Page 23 of Two For the Show
“Hey, yourself,” she says through a scratchy throat. “I thought you were hiding from me.”
“I was drumming.” My face flushes, and I look down at my bare feet. I forgot to put on shoes in my rush to get here. “I had my headphones on and didn’t see the text.”
She looks me up and down, glassy brown eyes wide and trusting. I don’t deserve that trust, but I’ll happily take it. She inhales deeply, nostrils flaring. “Can…” Her voice cracks, and Matteo leans over and rubs his face on her neck. Jude’s hand squeezes her knee.
The contact seems to settle her.
“Can I have your shirt?” she asks quietly. “It’s sweaty and…”
“Covered in pheromones,” I finish for her. “Of course you can.”
I peel the faded band tee off, cringing a little at how wet it is, and hold it out. Matteo moves off her, and she pushes to her feet. On wobbly legs, she walks to me and takes it from my proffered hand and pulls it up to her face.
She inhales deeply, and my dick twitches at her obvious enjoyment of my scent.
Now is not the fucking time for that, though.
“Thanks, Dexter.” I watch, slightly slack-jawed, as she immediately pulls the sopping wet shirt over her head with no regard to the boxy blue shirt she’s already wearing. Sheshuffles back to the couch and wedges herself between Jude and Quinton again, with Matteo climbing up until he’s on her lap. Immediately, she leans forward and grabs Dario’s hand.
I may not be piled onto the couch with her, but I’m there in the shirt that she’s wearing. And for now, that’s enough.
“What do you need?” Jude asks, voice gruff. “Tell us.”
She blinks slowly, worrying the edge of her shirt. “Where’s Sylvia?”
“She left while you were sleeping,” my brother answers softly.
Alex nods like she expected that. “What did she tell you?”
“Enough that we know you were in danger if you stayed with her.” Matteo’s voice is slightly muffled from where he has his face pressed into her.
“Can I…” She inhales deeply, as if asking for what she wants again is physically painful. “Can I build a nest somewhere, and then we can talk?”
“Of course,” Jude says, scooping her into his massive arms. “Your trailer is as you left it.”
We watchedAlex painstakingly rebuild the nest we put together for her. All of the pieces we picked out had been meticulously packed away, and she pulled them one by one out of her suitcase.
Even those stupid pink pillows I chose.
Every once in a while, she would look to one of us forconfirmation that each piece was in the right spot, and we all voiced our encouragement every time.
Finally, after she took the original items we had given her, including my face mask, and scattered them around the bed, she sat back and sighed.
“Okay.”
Dario’s face curls up in a grin. “Okay?”
She nods. “Yeah. Okay. Now you can climb in here, and we can talk.”
It takes some adjusting and uncomfortable positioning, but eventually, all of us end up in the nest, touching Alex in some way. Jude and Quinton stay the closest to her, which makes sense. Jude will help the FOS the most, and Alex is what will help Quinton’s Rot.
I don’t mind that I only end up with my hand around her ankle.
Alex glosses over the first few weeks without us, explaining how she ended up with Sylvia. When she details how sick she was getting, I feel my grip getting tighter. I can’t forget the image of her passed out in the bathroom, the gray color of her skin.
It haunts my dreams, that moment when I wondered if I would find a pulse.
“Matteo was sick too,” Quinton says after Alex describes how bad it had gotten for her. “Not as sick as you, of course, but there was almost an echo of it.”
