“Perry,” he mumbled, his lips grazing my throat while he spoke. “Perry...”
He never finished his sentence. Instead he eventually pulled his face away, my skin still feeling hot from his contact, and lowered me to the ground. He kept his hands on my arms, keeping me in place, as if he was afraid I’d run away. With his back to the streetlight, his face was encased in shadows but I could still see his eyes glinting. I couldn’t read them except that they looked slightly feverish.
I cleared my throat. “Hi.”
A quick smile flashed across his lips. “I’m sorry for just dropping by like this, I just had to see you. I was worried sick.”
I smiled wryly. “You were worried sick about me? You got carted off to jail.”
“You got carted off to the hospital,” he said gruffly. I noticed then he was holding my hands in his and squeezing them. I eyed them with uncertainty and he let go, taking a step back from me as he did so, as if he was only just noticing he was intruding in my personal space.
“I got out,” I said reassuringly. “And apparently so did you.”
He glanced briefly over my head at my house then said to me, “Look, can we go in the car and talk? I promise not to keep you long.”
I nodded and followed him back to the car, wondering what it was that he wanted, wondering how his shoulders got so much broader. I hopped in the passenger side and was met with a rush of warmth from the heater.
I don’t know why things felt awkward between us when the last time I had seen him, he was holding onto me, promising that they’d never take me. Of course, that didn’t work and I didn’t fault him for that. But being apart again, even for just a few days, reminded me of how much had changed between us. And sitting in the dark car, only the familiar glow of the console lighting us up, there was a discomfort in my seat. I wondered if he felt the same.
I tried not to study his face but now that I could see it clearly, it was hard not to. There was a line of worry on his forehead and his brown eyes were searching my face, alternating between washes of sorrow and apprehension. He never lost that unnerving way he looked at me – that would always be Dex. I just hoped he wouldn’t look too deep. I felt the walls around me going up slowly, brick by pasted brick.
Finally, I looked away and studied the dashboard as if it were suddenly fascinating.
“I’m surprised the car is still holding up,” I remarked, remembering how it had crashed into a tree only days before, bashing the front side and the headlight. It almost hurt to remember when I was wrapped in duct tape, with a terrible darkness inside me trying to get out.
“I’ll get it fixed when I go back home.”
“When are you going?” I asked, keeping my voice light, still avoiding his eyes.
I felt him pause, growing tense for a second, and I quickly added, “Not that I’m trying to get you to leave.”
His smile was tight. “Tomorrow, probably. I just…wanted to see how you were doing. You look better.”
“Do I?” I looked down. “I thought I looked slimmer in the duct tape.”
Again, that pained smile. “How are you feeling?”
I shrugged. “I’m tired. Sore, still.”
He nodded absently, his thoughts elsewhere. I wanted to tell him what Ada and I had discovered but for some reason I couldn’t find the words. It was ludicrous but Dex was always the one to believe me when no one else would.
I opened my mouth to give it a shot, but he beat me to it and said, “Listen…”
He looked down at his hands and cleared his throat. The atmosphere in the car changed dramatically from the strange awkwardness to full-on jangled nerves. I watched him closely. He did in fact look really nervous, biting his lip, blinking fast and at nothing.
“What?” I asked.
I could hear his breathing intensify.
“You need to get out of that house.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised to find out we were on the same page, but I was. I tried to hide it by eyeing him uncertainly.
“What do you mean?”
He lowered his eyes and voice. “You know what I mean. Perry, you can’t stay there anymore. After everything that’s happened…it’s not safe.”
“The demon is gone.”
“Your parents aren’t. And frankly, my dear, I wouldn’t be surprised if some other supernatural hitchhiker came and found a ride through you. You’re too weak-”
I glared at him. “I am not weak.”
He looked at me steadily. “You’re the strongest woman I have ever known. Ever. But it, they, found a way in. I can’t risk that happening again. And like hell I’m going to let you stay in a house where your parents are jonesing to put you away like some animal.”
“I wasn’t aware you had control over my life.”
He sighed and leaned in closer. “I know you’re still angry-”
“Huh!” I exclaimed, folding my arms. But he quickly went on.
“But putting that aside for a moment,” he continued, “you know you can’t stay there. I know you know it. I know your sister knows it. Your grandmother sure knows it. We all do.”
“Well what do you suggest I do then?” I asked carefully.
He bit his lip, a gesture I used to find adorable. Now, it didn’t do anything for me. Not much, anyway. He let his eyes roam out along the empty street. Either he was deep in thought or biding his time.
Finally, he asked, “Did you like Seattle?”
I sucked in my breath. He wasn’t asking me what I thought he was asking me…was he?
His eyes were guarded in the dark but I could read sincerity on his expressive forehead, like part of him was taking a chance that the other part didn’t dare take.
“What?”
There he went, biting his lip again. He ran a hand through his thick hair, giving the ends a bit of a tug. I remembered tugging at that hair, vividly.
“I mean,” he ventured, looking at me with a hint of anxiety, “I think you should come live with me. In my apartment. In Seattle.”
Now, I know it was just what Ada and I had been discussing but I was not prepared to hear the offer come from his own mouth. Dex was asking me to move in with him? What the hell kind of sorcery was this?
He quickly continued, “I don’t mean like you have to be my permanent roommate or anything. Just until you get on your feet. It can be a place for you to stay in the interim. Or longer, you know, if you wanted to.”