Page 121 of Why Cheese?
“Yes,” Brie cries out. “Like in Moon Men on Planet X when they’re in that tube that freezes them before the trip. Of course, it fails and they wake to one of the crew turned into a skeleton, but that doesn’t happen with the box.”
Both Roq and Cheddy stare at him but Cam nods. “Ah, yes, the one with the quadruple-breasted women.”
Glaring from the box back to Cheddy and Roq, I try to knock all of this jumbled information into a thought. “So, so someone put you in there.”
“You didn’t?” Roq asks.
I shake my head. “I thought we’d meet up the next night and plan what to do to appease my mother. She wasn’t supposed to show up later that day.”
Roq glances at Cam and they both clasp arms in a side hug. “Perhaps, for all our follies and failures, we do have a touch of the divine watching out for us after all.”
“Of course we do. Look at this angel before us,” Cam says and he swerves his hands to encompass me.
I nervously wind my hair into a rope and keep twisting it around and around. “So…so you’re saying that you’re real? Like, really real? You didn’t die?”
Fingers dance under my chin. Cam tips my head back, his teasingly brown eyes dancing in mine. “You tell me,” he whispers and bends down for a kiss. Leather, forests, satin sheets, and cold spring waters overwhelm my aching sense—it’s him. It’s all of them.
“Oh my god,” I gasp. Fumbling, I press my fingertips into Cheddy’s shoulders. He bends over and flips until his head’s nearly lying in my lap. I kiss him and he toys with my lip as I drink in that shock of amber, old moss, bonfires, and effervescent orange.
As I pull away, Cheddy’s eyes slide open and he grins wider than an ocean. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I laugh through the tears and wave to Brie.
Throwing down his moldy cheese, Brie leaps into my arms. “I never thought you’d ask,” he whispers just as he takes me. A blast of sea spray, of afternoon sunshine, and old pages in a beloved book overwhelm me. I tease through his hair, pulling the fine blond locks closer until we’re both hidden inside their curtains.
Gazing into my eyes, Brie’s smile dips. He takes my hands and—without a second’s hesitation—says, “I love you.”
“I…”
“If I may?” Roq interrupts. Brie stares at him for a long time with barely suppressed anger. For me, their fight was weeks ago, for them it was moments. With a sneer, Brie gives me up by moving away from Roq.
My teeth start to chatter as I gaze up at the cheese of stone. His lips are locked in a tight frown, and his eyes burn.
“I’m sorry. I should have fought harder. If I hadn’t slept, then—”
“Violette.” Roq cups the back of my head and pulls me until my forehead meets his. “Hush,” his lips whisper against mine before they press the hottest and sincerest kiss of them all.
A forgotten cave, a meadow teeming with flowers, pain, regret, and a small flame of hope fill me as I drink in Roq. I rove my hands over his wide shoulders, shocked to realize that below his granite exterior is an equally rock-hard body I have yet to take advantage of.
The second the thought pops into my head, he pulls back. Silence grows as they alternate between looking at me and catching a glimpse of each other. They don’t know what to say, and I have no idea where to begin…or end.
“You’re selling the place?” Cam’s question cuts through the awkward shuffling. He yanks the sign out of the window and spins it around to face the others. One by one, they look at me and I bend over from the guilt pressing on my shoulders.
“I…I thought you were gone. I didn’t know what to do without you.” Fingers brush across mine, then tease them apart until he takes my hand. I tighten the hold and look up.Roq?He’s staring around the room, but he doesn’t let me go.
“Maybe…” Brie takes the ‘For Sale’ sign from Cam. He taps it against his palm just above the trash can then sighs. “Maybe it’s for the best.”
“What?” Cheddy cries out.
“Perhaps it’s time we moved on. Get out from under…this yoke at long last.” He passes the sign to Cam who brushes his fingers over the letters, then gives it to Cheddy.
“Where would we go?” Cheddy asks.
“There is a great big world out there, Chedward.”
Cheddy frowns at Cam’s response. “And most of it’s trying to eat us. We won’t be safe without—”
“Brie is right.” Roq drops my hand. He takes the sign and holds it closer to his face. “There is so much more to see and experience beyond these four walls.”
