Page 8 of Part & Parcel

Nick was embarrassingly out of breath, but he managed a smile. “Racing.”

Kelly rewarded him with a crooked grin. “Mine too.”

Nick sat up straighter, wincing, still staring into Kelly’s shadowed eyes as his fingers wandered under Kelly’s shirt to graze over his ribs. Kelly leaned closer to brush his nose against Nick’s.

“What have you done?” Kelly asked, dropping his voice to a seductive whisper.

Nick sucked in a deep breath, holding it as he tried to find a good answer that wouldn’t get him yelled at. When he finally let it gust out, Kelly rolled his eyes and sat back, pursing his lips and nodding as if he’d known Nick had been up to no good.

“I told you to sit,” Kelly huffed. “I told you not to move. I told you to rest.”

“I know, but—”

“Nick!”

Nick practically growled as he rested his head on the back of the couch and flopped his hands to the cushions. It was like being in the Marines and having to report to his corpsman all over again. “It’s been over four weeks, Kels.”

“You know if you overwork yourself it’ll set back your recovery.”

“I was looking for Seymour,” Nick said, his voice a bit more caustic than he’d meant for it to be.

Kelly sat back, eyes gone wide. “You have him?”

Nick’s attention strayed to the coffee table, and Kelly glanced over his shoulder, where he could no doubt see Seymour on the table, along with the envelope full of letters Nick had found in the top of the cardboard box full of Eli’s things. The box itself was now sitting beneath the glass top.

Kelly leaned back, his lithe body twisting and straining against Nick as he plucked up the sock monkey. “I can’t believe you found him. Where was he?”

Nick found it hard to swallow, and he licked his lips to stall as his eyes strayed to the envelope again. “It’s the stuff Eli’s mom gave me,” he said, voice gone hoarse as he thought about the letter he’d read. “I . . . I just had this sudden need to go through it, I don’t know.”

Kelly sat back on Nick’s thighs, cocking his head and frowning at the ragged sock monkey in his hands. Seymour was about twenty inches tall, with a scraggly tail, gangly arms and legs, and big ears that had more often than not been used as handles. He had at one time sported white, green, and orange stripes, with a little blue-and-green beanie and blue puffs for buttons, but the colors were faded and dirty and the button puffs were long gone.

Kelly had always been vaguely disturbed by the look on Seymour’s face, especially after they’d had to sew up his left eye, but Eli had loved him and carried him with him wherever they went, including into battle. He’d stick him in his back pocket or his pack, depending on where they were. When the monkey had taken a piece of shrapnel to the eye—and saved Eli’s ass in the process—Eli had ordered a purple heart ribbon to sew onto his beanie so everyone would know Seymour was a combat veteran.

They’d taken pictures of him at landmarks around the world, sometimes risking life and limb and jail time to position him. It had always been their understanding that Seymour was to continue traveling even after Eli’s death, until he had seen the world.

“Seymour,” Nick grumbled affectionately.

“Huh?”

“EZ was always so proud of the pun. Seymour needs tosee more.”

Kelly blinked at him, then looked back at the sock monkey. “Oh my God.”

Nick chuckled, then bit his lip when Kelly glared at him. “Did that just hit you?”

“Yes. Shut up.”

Nick was grinning when he took Seymour from Kelly, but his smile fell quickly as he brushed his fingers over Seymour’s face.

“Nick?”

“He wanted me to have that stuff, and I . . . I should have gone through it years ago.”

“Nick,” Kelly said on a sigh.

Nick shifted under him, sliding his hands to Kelly’s hips. “I don’t know how he was so ready. He knew exactly what needed to go where. Why was he ready? If I hadn’t woken up? The only thing I would have left behind for you is a boat with a bunch of holes in her that I was too stubborn to fix.”

Kelly’s hand came to rest on Nick’s cheek, and he leaned closer. “Nick.”

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