Page 12 of Songbird
“Okay.”
She tucks away her phone again as I get to my feet. “I’ll get your luggage from the car and then make you something to eat while you change. I’ll keep it simple. You might not feel hungry now, but you’re running on adrenaline and your system needs fuel before you crash. No gluten. No dairy. No meat. No processed sugars. Did I get that right?”
No idea what’ll be left in my kitchen after I subtract my favorite food groups, but I’ve been in tougher binds than this.
Rosalie hops up so fast I hesitate.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“My luggage?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
She responds with a shamefaced wince. “I… don’t have any.”
“You don’thaveany?”
She throws up her hands like I’m the unreasonable one. “I didn’t know I was running away when I left the house this morning! It was spur of the moment. I didn’t even have my own car. All I have is my purse and this dress.”
“Okay.” I nod with equilibrium I don’t feel. Nothing’s ever simple. Not with Rosalie. “You can wear something from my closet tonight, and tomorrow… tomorrow, I’ll find you some clothes.”
She waits below while I climb the ladder to the loft and rummage around for something appropriate. The best I can find is an old button-up flannel.
“Here.” I offer the shirt to Rosalie, then stand there like an idiot as she holds it up to get a better look. “I don’t suppose you can make it up the ladder in that dress.”
She glances at it and then shakes her head with a light laugh. “Ah, no.”
“I’ll wait outside while you change.”
I’m halfway to the door before she stops me. “Um… Finn?”
“Yeah?”
“I need to ask another favor.”
“All right. What is it?”
Her graceful throat works as she tosses her head, and wearing that dress while she does it, she’s a princess commanding her subject. This ought to be good.
“I can’t take this gown off by myself. It has too many buttons and they’re all in the back.”
She can’t be serious. “So… what do you expect me to do?”
There’s that chin lift she loves so much, followed by an order I can’t possibly obey. “I need you to stay and undress me.”
four
Rosalie
It’sfunnythethingsthat make you afraid and the things that don’t.
I was afraid the night my grandmother died. I was eighteen, so it’s not as though I needed her to take care of me, but she was all the family I had.
I was scared the morning my label dropped me because they didn’t approve of the tracks on my sophomore album. I thought if they didn’t like my music, nobody would.
I’ve had stalkers and deranged fans and one close call that makes it harder to sleep than usual. Those things make me afraid.
And I’ve spent my relationship with Chip walking on glass, worried that too heavy or careless a step would shatter everything I built. I wasn’t anxious and oversensitive, like Chip always said. I was afraid of him.
