Page 21 of Come Back To Me
“Yeah.” He bandages my bites once they’re no longer bleeding and uses my knees to pull himself up enough to kiss my lips. “Together.”
The doorbell rings and something changes in his eyes. They go from almost soft to hard and cold again. “I can get that.”
I grab at his shirt collar. “No. You’re not supposed to be alive, remember?”
“What if they want to come inside?”
I bite the inside of my cheeks, staring over his shoulder when a fist starts slamming against the door. “Then you’ll go to the basement.”
He gives me an annoyed glare. “So, you want to hide me forever? What about when you get invited to places? I have to sit here and wait for you to return? What about when men flirt with you and show you how much better it is to be out there with them than being in here with me?”
My chest dips, breaths sticking to the back of my throat. “I won’t. Gareth, I wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble to bring you back if I was planning to eventually run off with someone else.” My fingers brush over his lips. “And I don’t always have to go wherever I’m invited, or stay long when I do. I don’t care to go anywhere you aren’t anyway.” That was true once and still mostly is, except I have thought about finding a place to hide for whenever he scares me too much. Something I never had to worry about before.
I promise to never take too much from you.
The words were at least kind of sweet while also causing my skin to run cold.
“You’re right. That was silly of me to think that.” He backs away, returning fully to his feet, and looks behind him. “I’ll be in the basement. Knock on the door when you’re done.”
“Okay. Is . . . did you ever clean up your mess?”
He stands taller, nodding. “Yeah, I did. You don’t have to worry about slipping on anything down there again.”
The person at the door gets more impatient with their pounding and he gives me a sheepish look. “You go ahead and get that before they break the door down, and I’ll go make sure I eat enough. Then maybe we can finish decorating the house together. The place could use more ghosts and zombies.”
I laugh, closing my robe and getting to my feet. “Okay. Sounds like a plan. We can watch some scary movies too. How aboutPet Sematary?”
He lets out a groan. “Any movie but that one.”
“Okay fine,Warm Bodies.”
He walks away, shaking his head, and I laugh louder, shouting out more zombie movies until the basement door slams shut. I look myself over on my way to the front of the house, satisfied enough with my appearance when I don’t spot any blood anywhere. I pull open the door and Leo studies me closely.
“What the hell happened to you? I’ve been calling for like two days, and then you take eight years to answer the damn door.” He pushes past me, inviting himself in.
“Years is a bit of an overexaggeration, don’t you think?” I glance back at him, shutting and locking the door.
He kicks his shoes off, looking around as he plops down on the couch. “Not really when I’ve been fucking worried about you all week.”
“Everything’s fine. I’ve just been tired.”
“You look it. You also look like you’ve lost some color since I last saw you.”
“I guess that’s my cue to get some sun.”
“Yeah, it is. Want to come to pick a pumpkin with me this weekend? It’s the perfect opportunity.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Nope. Not really.” He pushes back against the cushions.
“Yeah, figured as much. And okay, but you’re driving.”
“Of course. You act like that’s a new thing. You loved making me drive everywhere before too.” He gives me an apologetic expression. “I mean—”
“It’s fine. We can talk about it. I’m not going to break if we do.”
“Yeah. I know. So are you planning to stay in that robe all day or are you going to get dressed and let me take you somewhere tograb lunch?” He sniffs the air and looks over to the kitchen. “Is that sausage and eggs?”
