Page 26 of Love and the Laws of Motion
“Is he perfect like Chris?Chris isperfect.They’re proud as hell ofhim.”
“Your parents aren’t proud of you?”
“They think I’m a criminal.”
“Well, youdidhack the Department of Defense.”
“You aresohung up on that.I did it forfun.I didn’t make any money off of it.I told you, I don’t do the illegal stuff anymore.Everything I do now is totally inside the law.Well, technically.Mostly.”
“Why do they think you’re a criminal?”
“It doesn’t matter.Nothing matters.”Nick sighed, his eyes drooping.She was about to lose him, but their house was just a little farther.
“Come on, we’re here.”She wrestled him through the wrought iron gate and up the front walk.
“Everybody wants me to be something I’m not.”
Great.They’d entered the maudlin phase of his drunkenhood.Livie didn’t drink, but having spent her life in a bar, she knew all the kinds of drunk there were under the sun.
“You’re perfect just the way you are,” she mumbled, shifting his weight.“Stairs.Step up.”
They were staggering up the three shallow steps of the front stoop when she realized what she’d said.Ugh, had she told him he wasperfect?But Nick didn’t seem to notice and even if he had, wouldn’t remember it tomorrow.
She fumbled with her keys and unlocked the front door, then wrestled him through it and into the front hall.There she was confronted with the flight of stairs that needed to be navigated to get him to the spare bedroom.Nope.Not happening.Instead, she swung him to the right, though the arched entrance to the living room.He’d have to sleep it off on the sofa.
His eyes were closed when she pivoted him around and lowered him down on the sofa.They stayed closed as she wrestled his sneakers off and hoisted his legs onto the cushions.But he opened them and gasped in surprise when their elderly dog, Spudge, lumbered his way over and stuck his cold nose against his cheek.
“Livie, what—”
“That’s Spudge, my dog.”
Despite being nearly unconscious, Nick raised his hand and found Spudge’s head, rubbing it affectionately.“Hey, Spudge.”
Of course he was a dog person, too.Could he kick a puppy or steal a senior citizen’s walker or something so she could get over this stupid crush already?
Spudge groaned in instant adoration, eyes closed, leaning into Nick’s hand.I know, Spudge.I know.
She left Nick alone with Spudge for a moment to retrieve a pillow and an old quilt from the linen closet upstairs.When she came back down, Spudge was resting his head on Nick’s chest as Nick continued to pet him.
“Well, Spudge likes you.See?You’re not completely alone.”
“Spudge is my man, right, Spudge?Spudge understands me.”
“Spudge is very understanding.”She lifted his head to wedge a pillow under him, trying desperately not to notice how thick and silky his hair felt under her fingers.Now wasn’t the time.Actually, there wouldneverbe a time, and she knew it.So she was absolutelynotgoing to get hung up on the way his hair felt, or the way he smelled when she leaned over him to tuck the quilt around his body.
“You have a lot of hair,” Nick muttered, and her face flamed.She’d been leaning over him, getting him settled, and her hair had been brushing him everywhere.
“Sorry,” she whispered, jerking upright and dragging it back over her shoulders, twisting it into a thick rope.When she was thirteen, her cousin Kendra had talked her into doing something “fun and different” with her hair.The resulting disaster had kept Livie away from scissors ever since.She knew it was unfashionably long, without a single layer or highlight to bring it into the twenty-first century, but it was better than that pubescent monstrosity she’d spent forever growing back out.
“S’okay.S’nice.I like your hair.”
She felt self-conscious and stupidly flattered all at once.Instead of responding, she grabbed the wastebasket from beside the armchair.“Here,” she murmured, setting it beside the couch, next to his head.“If the worst happens, aim for this.”
“S’not gonna happen.”
She sat down on the very edge of the couch, next to his hip, tugging the quilt up over him.“Well, you did drink a lot of vodka tonight.”
He groaned.“Don’t say that word.”
