Page 79 of Doing Life

Sloan grinned, watching Abby run around the backyard and sniff. He could see her dark, furry body clear as day in the bright moonlight. His stomach growled, and his grin widened.

He thought there was leftover pizza in the fridge. He’d grab a piece on the way back inside and munch before he went back to bed.

“Babe?” Lance came shuffling to the kitchen, his cane in hand. He was getting better at using that when Abby was off duty, which made Sloan proud as hell. Every skill Lance learned added to his independence.

“Right here. Abby woke me up.”

“I see how she is. Waking up the one who won’t make her work.”

“Pretty much, yeah.” She was canny.

“So what else are you doing? I thought I heard your stomach growl.”

“You heard that from the bedroom?”

“I was already heading out of the bedroom, but yeah. Yes, that whole thing about, you know, other senses making up for the one you lost is…at least a little bit real.” Lance headed into the kitchen, moving his cane carefully, so as not to hit him, Sloan guessed. “You want a midnight snack?”

“There’s leftover pizza.” Which was still the best midnight snack.

“Perfect. What do you want to drink? Coke?”

“Works for me.” He thought he wanted to hang out, and he had to admit that this was the most average thing ever and he was loving it so bad.

They managed pretty well together—Lance got the pizza out of the fridge, he grabbed a Coke for them to split, and Abby came in. They sat down. It was very normal.

The weird part was that nobody turned on any lights. He was going to have to get used to that, he thought. Not that hedidn’t know how to turn the lights on himself. Of course he did. It was more that Lance was totally cool with being in the dark. Just didn’t seem to care.

“I’m glad to have you here.” Okay, that was weird and formal.

And Sloan knew it had come out that way too, when Lance rolled his eyes. “Yes, and I also am glad to be here.”

He whapped Lance on the knee. “Stop it. You know what I mean. It’s just weird. We’re doing things in this strange way. You’re moving into my house, but it’s not my house, it’s not my furniture, and you don’t have any furniture, really. Or stuff. Where is all of your stuff?”

“Dude, what stuff? I was eighteen when I joined the military. When I went to college, I was in the military. I got blown up in the military. I didn’t need stuff. I mean, I have this amazing stereo system and the huge TV. But I bought that one, you know, for the barracks when I was here. Not here. Here I’ve bought a lot of weird things blind people use and a ton of fuzzy blankets. You know what I mean? I don’t even own a chair.”

“Well, I’ll buy you a chair.” Yeah, so he had an entire house full of shit, between him and his folks.

“I have enough money to buy my own chair, but do we want to buy a chair for here, or do I want to buy a chair for there?”

Sloan did love to listen to Lance think about there, assuming that word meant Santa Fe and not somewhere else. “Well, if we got a chair for here, we could move it there. I mean, I purchased things here that I’m going to have to get back home.”

“Yeah, like what?”

“Well, the TV is mine. And the other TV is yours, so there’s two TVs, There’s dog bowls. Uh, I had to buy newplates because those plates were gross, and there had to be a pan to make lasagna in, you know? I needed a blender for margaritas and red chile enchilada sauce and salsa. That’s mostly everything…oh, and sheets. I bought good sheets. And a new shower curtain. In fact, everything in the bathroom pretty much is new because I’m never, ever going to be in a position where I have to stand on somebody else’s bath mat again.”

“Anybody ever tell you you’re kind of queer?” Lance muttered, and man, those eyes were just twinkling.

He could even see it in the dark because he had to be honest, how dark was dark? Even this far out of town it wasn’t that dark.

“I am. I am a little bit queer. I like fancy sheets, and I don’t like using someone else’s toothpick holder.”

Lance tilted his head. “Did you seriously buy a new toothpick holder?”

“I did off of eBay—it’s an antique.”

Lance leaned back in his chair, piece of pizza kind of dangling from his fingers. “Wait, wait, just a second. You don’t like to use somebody’s old toothpick holder? So…you bought an antique toothpick holder. Babe, I love you, but that’s kinda weird.”

“Shut up.” His cheeks were burning.

---