Page 12 of Solanum

"Yes. You don't freeze anymore. You anticipate." I shrugged. "You recognize risk."

"Of course, but…I think I'm missing something here," she said, now coming to sit beside me.

"You are, but it's not your fault." I glanced to the door then back to her. "But this isn't a conversation for Superbowl Sunday with a house full of people."

"Okay," she conceded, leaning herself against me and propping her chin on my shoulder.

I looked over at her, fighting the smirk that tugged at my mouth. "What?"

"Nothing." She smiled, nudging me with her forehead. "I like when you're passionate about things."

"I'm passionate about a lot of things…" I bumped her with my cheek.

"Women's rights." She pointed to the tote on the floor beside the others. "And sex toys."

I laughed at that, nodding and using the toe of my boot to tug the bin closer to us. "Yup. Know what all these are for?"

"I didn't look through all of them."

"Maybe one day I'll show you them all."

"Maybe." She narrowed her eyes at me in the cutest way ever.

"Noob."

She laughed and smacked my arm. "I am anything but."

"Trust me, doll face. You're a noob." I grinned and she wrapped her arms around my middle. I draped my arm around her, and she settled against me.

"Why did you have a Superbowl Party? You don't like football."

"Nope." I rubbed her back a bit. "Not at all. I don't even particularly like our colleagues."

"You liar." Nora laughed, swatting my knee when she sat up. "They're our friends."

"Yeah, well they're annoying and shallow sometimes."

"True." She paused for a moment, crossing her legs at the ankles while looking down at her shoes. "What happened to Annabelle?" she asked, seemingly out of nowhere. "Did she become a haunted doll?"

"No." I smirked, leaning back on my hands again. "She could haunt a doll now though, if she wanted to. She died."

"Oh." Seriousness tumbled over her like a wash of gray, dimming her features and souring her previously playful expression. "I'm sorry… I should've let it go."

"It's fine." I shrugged and held her gaze. "Annabelle is the reason I've done what I do for so long. At least part of it."

"I get that. My entire life is the reason I became a psychologist. I'm not sure what I hoped to achieve, other than a greater understanding of the motivations that made the people in my life make the choices that they did," she said, folding her hands between her knees while looking at me over her shoulder.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

"No." A sad smile made it to her baby-pink lips. "But it helped me understand my own motivations and form a healthier relationship with Maya. I put her through a lot."

"You both came out on the other side of it. Speaking of Maya, is she coming over today?"

"Not sure. She's still doing her training stuff." Nora patted my leg. "I'm hungry again. Let's go eat and not talk about sad things until later."

"Hmm. Since when are you the take-charge type?" I laughed and stood up, bumping her shoulder with mine on purpose.

"Since it's my fault that I dimmed the fire and fun in your eyes by asking too many questions and snooping around," she admitted, standing then waiting for me by the door.

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