Page 51 of Carry Me Home
It wasn’t just our pinkies now. Somehow both our hands were tangled up together.
“Jack.” I stared at our hands. “This probably won’t make you feel better, but have you heard about dolphins?”
He gave me a blank look. “Dolphins?”
“Yeah.” I nodded vigorously. “They’re fucking psychos.”
“But I love dolphins.”
I swallowed hard. “Oh. Then, yeah, that definitely won’t make you feel better. Sorry. Don’t do an internet search, okay?” I heaved a sigh and shoved another small palmful of chocolate chips in my mouth. “God, I’m sorry. You wanted a fun game and I bummed you out, didn’t I?”
His shoulders twitched in a half-hearted shrug. “I’m all right.”
I stopped eating my feelings and studied him. “You’re not sad?”
“About the dolphins? I’m going to pretend you never said anything. About the other stuff…” He shrugged again. “Not so much. It felt good to talk about it. Like an itch deep in my skull finally got scratched.” His thumb rubbed over my knuckles and I realized we were holding hands again. “Was it hard for you to hear about it?”
“Well…yeah. But that’s okay. I don’t mind hearing hard things or ugly things. At least it’s honest. You had to live those experiences. It’s who you are. If you want to talk about it, then I want to hear about it. I don’t mind getting a little heavy so you can feel lighter. That’s what friends are for, right?”
His eyes were dark and fathomless as they met mine and held for a long, quiet moment. “Right. Friends.”
Why did it feel so disappointing that he agreed with me?
19
JACK
Brax
We riding today or what?
Jack
Fuck yeah. I’ll be at Lodestar after lunch. I have a breakfast date with Maya.
Brax
I thought today was your day off?
Jack
Janie was so tired when she came home last night, I thought it would be nice to let her sleep in for once. We need to have a talk about that, by the way.
Brax
Yeah, fine. Park behind my cabin when you get here. I’ll have the horses saddled and waiting.
Jack
You make it sound like we’re sneaking around.
Brax
We are. If Adam sees us, he’ll put us to work.
“Blueberry pancakesand two slices of bacon, coming right up.” I slid the plate in front of Maya, who was ready to go with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other. I put my own plate down across from her and took a seat.
“Thank you, Jack,” she remembered to say after the first bite was already in her mouth.
