Page 49 of Dr. Do-Right
“There was a delivery while you were away,” Grayson pointed across the living room to a corner I hadn’t looked at yet. All my attention was on the hallway. “The team didn’t know where you planned to put it, so we left it there. I checked it out. It’s clean.”
“Not for long,” Malachi whispered, grinning down at me.
The sight of the apothecary cabinet surprised another laugh out of me. I covered my mouth with my hand. After everything that had happened, my vibrator drawers were the only thing out of place.
“It really is a beautiful piece of furniture,” I told Mal, walking over to run my fingers over the smooth, worn wood. The glass knobs twinkled in the sunlight. His hand joined mine, smoothing down the top, opening one of the drawers to peek inside. It was perfect. We both stood and looked at it for a beat, Grayson’s big, patient presence behind us.
“We should move it,” Mal said suddenly, nodding to himself. “To the bedroom, like we planned.”
“You think?” My eyes ran over the piece of furniture, remembering that night in bed when he’d picked it out, when everything had seemed so bright and hopeful, like the start of something beautiful. My eyes flickered to the other side of the apartment, to the second guest room and the office we’d never fully unpacked. I wondered if the cleaners had gotten over there. I still hadn’t decided how I wanted to hang Mal’s diplomas. I abruptly worried that they’d gotten to it first and hung them without me.
“Yeah, let’s do it.” I looked up at Mal, the tiniest of smiles tugging at my lips.
The cabinet was beautiful and fucking heavy. Mal and I struggled with it for about five minutes, taking care not to scratch the floors, before Grayson decided he’d had enough and joined the fray.
I got the impression he probably could have picked up the whole thing and moved it by himself, but he humored us by letting us awkwardly fumble for handholds on the smooth surface. Navigating the hallway with three people trying to steer the massive piece of furniture was ridiculous. We stumbled into the walls more times than I could count, but finally, we set the piece down in between the two master closets. It fit perfectly.
“That’s nice,” Grayson commented after he’d patiently adjusted it according to my directions. An inch to the left, no, an inch over, not that way, the other way. “Drawers are small, though. What’s it for?”
“Uh,” I hesitated while Mal snickered behind me. “You know, this and that. Bits and bobs.”
“Bobs,” Mal hissed, trying to contain his laughter. Grayson eyed him with narrowed eyes. He knew he was missing something, but was polite enough not to pry.
I admired the drawers one last time before heading back out to the hall. As ridiculous a purpose as they served, I couldn’t help the swelling in my heart when I looked at them. After everything Mal and I had been through, we were here. Our little secrets, our growing relationship, finally had a home.
I paused in the hall, my eyes drawn to the place I knew there was still a bullet buried deep behind the drywall. Bizarrely, we’d managed to scrape against the drying paint in almost the exact same spot. A smudge of brown from the cabinet’s varnish marred the expanse of smooth, flat spackle and paint. I reached out to stroke the scratch, heart filling.
“What do you think, Kitten?” Mal watched as I felt up the wall. “I go where you go.”
“Let’s stay,” I decided right then and there. I loved that little scratch more than words could describe. A reminder of our bumbling trip down the hall. Sunlight streamed through the windows, warming my back. “I want to make new memories here. Chase out the old. It won’t be haunted forever, right?”
He didn’t say anything, he didn’t have to. His lips brushed against mine. We stood in the hallway, next to that shallow little scratch, and I knew I’d remember this kiss, this moment, forever.
Epilogue
“I hate this,” I complained, flopping onto the couch.
“You’ll be fine.” Sonia smiled, taping up the last box to add to the massive pile by the front door. The movers would be here tomorrow to put it all in storage. “You’re too caught up living the glam life with my brother in the penthouse. You’ve hardly missed me these past few weeks.”
“That’s absolutely not true, and you know it!” I sat up, irritated by her words. If anything, I missed her more than I had before Christine’s attack. A week after it had all gone down, Asher had been released from the hospital, and the RISI team had returned to their home base in Atlanta. On to the next crisis, I supposed. Sonia had seemed fine when they left. Too fine. The next day, she’d packed up her own stuff and gone back to New York to finish out her travel contract there.
I worried about her every day. How was she dealing with everything? What had really gone on with her and Asher? I got the impression it was more than just a flirtation, but she hadn’t spoken about him since he left. Whenever I asked if she’d heardfrom him, she was noncommittal, so I had no clue what was happening there.
I’d been counting the days until she came back to the city, but last week, she’d dropped the bombshell that she’d taken another travel gig, this time in Charlotte, North Carolina. She barely had a few days to come home and pack up the apartment before she started. Apparently, she had plans to make the traveling a long-term thing.
“Whatever. We both know the truth. You have a new favorite Dobrev. No time for little old me.” She grinned, falling onto the couch so our legs banged together.
“Ow, you little skank, get off me. No wonder I like Mal more than you!” I shoved at her legs, still marveling at how easy it had been to integrate my relationship with Mal into my life. Despite her jokes, Sonia knew I still loved her fiercely. Life felt, strangely, perfect.
We all had our bad days. Sometimes, I’d catch Mal staring off into the distance and I knew he was reliving the horror we’d gone through. Every once in a while, Sonia FaceTimed me after work, content for me to place her on the counter or on the couch while Mal and I made dinner or watched a movie, happy just to have someone on the other end of the line. Dr. Peterson still made time for emergency appointments for me every once in a while. We all had a long way to go, but we were getting there one day at a time, just like Mal had said.
“You sure you don’t want me to move my flight?” Sonia asked for the bajillionth time. I sighed, head bouncing on the back couch cushion. “Don’t give me that look! You might need backup. Someone to remind you that you have a spine, or to throw down. You know I’d love to take a few swings at your mom.”
“It’ll be fine.” True to my promise, I’d let my parents know when the police apprehended Christine, and told them I wassafe. When more details about the attack had come out in the media, they had well and truly freaked out, even going so far as to show up at our apartment a few days later when I didn’t answer their calls. I hadn’t even known they’d had my address. Introducing them to Joanne and Richard had been…weird.
Ever since, they’d been shockingly consistent in their outreach. Even my dad deigned to call once a week. It had taken a while for me to actually pick up. Now, though, I finally felt ready to sit down with them. We had scheduled a lunch together tomorrow to talk about our relationship. I still hadn’t decided how I wanted the conversation to go, and Sonia was on edge about it.
“At least I know Mal will be around just in case,” she relented, surveying the boxes. Our whole life together, the past few years, all packed away and ready for a new adventure. We had a whole box simply labeledtwinkle lights. “This is depressing.”
