Page 80 of Double Apex

Cosmin stacks a few pillows and reclines, free arm behind his head, and I’m both thrilled and unnerved that he’s shirtless. I hope he can’t see the way my eyes travel the angles and slopes of his muscles. I don’t want to remember how insanely hot it was to slide my hands over him while he was propped above me on those muscular arms.

One side of his mouth tightens in sympathy. “How can I help? Talk to me.”

I’m just tired enough that an impulse takes over at his “talk to me.” With a shy smile, I slowly say in Romanian:Nineteen blue pencils are on the small table with my glasses, inside the heavy backpack.

As I fumble my way through the sentence, Cosmin breaks into a grin. He shakes his head, then laughs long enough that eventually I join him.

It feels amazing. Holy shit, it’s the first time I’ve been unabashedly happy in a month. I’d honestly forgotten what it was like.

“Why did you choose this unusual sentence?” he asks.

“It’s the longest one I know!”

We both dissolve into laughter again. I pull the quilt up to my neck, comforted.

“If you’d like to learn more interesting phrases,” Cosmin teases, “I’m happy to accommodate.”

“Hmm. I’ll bet.”

“Explain this course of study, draga.”

I pull my hair around to one side of my neck on the pillows behind me, and he watches me do it. This also is a feeling I’d all but forgotten—being admired for something other than my usefulness or strength.

I scrub one hand over my face, masking the prickle of tears I feel.

“This situation with Mo, there’s no sense of control. I need something to—”

I almost say, “provide a distraction.” With a swell of guilt, I remember having referred to Cosmin in that way multiple times.

“I need to decompress with something low stakes,” I sayinstead. “There’s no garage here, so I can’t work on an engine. I figured a language app might be a good focus. Also…”

Biting my lip, I sneak a glance at Cosmin, and the tender look on his face disarms me. The truth rushes out, useless as it is: “I miss hearing Romanian,” I confess.

A sensation that’s both painful and a relief, like stretching a sore muscle, spreads in my chest.Oh, God. Why did I call? This is both the best and worst thing, talking with him.

“How many lessons have you completed?” he asks.

“I’ve learned eleven hundred words. Twelve thousand experience points.”

He pauses, watching me.

“Mi-e dor de tine în fiecare zi, si-mi simt inima frânta,” he says, his speed and enunciation careful. “I wonder how many of these words you know.”

His pupils look huge, but it might be a trick of the light, or the fact that my own eyes are shimmering with tears.

My lips part, and I can’t speak for a moment.

“Inima frânta is ‘broken heart,’” I almost whisper. “It wasn’t in the lessons—I looked it up weeks ago.”

We sit in this knowledge, surveying each other.

“What did Mo say about what Klaus and Reece told him?” Cosmin asks. “About us?”

I pull in a shaky breath. “He hasn’t brought it up. But my sister was here the day of the video call, and she said he was disappointed.”

Cosmin presses his lips together in resignation.

“But the good news is that we aren’t selling the team.” Isweep my free arm up. “You’re looking at Emerald’s future Grand Poobah.” Remembering his earlier unfamiliarity with Scooby-Doo, I ask, “Do you know that one?”

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