here by this house.”
“Okay. Can I see your treehouse?”
“Sure. I’ll show you sometime. You should probably go to sleep now.”
Finn sighed. “Okay. Will you stay a little while longer?”
J.T. smiled. “Sure. But you need to close your eyes. I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”
As Finn snuggled into the blankets with Henry, J.T. laid on his back and listened to Finn’s breathing slow down and become regular. Then he closed his eyes. Right here. Right now. He was pretty damn happy.
“J.T.”
The words came to him from far off, then he startled awake. “Oh, shit.” He raised onto his elbow. “Did I fall asleep?”
Joey smiled at him from halfway into the fort. “Yes. I got up to empty the buckets and noticed you weren’t on the couch. She backed out of the tent and J.T. sat, being careful not to bump his head on the table, then left the tent. He stood and stretched out his back.
“So it’s eleven-thirty already?”
“Yes. I made you a bed on the couch. I agree you can go two hours before dumping the water again. So if you do it at one-thirty, I’ll set my alarm for three-thirty.”
“Okay.” He followed her to the living room. “Then I’ll get them at five-thirty.”
“Sounds good, and thanks again for sticking around.”
“No problem.”
She started to leave, then stopped and turned back to him. “I know you want to forget the kiss never happened. But I don’t want to do that.” She raised a hand. “That doesn’t mean I want it to happen again. It just means it was very nice. And I haven’t had many very nice moments over the last six years. So you do what you want with it. But I’d like to hang onto the memory.”
She nodded at him, then left for her room before J.T. had a chance to respond. He stood for a moment in the dark room, lit only by one candle. Then he damped down the fire before settling onto the couch. Despite being brand new, it was comfortable and felt like a couch that had been worn in with use. He thought about the kiss and what Joey said about it.What did it mean?She was right. It had been very nice. And he probably wouldn’t forget it anytime soon, either.He needed to run it by someone else.
Sawyer answered after one ring. “Are you afraid of the storm, too?”
“What? No.”
“I just spent three hours playing Scrabble online with Sage.”
J.T. laughed. “Is she okay?”
