Page 49 of ILY
I take a chance. A leap. “Do you have Michael locked up somewhere, Leaf? Are you going to kill?—”
“Look,” Leaf says, dropping his hands and looking directly at me, “I know I sound insane. I mean, I think I might actually be out of my mind. I’ve never been this chaotic before, but my entire life flipped upside down after I burned out and…I don’t know. This whole farm that I didn’t want and a house full of shit I don’t need…it’s all a lot.” He stops and swallows heavily. “And to make matters worse, I don’t really have family. No good family, I mean. They’re…not nice.”
My heart twists in my chest, but I can relate. “I know that feeling.”
He laughs a bit and shakes his head. “I figured you did. Anyway, I…I don’t know. I thought I could do this. I called it an adventure, but then Michael showed up on my property one night and decided to make my life a living hell.”
I stare, afraid to say anything to stop him, but also afraid to hear his confession. I take his hand instead and gently trace his fingers with mine.
“It’s like he saw me and said, ‘Look at this poor bastard inheriting something he has no idea what to do with. I’m going to sabotage everything he is so he will never know peace.’ God.” He scrubs a hand down his face and sighs. “He usually shows up when I’m asleep and destroys everything new I put in the ground. He digs holes all over the fucking yard. I swear to god he’s watching me during the day, waiting for me to fall into one and break my fucking ankles.”
Relief pounds through me. I mean, none of it really makes sense, but part of it does. Unless he’s about to say he finally took Michael and locked him up somewhere…
“I know I shouldn’t be using TNT or whatever to deal with this problem. I know there are better ways to deal with pests. I just…I feel like I’m at my wit’s end. The other night, when I clocked you with the croquet mallet? I really did think he’dfinally gotten into my house and had come to kill me with a zucchini.”
I touch Leaf’s jaw and draw his gaze back to mine before lifting his hand to my lips, kissing his knuckles.
He sighs, smiling softly at me. “You make everything better, you know? I was not expecting you.”
I stare at him and stroke his cheek. “I wasn’t expecting you either.”
“And really, if I had Michael in a cage, I would have taken care of my problem then and there.”
My mind buzzes. I still don’t think Michael is a groundhog. I think he’s a man—probably one of the farmers a couple of miles down the road who doesn’t want a new person coming in here to take away their piece of the market.
And I think in the process, Leaf got in over his head and lost his grip for a while. But maybe I can help him find it. “I think you need sleep.”
“And I thinkyouneed a blowjob. Or a hand job. Or my ass—my ass is definitely available.”
I can’t help myself. I lean in and kiss him, slow, soft, pressing. My tongue pushes along his until his entire body relaxes, and then I pull back. “Tomorrow.”
Because there can be a tomorrow. Because tonight, he can sleep, and we can wake up together.
I can deal with the rest after.
My big case is obviously gone, but maybe there’s something better taking its place. After all, I have a life to live when I turn in my badge and gun. Maybe this can be part of it.
If, when I tell him the whole truth, he can find it in him to forgive me for all the lies about how we met.
I’ve become an even lighter sleeper than usual, thanks to my hearing loss. Nothing makes me feel worse than the thought that I might miss something. I’ve tried sleeping with my hearing aids in—my audiologist told me plenty of people did that—but they’re uncomfortable and always manage to die in the middle of the night.
So now I’ve started to become hyperaware of movement around me. And right now is no different.
I go from completely asleep with Leaf in my arms to wide-awake in seconds. It takes me a beat to realize that Leaf is scrambling from the bed and shouting something, and it takes my failing ears a few extra moments to catch most of what he’s saying.
“…here! Going to…right now…little fucker!”
I snag his arm as he tangles in the bedsheets, trying to get to the floor. “Leaf, wait. What the fuck is happening?”
He turns to me as he untwists his feet from the sheet and lifts one hand to spell, ‘Michael. He’s here.’
He’s here. He’shere? “He’s inside the house?” Oh god, just what I need. A fucking intruder.
Leaf doesn’t respond, darting out of the bedroom. Fuck, he’s probably going to grab that bat with the nails in it, and while he can probably plead self-defense, it’s not a guarantee here.
He’s long gone before I get my feet on the floor, but just as I do, I feel the vibration of the front door slamming, and panic sets in. I need to stop him before he does something bad. Something he can’t come back from.
Grabbing my jeans, I yank them hard, and they unravel, my gun clattering to the ground in the holster. I’m well practiced at this. I flip the snap open, and it’s in my hand with the safety off as I start running. I don’t have my badge, but fuck it. I can get that later if I need to.
