No Quick Fix (Torus Intercession 1)

“I think that sounds perfect,” he murmured, and how he leaned his chin on his palm, smiling at me, made me wish I’d thought of it weeks ago. Seeing the man happy was something I found myself craving. It was the same with the girls.

I had no idea that playing board games would be more fun than going out to a club and picking somebody up.

The following Wednesday night I was going with Emery to the Fall Open House at school. When I strode into the kitchen in jeans and a sports coat, he turned and walked into the stove, bumping his head on the range hood.

“You all right?”

He nodded but I heard him take a gulp of air, and the glazed look in his eyes was very satisfying.

“Is this okay?” I fished, opening the jacket, letting him see the navy dress shirt underneath and how it clung to my chest and abdomen. “Or should I go change?”

“No, you—no. Brann. You look great. You look… really great.”

“Are you sure? It’s not too casual?”

“No. You’ll fit right in with me and the other parents.”

Other parents was nice to hear.

It was not lost on me that during our walk through the school, as so many people stopped to talk to not only him, but me as well, that he never once left my side. And I’d have had an easier time counting the number of times he didn’t have a hand on me, than the times he did.

But that Friday, he left to spend the weekend with Lydia and her friends in Helena, and it hurt to watch him drive away, to see him get into the car and kiss his fiancée and laugh with the others. Clearly, when all was said and done, I was the help, nothing more. Whatever I thought, and hoped, was idiotic.

When he came home late Saturday night, it shocked the hell out of me. I was on the couch, reading, and the girls were in bed already, when Winston’s head lifted up off my thigh and he focused on the door.

I heard the jingle of keys, and then the door opened and Emery came in.

“Hey,” I greeted him, smiling wide, my heart clutching at the sight of him, as was most often the case. “You’re home early.”

“Yeah I—I just wasn’t comfortable, and I had this feeling like I was supposed to be here. Home. And I couldn’t get it out of my head.”

I nodded. “Well, I always go with my gut.”

“Me too,” he replied, his gaze all over me before landing, like a fluttering bird, back on my eyes. “Is there anything to eat, because I skipped dinner to fly home.”

He’d flown. He’d taken the Darrow Holdings jet that was only supposed to be for emergencies, because he felt like home was where he needed to be.

“Yeah, I made chili and cornbread.”

“My girls ate chili?”

I grinned at him. “Every time they eat something I make, you always say that, like it’s a big surprise when they don’t complain about salad or vegetables.”

“I think it’s the homemade part they like,” he informed me, staring, moving closer, his hands on the back of the couch. “I know I do.”

“Well, come on,” I said, as I got up and went to the kitchen, glad I’d cooked instead of waiting for the next day, having hoped he’d be home for Sunday dinner. “I’ll heat it up for you, and you can tell me all about your wild time in Helena.”

“Not that much to tell,” he said, standing there, watching me as I pulled out Tupperware and got out a bowl and a spoon for him. “We had dinner, drinks last night; there was some dancing and more drinking.”

I turned to look at him. “You dance?”

“You didn’t have to ask it like that,” he said sourly.

My chuckle was not subtle, even trying to stifle it down. “I just—do English teachers dance? Is that a thing?”

“I’ll have you know I’m a very good dancer.”

“Huh.”

His grin was warm and unguarded, and he stood there and breathed, like simply being there, sharing space with me was so much more than good.

That might have been why I did it, but really, I wasn’t sure.

Maybe it was because of the house. Being in the warm, cozy place with him and his girls felt like the home I never had.

Maybe it was how much I was clearly needed in the town and the good I’d done in mere weeks. I was as needed as I’d been in the Navy, and that was a surprise.

Maybe it was because I was afraid for him and for the changes that were going to happen in his life.

I had no idea what the impetus was, and possibly I was overthinking it all and it was just him, just Emery Dodd and how drawn to him I was and how much I simply wanted. In the end, there was no telling, but in that instant, there was only him and me in the kitchen, illuminated by the soft reflected glow of the chandelier, the sparkle of light glittering in his big brown eyes.