Page 141 of Mourner for Hire
He could mean just for now. He and I, fooling around and making memories. Or he could mean more.
“I need you to spell it out for me.”
He kisses my collarbone and then pulls back to look down at me. “Spell what out?”
“What did you mean by that? A place where we could make memories. Like, for the next week? Or… Because that was a vague statement with very ambiguous implications, and I just don’t want to have make-believe scenarios running through my head, playing tricks on me.”
A deep, throaty chuckle escapes his lips, and he smiles like he’s amused or in love. The two expressions can be very similar. It’s very confusing.
He sweeps my hair back from my face and tilts my chin to face him.
“I mean, stay, Vada.”
I wait for him to elaborate.
“Stay here. Be here. Let home be here.”
“What about you? You might not even be here.”
“I heard from Good Samaritan in Corvallis early,” he says. “That’s only an hour from here.”
I throw myself at him, squeezing him tightly. “You did it! I’m so proud of you!”
He seems unperturbed as if he just told me he’s going grocery shopping. “Thanks.”
“Dominic, you should celebrate!”
“I will,” he reasons, a tortured look on his face. “As soon as you say you’re staying.”
A sly smile spreads over his lips as I hold his face in my hands. “Are you going to force me?”
“No, just strongly encourage.”
I laugh even as tears fill my eyes like the slow rise of water after a storm. My throat is tight, and it feels like he just cracked my chest open.
“The cottage is done. The party is in two days, and then…” I clear my throat. “I’m supposed to go home.”
I don’t say Ihaveto go home. I say I’m supposed to. Because that’s the plan. That’s what is written in the will—set in stone and in dry-erase marker on a whiteboard.
He nods twice, hearing me. “I won’t tell you what to do. But you have a place here… if you want it.”
“I thought you were dying to get me out of town. At the ready with pitchforks and torches.”
He laughs lightly. “It turns out your witchy spells are quite convincing.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. It’s a brief release of euphoric breath before my mind falls back on what he’s suggesting. I tilt my head and smile, staring at him fondly. I think of the last two months here. The people I’ve met and how welcome they’ve made me feel. The complete one-eighty Dominic and I have had while realizing he was an integral part of my childhood before I moved away.
“I thought I was an inconvenience.”
“You are.” He doesn’t miss a beat. “No, you are worse. You are a disruption.”
“Wow, Dominic, you really know how to lay it on thick.” I let out a laugh.
He kisses my forehead. “I had a plan, and then you came along and I started to question all of it. You lit a fire under me and it made me angry enough to realize how unhappy I’ve been in my circumstances. You disrupted my life and inconvenienced me intofalling for you, Vada. I fought it every step of the way. But if I’m honest, I wasn’t just angry it was you who showed up at my mom’s funeral, I was angry that I wanted it to be you.”
I study his face, cupping my hands around his cheeks and dragging a thumb across his bottom lip. I don’t have an answer. Not yet, anyway.
He must sense my unrest because he adds, “Don’t decide right now. Just know it’s an option for you.”
