“Thank you, babe. Your compliments will get me through the day.”
“Merc.” She snickers, then sobers again. “I’m serious.”
But it’s easier to tease and distract than talk about the dreams. “It’s the lighting in here. And Cole ambushed me at the crack of dawn to play Minecraft. Being an uncle is hard work.”
“Imagine if you had kids of your own.”
“I can imagine it easily. I’d love to have kids.”
She opens her mouth, then frowns. “Really?”
“Yeah.” Never had any doubts about that. I love my family. I love kids. “Don’t you?”
She sighs as she sits down on a bed, gives me a tentative smile. “I never thought much about it.”
“I was waiting for the right girl,” I tell her. “And now she’s here.”
Even with the jumpy phone camera image, I see her blush. “Merc, I’m not…” She brushes her hand over her mouth, and damn, I’m getting hard looking at her. “I never thought…”
“I don’t mean right now,” I rush to say. “Or ever. If you don’t want. Shit, this came out all wrong.”
“It’s not that,” she says, her smile breaking out again, like the moon peeking through clouds. “I mean, that’s the weird thing. I never thought about it… until I met you.”
I stare at her. My nightmares fade as her words sink in. “Girl…”
“I got to go,” she says, and disconnects.
A smile linge
rs on my face, her words replaying in my mind, as I scrape the beard off my face, my hand barely shaking. It’s as if talking to her has steadied me, steadied my rocking world.
Until I met you.
I’m still smiling when Gigi arrives after breakfast together with Jarett, even though Max fussed and wailed all the way through breakfast, his wailing like a hammer driving rusty nails into my aching head.
“Merc.” Gigi makes a beeline for me. “We need to talk.”
I groan and sit down on the sofa. I’m wearing my jeans and nothing else. Haven’t had the energy to shower and dress yet, and I sure don’t have the energy for verbal sparring.
Then again, I said I’d get to the bottom of his mystery, right? The Nightmare Mystery.
Has a ring to it. Fuck, I’m tired if I find this funny.
“Merc?” Gigi waves a hand in front of my face. “Anyone in?”
“Just leave a message after the beep,” I mutter.
She laughs, sits down beside me and we both look at where Jarett is lifting Max into the air so he can pretend to be a plane. My sis has a weird, dreamy expression on her face.
Hm… Maybe Cos and me weren’t the only ones talking about kids these days?
“How are you?” she asks, turning back to me, flicking her long hair over one shoulder and toying with the ends. “How’s Cosima?”
“Good. I…” I hesitate. “I asked her to move in with me.”
But Gigi only beams at me. “Aw, that’s great. That means you guys are getting along great.”
I nod. “Yeah.”