Infinityglass (Hourglass 3)

I left my mother behind.

My hair was still wet from the shower when I climbed into his lap, which was my new favorite place. If we had to be vertical. “She’ll get out. She’s not activated. She doesn’t have enough strength to sustain them.”

He held me close, and his big hand ran slow circles over my back. “Are you okay?”

“At least I know the truth now.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

I wanted to call my dad, see if he’d known the truth, any part of it. “Not right now. Right now let’s talk about how you got this scar.” I smoothed my finger over his eyebrow.

“I fell off the kitchen counter when I was three.”

“Why were you on the kitchen counter?”

“I was trying to get glue off the top of the fridge so I could attach my Matchbox cars to the coffee table.”

“I bet you were a mess of a toddler.” And got away with everything. No mother would’ve been able to resist those eyes. “Do you have siblings?”

“Three. Two of them own a kick-ass resort on the Kona coast. Obviously, I’ve never been to visit. The other is in med school at USC.”

“You’re the baby?”

“Yep.”

I tickled him, hoping he’d tickle back, because that got his hands near the places I wanted them. When he didn’t, I kissed him and slid my hands up the back of his shirt.

“Hallie. We need to talk about today. I don’t want you to swallow the truth. It’ll burn a hole through you.”

“Why can’t we act like everything is normal?” I removed my hands, put them in my lap. “Just for today?”

“Don’t think I wouldn’t rather be kissing you.” He laid one on me that made my toes curl for posterity. “Because I would. But I’d also like to be kissing you next week and next month and next year. If we can’t figure this out, that won’t—”

“Next year.” I leaned back to look at him. “You want to be kissing me next year?”

“Yes.” Straight and true. “But you have to be here.”

“You think there’s a chance I won’t be?”

When he didn’t answer, I pushed away from him to go to the window. To calm my breathing. So I didn’t have to see the truth on his face.

“You aren’t the only one who loses if this situation goes wrong,” he said. “I didn’t see you coming, and then you were there, and now … you’re everywhere.”

“I never wanted to belong to someone.” After Benny, I never wanted to risk loss like that again.

“You belong to yourself, Hal. More than anyone I’ve ever known.”

“But I—I need you.”

“You don’t think I need you?” he asked.

I turned around to face him.

“I didn’t come to New Orleans looking for this. I was trying to do a job, to carry my weight for the Hourglass. But now I’ve come to believe that my place is with you.”

“Dune—”

“I’m going to be with you until we fix this. And I want to be with you after that.” His shoulders raised and lowered. “All I need to know is what you want, and you don’t have to tell me now, okay?”