Page 87 of Leave

“You think so? Arrow gives you the cold shoulder whenever you have overnight duty.”

“Yeah, and he’ll be aloof this time, too, but a few treats and some scritches and he’ll get over it. He always does.”

Riley chuckled. “We could bring them all some new toys, too. Just as insurance.”

“Trust me—they’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but they won’t be upset over new toys.”

I eyed him. “So what you’re saying is… you want to go buy toys for the cats.”

He shrugged, his expression full of innocence. “I mean I wouldn’t beopposedto it. Especially if it meant peace offerings.”

I laughed and kissed him lightly. “I think we can arrange a trip to PetSmart or something before we leave.”

“Good. But maybe not catnip. It’ll be just our luck some drug-sniffing dog will think it’s hashish.”

I snorted. “Wouldn’t our commands love that?”

“Oh God. ‘Hey, sorry I was late getting back. You see, my boyfriend and I were detained because some dog at the airport couldn’t tell the difference between catnip and hashish, and—’”

We both collapsed into laughter, and oh God, that felt good. It didn’t fix a damn thing, but it was a salve on my bruised soul tonight.

As we calmed down, I said, “It’ll be good to get home. I miss the cats.”

“Me too.” He paused. “I miss taco rice, too.”

“Do you?”

“Are you kidding? That shit’s the best.”

“You know we can make it here, right?”

“I know.” He shrugged. “But it’s just not the same, you know?”

He had a point. Taco rice in Redmond would probably just make me more homesick for the café where we usually ate it. Orthe balcony where we sometimes had dinner when the weather was nice.

Goddamn. I really was homesick.

And we’d be home soon. Not nearly soon enough, but… soon. With any luck, that would carry me through the rest of this trip.

Riley picked up his phone off the nightstand and sighed. “I guess we should get some sleep.” He sat up slowly. “I’ll, um… I’ll get…” He gestured at the door.

Disappointment had my heart sinking, but a whole other feeling—an urgent sense ofno, this is wrong—had me sitting up too.

“Wait.” I gently caught his elbow, and my heart pounded as he turned around and met my gaze with wide eyes. Nerves coiled in the pit of my stomach, and I internally debated my options for a couple of heartbeats. I still landed on the same conclusion, though.

“Stay,” I whispered.

His lips parted. “You… Youwantme to stay?”

I nodded.

I didn’t know how to explain that while I was nervous as hell about spending the night beside him, I didn’t want to face all my reawakened demons alone tonight.

And… even if those demons didn’t exist, the simple truth was…

“I want you to stay.”

---