Page 29 of To Catch a Firefly

“He’s your anchor,” Danil says quietly.

“No,” I whisper, my eyes lifting to the full moon. “He doesn’t fight the tide. He controls it.”

My coworker-turned-friend sighs, and I bring my eyes back to him. “A romantic,” he insists.

Maybe he’s right.

“You left Tom alone,” I say, desperately wanting to move us off this topic.

Danil snorts, looking back over his shoulder through the glass before giving me a smirk. “Tom is passed out in a pool of his own cum.”

“Jesus, you can be crude.”

He winks proudly. “A poet, as you said.”

“Mhm,” I mutter. “Please, gift me more of your poetry.”

Without missing a beat, Danil says, “There once was a god named Dani, with a cock as long as his hami—”

“Oh my God.”

“And he made the boys scream as he sucked out their cr—” Danil’s words cut off when I slap my hand over his mouth, and he laughs against me.

“Christ,” I moan. “This is my life now.”

Danil waggles his eyebrows before licking me. He doesn’t even seem to care that I wipe my palm on his shirt. “You know,” he says, reclining back in his seat, hands behind his head and legs crossed at his ankles, “one day,farin the future, if I ever do settle down, I will gift my beloved with my poetry. And they will adore it.”

“I don’t doubt that,” I admit, wrapping the blanket back over my arms. “You’re smooth when you want to be.”

He flutters his lashes at me. “Thank you, Lucky-boy.”

“And also a dick,” I put in.

He places his hand over his chest. “Thank you.”

We’re quiet for a while after that, and try as I might, there are no crickets to be heard. Not here.

Just when I’m about to stand up and head back inside, Danil’s voice halts me. “Tell me the truth,” he says. “Did you ever have a crush on your…friend?”

My swallow is rough. “Maybe once upon a time,” I admit. It’s not exactly a lie, even if that crush never quite went away.

“And Ellis?” Danil says. “He didn’t feel the same?”

“No,” I answer, my heart clenching tight. “No, he did not.”

Danil doesn’t stop me as I stand, blanket around my shoulders, and I walk through the door, ignoring his lightly spoken, “Shame,” as well as the moon at my back.

Chapter 11

Ellis

“And I wasn’t sure about it at first,” Gabby tells me, recounting the story of her dog’s new hairstyle. Apparently the Lhasa Apso gets groomed every six weeks. “But I think I’ve warmed up to it. Sometimes you just have to trust the groomer, you know?”

I don’t, but I hum, and Gabby nods, looking lost in thought.

“Yeah. And Toodles seems happy. Not that she’s ever unhappy, mind,” she says with a chuckle. “She’s the nicest dog. If you ever meet her, you’ll see.”

I nod along, bending low to get a look at the hitch system of the tractor I’m working on. It’s been clinking lately when it engages the bucket, and the last thing we need is the front-end attachment falling on someone’s foot. Or worse.

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