Page 49 of Hollow Child

“There’s two bedrooms on this floor.” He motioned to the far left and far right doors, and he opened the one in the middle to reveal a small room with a toilet and a shower. “This is the bathroom.”

“Nice,” I said. “But there’s only two rooms? For the five of us and Ripley?”

“There’s a loft.” He touched a ladder on the wall between two of the doors. “Serg took the room on the left, and we thought the room on the right would be better for Max and Stella, because they can’t be climbing up to the loft with a baby.”

The ceiling above the main floor living area wasopen to the exposed beams of the roof, while the area above the bedrooms and bathroom had a loft with a railing along the edge.

I climbed up ahead of Boden and discovered that he’d set up a bedroom for us between the sharp peaks of the roof. A mattress sat on the floor beneath a round skylight, and it had been neatly made by joining our bedrolls together. There were two end tables – one made of an old milk crate, and the other one a hunk from a log. The milk crate held a candle, and the other had a mason jar of red and orange chrysanthemums. Underneath the bed was a surprisingly soft bearskin rug, as I discovered when I kicked off my boots and dug my toes into it.

“This is fantastic. Did you do all this?” I asked.

“Serg helped with the main floor stuff, and he’s been working on our little garden in the backyard,” Boden explained. “But this up here was me. Everything’s been so stressful lately, to put it mildly, and I wanted us to have somewhere we could be comfortable.”

“You could’ve waited for me to help. Life has been stressful for you, too, and you didn’t have to do this all on your own.”

He smirked down at me. “If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black.”

“I know,” I admitted with a laugh, and I put my hands on his chest. “But you know what I mean.”

“Why do you think I got the bed up here right away?” he asked as he slid his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. “I wanted somewhere to relaxwith you.”

“How is the mattress?” I asked.

“I don’t know what it’s stuffed with, but I’ve enjoyed it, although I do always sleep worse without you,” he said.

“But I’m here now.” I looked up into his eyes,hoping he could see how much I appreciated all that he did for me and our family. “And I'd like to try out this bed.”

I stepped backward and took Boden’s hand to pull him with me. I fell backward onto it, landing softly in the plush bed, and Boden grinned as he climbed in with me. He propped himself up on his arm so he could look me in the eyes, and his other hand gently held onto my waist with a tender longing that I didn’t often feel from him.

“I missed you, Remy.”

He leaned down, kissing me deeply, and I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer to me. I had missed him too, but it was so hard for me to admit that to him.

His mouth was hungry on mine, but my hands were frantic on his clothing, unbuttoning his shirt to get to his bare skin. His body burned hot against mine, and I could feel the excited racing of his heart under the palm of my hand.

He kissed my neck and murmured that he loved me in a husky voice, and I wrapped my legs around him.

Then a knock at the front door stopped us both cold.

“Do you think that could be about Stella?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I’m in bed with you.”

“I’ll get it,” Serg called from downstairs, coming out from his bedroom beneath us.

“Serg was home?” I asked Boden in surprise.

“Yeah, but he was giving us some time together.”

I pushed against Boden’s chest, and he rolled off me. We both got up and went over to the edge of the loft, our clothing and hair in a disarray. As we reached the railing, Serg opened the front door, and Lazlo was standing on our doorstep.

“Is this where Remy King lives?” Lazlo asked Serg.

“Yeah, hey, Laz,” I said, and he glanced up at me and Boden in the loft. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything is great on my end,” Lazlo said. Serg opened the door wider to let him in, and I started down the ladder. “I was just coming to see how everything is going with you.”

“Yeah, no, everything is good. Better, actually,” I said, and I inwardly cringed at how flustered I sounded. “Do you know Boden and Serg?”

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