“Jasmine?”
“Yeah, jasmine. It’s pretty, and you’re pretty.”
“Thanks.” I chuckled, patting his sweaty head. “I try.”
“And I really like you,” he mumbled into my side. “Like more than a friend or one of them ‘friends with benefits’ things. I like you a lot more than I’ve liked anybody in a long time.”
“That’s really nice to hear, Wade. Because I like you, too.”
“Gonna ask ya to be my girl.”
My eyebrows shot up. “What does that mean, exactly?” I asked.
No response from Wade.
I craned my neck to peer down at him. Wade’s eyes were closed, and his mouth was open in a light snore. “Of course.”
The boys ended up waking for their own doses of Tylenol just before dawn. They crawled onto a pallet I made up on the floor near the foldout couch and went back to sleep. I stayed with them, watching them doze, until the sunlight crept over the horizon. I had to get down to my little basement hidey-hole. I knew I had to go. But I made up reasons to stick around, leaving bottles of water and juice boxes for everyone by the sofa and leaving little Post-it explanations about how to use our remotes.
I watched as Wade rolled over to the far side of the mattress, fumbling around blindly until he found Harley with his hand. He rubbed the space between Harley’s shoulder blades, in a gesture that seemed to comfort him as much as it did his son. And then, absently, he reached over and patted the top of Danny’s head.
I heard the jangle of keys at the front door and jumped up to let Kerrianne into the house. I pressed my fingers to my lips. She nodded and followed me into the living room.
“Welcome to the plague house,” I whispered. “Danny will not be going to school today. Also, you have a few new inmates.”
Wade’s head rose from the pillow, hair all askew and still squinting. “Hi, Kerrianne.”
“Wow. I knew one day I would stumble into your house and find Wade all stupid and disoriented, but I thought it would be under dirtier circumstances.”
“Easy,” I warned her.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of them,” Kerrianne told me. “I’ve got the day shift.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, yawning. “You’re no use to your family if you’re sick, too. This could be the beginning of one of those horrible outbreak movies that ends in a zombie apocalypse.”
Kerrianne scoffed. “Oh, I’m fine. Unlike Cliché McTough Guy here, I’m smart enough to use hand sanitizer and megadoses of vitamin C. I don’t rely on the Tucker constitution to defend me from germs.”
“Does everybody but me know about the Tucker constitution? Is it on the Internet or something?” I asked.
“Wade may have referred to it a few times. He’s a legend in his own mind.”
Wade shook his head. “That’s not very nice, Kerrianne.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t ogle you if you’re all snotty and gross. You need to think of my needs before you do something dumb like this,” she shot back.
“Oh, come on, you can still ogle him from the neck down,” I chimed in helpfully.
“I’m lyin’ right here, ya know,” Wade grumped.
“I’m sorry, sweetie.” I crouched close to him, sitting on the chair near the couch and running my fingers along his cheek. He leaned into the caress like a cat and made a rumbling noise low in his throat. Kerrianne’s eyebrows rose at the sight, but she said nothing.
“Better. Not awesome. But better,” he said. “And I don’t remember a good portion of last night, so I’m hopin’ you’ll have the decency not to post any incriminatin’ videos on YouTube.”
“Just for my private collection, then. Got it.”
“Very funny,” he said, weakly batting at me with his hands. “How are the boys?”
“They’ve been napping for a while,” I said, nodding toward their motionless forms. “You should probably get them up for some juice and meds in an hour or so. But for now, just enjoy the peace and quiet. Danny’s a bit of a whiner when he doesn’t feel well.”
“Yeah, pretty soon Harley is going to want his own pajamas, his own toys, that sort of thing,” Wade said, patting his son’s head.
It struck me that Harley and Wade would be going home soon, maybe even tonight. And that made me sad. I liked having them here in the house. It felt more like a home when Danny had other humans around, other people who needed to eat and could go out during the day. I felt more secure with Wade there, and . . . it just felt better. I’d looked forward to rising for the evening, knowing that he and the boys would be waiting upstairs. And the fact that I was desperately attracted to Wade, well, that didn’t hurt.