He leaned in and whispered roughly in my ear, sending warm breath down the side of my neck. “Yeah, what she said. Stay here.”
There was no question.
The therapist that Dallas started seeing also treated Montez, and she was, in fact, the person who referred him. Dr. Leung asked for me to come along on his third visit. She was older, with threads of silver in her short black bob, and she got right to the point, which I liked. She was going to help him, and it was going to be hard work, but between the way he talked about me and his family and friends, and with the kind of amazing support system he had, she was confident.
“It’s for the life of the job, you know,” she told him. “This work lasts as long as you carry the badge, and even beyond.”
“I know,” he told her, squeezing my hand. “But I’m ready.”
She nodded. “I see that you are.”
In a stunning turn of events, when the rest of my household items showed up, Locryn Barnes appeared with them. He’d actually been the one to supervise the movers who packed up my kitchen. That had been the only room that needed any sort of care, as the rest of my earthly possessions were books that had been sealed in boxes since I finished college, and artwork that had been in their crates since I moved out of my parents’ house. It was strange to realize that, because I’d never felt like I was home in Chicago, I’d never unpacked. Locryn made sure to tell me, as I stood there stunned, watching him direct the movers, that my place had looked like I’d just moved in.
“That was some sad shit to look at, Croy,” he said, judging me, shaking his head. “I hope you plan to unpack now.”
After Dallas shook Locryn’s hand and thanked him for coming, he grabbed a utility knife from the garage and opened every box. He was taking no chances, and didn’t care that his living room looked like we were having a book drive. When Locryn volunteered to construct built-in bookcases, I stood there gaping at him like a fish on dry land, because I had no idea he could do such a thing.
“I thought you said he was kind of a dick,” Dallas said when my colleague, who, it turned out, was also my friend, was being charming and engaging with my boyfriend’s mother and sister and stepfather when the three of them came for dinner. “Did you mean somebody else?”
“Who are you?” I asked Locryn later in the kitchen, watching both Jackie and Cate stare after him like he walked on water.
He grunted.
“Explain yourself.”
Turning to me, I was swallowed in his inky black gaze. “Even though ya lied,” he informed me, “and didn’t come back, I ain’t losing you. I’m keeping the friends I have.”
I’d had no idea we were friends.
“Don’t look at me like that. Of course we’re fuckin’ friends.”
Since I didn’t want to fight about it, I let it go, watched him play Call of Duty with Dallas the next evening as the frame of the bookshelves took shape, and Dallas told him how good it all looked already. He hung my artwork—which Dallas actually loved, and not just because it was mine—and we took him out to dinner, took him horseback riding with Cate, showed him my new office, had him meet Sergio, watched him irritate Sergio when his wife, Beth, got flustered meeting Locryn, and enjoyed seeing the neighbors—both the men and the women—pop out of their homes to wave at Locryn as he ran through the neighborhood early in the morning.
“Awful lot of people up at the crack of dawn,” I told Dallas as we made our way through the produce section.
“Well, he’s gorgeous, that’s why.”
I scowled at him.
“Oh, come on,” he said, chuckling, eyes dancing. “Black hair and black eyes, how often do you see that? And it’s like he was sculpted out of marble or something.”
“Really,” I said flatly, arms crossed as I debated leaving him at the grocery store, until I noticed a man checking Locryn out a moment later. I was so focused on the stranger, I didn’t notice Dallas slip around behind and wrap me in his arms, his face pressed to my nape.
“You know there’s nobody as beautiful as you,” he murmured, kissing down the back of my neck. “Only one I see.”
And I believed that, and so when Locryn left two weeks later, I made him promise to come back, and I said I’d bring Dallas to Chicago as soon as I could. When I hugged him goodbye, I felt a weird sense of peace.
“You know, it used to be, when you smiled, it almost looked painful,” Locryn told me. “But now…I dunno. It’s like your skin fits you alluva sudden, like you’re good in it.”