Page 58 of Laugh

“Two days? I’m assuming this is something staying between the two of us. No calling in extra reinforcements?” Haddie shakes her head so hard I’m afraid she’s going to give herself whiplash. I reach up and hold the sides of her face to stop her movement. “Got it. It stays between us.”

“Marcus can’t know you know either. I just got in there this morning and was so overwhelmed IknewI couldn’t handle it all by myself. Addie, and you know how much I love her, wouldn’t be able to handle this. She’s a clean freak and would lose her shit. His parents are dealing with enough at the hospital and they don’t need this extra burden. This is something I can do,” she admits, explaining the situation a little better for me.

“We. This is somethingwecan do for him. Just tell me what you need from me.”

Her eyes fill with tears right before she leans into me and presses a slow kiss to my lips, then murmurs, “You’re amazing.”

Chuckling, I pull back and lift her from my lap. “I know. Let’s go see what we’re getting into.”

I follow Haddie into her best friend’s apartment and give myself props for keeping my face neutral when she looks up at me. She’s blushing, clearly embarrassed on behalf of her friend.

Her lip is being abused by her teeth as she digs into it, worried over my reaction. When I don’t say anything right away, she admits, “I know. It’s really bad.”

I resolve myself to get this done with her, no matter how long it takes. Tugging my phone out of my pocket, I scroll through my contacts, looking for someone,anyone, to call.

“What are you doing?” she asks, worry lacing her voice.

I ease her with a wink as I hit the call button for a friend of mine. “I’m getting us a truck.”

Chapter 22

Puzzles!

Haddie

“Oh my God! I forgot about all of these!” I cry out after I open one of the countless totes stored in Marcus’s second bedroom.

Beau stands up from where he’s bending over and shoving broken down boxes into one of those thick black trash bags that people normally use for leaves. Stretching his back, he cracks his neck in both directions before coming over to see what I’m looking at.

Turning his head to the side, he studies them with a raised brow, then looks at me. “They’re jigsaw puzzles.”

“Yeah,” I grin, bouncing on my knees, staring up at him. I pick out one of my favorites, which is a painting of an entire underwater ecosystem to show him. I’m not sure where mermaids fit in, but I didn’t complain when I was twelve. “This one was our favorite. I think we did it like six times. We used to sit around his coffee table for hours on end and work on them, especially on the weekends. My older brothers played sports all the time, so my family would always travel for events and clinics and practices to take the boys everywhere. Amber too, once she got big into competitive cheerleading. As much as I think she’s a bitch, sheisgreat at what she does.”

“You didn’t go along with them?” he asks me, frowning at the idea that they left me behind when the rest of my family would take off.

Laughing, I shake my head. “Not unless it was a game. I always begged my way out of going just to watch them get yelled at and run laps. So, I’d stay the weekends at Marcus’s house. We were addicted to jigsaw puzzles.”

I swallow against the rush of emotion as it slams into me, remembering how we separated out the colors before ever starting. I’d always put in the ‘girl’ colors and he would put in the ‘boy’ colors. We truly did them together, debating which piece we should try next.

Beau squats down and grips the side of my neck. “Hey, happy girl,” he says gently. “Just say the word and we can call it a night. We’re about done with going through everything anyway, and you look absolutely wrecked.”

Well,thatyanked me right out of my pity party. There’s no stopping my eyes from narrowing at him, hurt that he would comment about how terrible I look after we’ve been busting our asses for two full days. “Thanks for reminding me I’m not still sexy as fuck after working forhours, elbows deep in Marcus’s underwear and–”

Beau throws his head back and starts laughing, the sound echoing through the room, shutting me up.Lord help me. Captain Thor, in the grip of uninhibited, pure laughter is just… beautiful.

When he looks back at me, I know he notices my mouth hanging open, but he doesn’t stop chuckling as he uses his finger under my chin to push it shut. Moving toward me slowly, I back up with my eyes locked on his. He ends up crawling over me when I lean back on my elbows. His hands are on either side of me as he lowers his head to nip my bottom lip.

“You’re still sexy as fuck, Happy. But like you said, you’ve been elbows deep in underwear for too many hours. Let me take you home, put you in the bath, then my bed, and fall into an exhausted sleep with you.”

“Yeah… okay,” I breathe out. Then I panic over leaving as I look around the room we’ve been working in.

My brain is fried.

I need to call Marcus.

We need to finish organizing.

Probably should pee at some point.

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