Page 46 of Star-Crossed
Bent toward the golden glow of the warming lamp next to the blanket-lined plastic tub that served as a bed for Larry and her litter of seven newborn kittens, Lyra looked like an angel.
Albeit a slightly cranky, begrudgingly maternal one.
“Don’t think dragging the girl I tried to get you to date in high school out here is going to excuse your flagrant shirking of brotherly duties,” Kiki said from the side of her mouth.
“What shirking?” Cy muttered back. “I came to brunch, didn’t I?” After Kiki had given him no end of shit for several days prior.
“Before disappearing to aggressively prune Myrtle’s hibiscus trees for nearly the entire time. Which she’s telling everyone is because you’re sexually frustrated.”
And for once, the well-meaning geriatric gossip girl was right.
Cy sighed heavily, feeling the need inside him swell to almost unbearable heights. He had been so close—sofuckingclose—to finally finishing what he and Lyra had started on that bus all those years ago when his father had come blustering in as oblivious as a goddamn tornado.
Just as he had so many times in this very room. It had been his, once upon a time. A place to play video games until his sanity felt like a distant memory. A place whose four corners he’d filled with dreams of getting out of Townsend Harbor.
A place he’d dreamed of Lyra after their fateful encounter on the bus.
And here she was.
Real, and alive, and having not the first clue that Cy stood there drowning in the common stream of both their thwarted encounters.
The taste of her tongue. The scent of her skin. The damp heat of her—
“You’ve been isolating again.” His sister’s accusation punched through his fantasy.
“Bullshit.”
Okay, so he’d been spending a lot of time alone lately, but wasn’t being okay with your own company supposed to be a good thing? A sign of self-acceptance or whatever the hell the therapist who’d led those group meetings he’d participated in for all of a month after his accident said?
It wasn’t like he’d been actively avoiding anyone. He just found the presence of most other humans exhausting.
Kiki hugged her arms around a torso disappearing into her oversized flannel shirt. “I know you, remember? And every October, you—”
“Thank you again.” The words brought them both up short. Lyra was looking at them, her green eyes brightened by a sheen that had Cy’s heart pounding like a jackhammer. Her gaze lingered on his sister before finally meeting his own. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
Kiki waved away the sentiment with a gruff chuckle as she pushed off the wall and strode across the room.
“It was nothing,” she said, catching Cy’s eye as Lyra pulled her into an unexpected hug that made something inside him ache. “I’m just glad I could help.”
They released each other and stepped back.
“I just can’t believe the setup you have here,” Lyra said, glancing around at the impressive array of medical supplies.
“A necessary one, unfortunately.” Kiki adjusted the dial of the heating pad tucked beneath the blankets in Larry’s box. “I don’t know what it is about a country road that makes every asshole in the state figure this is a good spot to offload unwanted pets, but they’ve been doing it since we were kids.”
Cy’s jaw reflexively clenched at the flood of unwelcome memories. He’d seen too many abandoned and injured animals turn up over the years, their trust shattered by the very people who were supposed to care for them.
“I was thinking,” Kiki began, lifting her arms in a stretch. “Maybe you ought to leave Larry and her brood here overnight? I have some late-season racoon kits I have to get up every two hours to feed anyway. It’d be easy enough for me to check on these little guys while I’m at it.”
“You’d really be willing to do that?” Relief colored Lyra’s voice as she absently stroked the spot between Larry’s ears.
Cy bit his lip to keep from breaking out in a grin. He wondered if she even realized she was doing it.
“You bet.” Kiki’s mouth distorted in a yawn so obviously fake, he rolled his eyes. “Just stop by whenever to pick them up.”
“Don’t you have to work tomorrow?” Cy asked.
“I actually have someone who stops by to look after the current patients while I’m gone during the day,” Kiki said, speaking to Lyra instead of him. “Which Cy would know, if he ever came to visit.”
