Page 82 of Echoes of War

I grabbed the matching silver band from the jewelry dish on top of the armoire near the door. Sliding them onto my fingers, I walked closer to him, waving them in his face.

“These babies. Riddle me shocked, but she didn’t seem to be the type,” I said, glancing at the pale, conservatively dressed woman and brown man in the picture behind the dish.

Alexiares fought off a grin, “There you go again, judging a book by its cover. Very … I don’t know, untraditional, somewhat gothic. It’s probably costume jewelry—maybe it was for Halloween.”

Rolling my eyes, I pushed past him, placing them back where I’d found them, “Well, I think they’re beautiful. And I’m not judging, just saying that it looks like something I’d have, not a soccer mom.”

“You’re not helping your case,” he muttered, still distracted from peeking out the windows.

I groaned, plopping down onto the couch, “I’m bored and hungry. Can’t believe there’s nothing in the cupboards that’s edible. What mom doesn’t have Chef Boyardee or ramen noodles stashed away? At minimum she could have graced the house with Kraft Mac & Cheese.”

Biting into a piece of jerky, I did everything in my power, not the gag. This shit would never go down easy. Damn me for thinking it would be a good idea to stock up on real food once we made it to Lola’s.

He joined me on the dusted velvet green sofa with a huff, resting his head on my lap. I stared at the photos on the wall, my hands traveling through his hair, rubbing the sides of his face soothingly.

“Wanna play a game?” I asked.

Alexiares chuckled half-heartedly. “Okay, Jigsaw.”

I smacked him gently and he feigned pain. “See the people in the pictures on the wall? We have to guess what their lives were like based on the photos alone. No cheating.”

“How could you possibly cheat in this game?” he mumbled.

“By using the room around you, silly,” I said, recalling exactly the way Jax had managed to beat me every time before. “It’s not I Spy. It’s people watching through photos. Use that adorably graphic imagination of yours.”

It wasn’t about recreating my life with Jax with him. I only wanted to use what I had learned to help Alexiares through today. Jax and I had played this game countless times while scouring through abandoned homes for anything salvageable to take back with us to The Compound. The game helped ground me in reality when everything around me spun outside my control. I wrote the story. And now Alexiares could too.

“I see, okay, umm. You go first.”

“Don’t try to be a gentleman now. It’s far too late for that,” I teased. “Fine. That lady there, the mom. She goes to restaurants and complains about things she could have known if she had read the menu.Excuse me, ma’am, I asked for a cheeseburger plain. This burger has cheese on it.” I cackled, mocking the ridiculous statement I’d heard as a waitress during college.

“What makes you say that?” He released a small laugh.

“Her haircut,” I said, pointing toward the short brown pixie cut with blonde highlights throughout. “It’s self-explanatory.”

He nodded against my lap, turning his head slightly to get a better view. “Yeah, good point. My turn, princess. Her husband spends his weekend in the yard blowing around leaves and tossing dirt to avoid the little devil kids.”

“They do look pretty bad,” I agreed, my voice dancing with joy. “That one in the corner has never listened to a damn thing his parents said.”

“Ooh!” he exclaimed, getting into the game. “The little girl for sure gets whatever she wants, smug-ass grin. Reminds me of someone I know.”

I shrugged, pretending to be dense, “Don’t know who that could be.”

“Someone in this room.”

I glanced around the room, scanning for whoever the culprit must be. Certainly it wasn’t me. He grabbed my hand playfully, prying my pointer finger up and making it turn toward my face.

Laughter exploded from me. “Too bad I’m not in the picture, that’s not part of the game!”

Something changed between us, the air in the room growing tense and his body stiffened. I could see the thoughts churning behind his eyes, turning darker the way they did in the woods with Finley.

“Yeah,” he shoved away from me, putting distance between us, face grim and serious. “Maybe I don’t want to play anymore.”

My throat bobbed as I swallowed hard. I knew what this was about, but I was hoping he wouldn’t go there. Not now, not when his emotions were already running high. It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand where I was coming from; he had to. But with everything that happened with Finley, this was a fight he could pick with an easy target.

Part of me wanted to give that to him, the other half wanted to remain stubborn and push back. “Then what do you wanna play,Alexi,” I said grimacing at the pain all over my body as I reached across the couch to tap playfully on the tip of his pointed nose.

He grabbed my hand roughly, holding onto it with a squeeze, “You are the only person I don’t want to call me that.”

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