Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Poe slid a sheet of scones out of the oven. They steamed temptingly on the counter.
“I was thinking about it,” he said. Then, slowly, “Auntie mentioned I could have more hours. Cook at the bar, maybe. They used to have food, but she lost her chef a few years back, and he did all the ordering and everything, so…” Poe trailed off, as if it would violate some personal ethos to express any more than the bare minimum of enthusiasm about anything, ever. “Anyway. Maybe.”
“It seems like you and Nour have been hitting it off,” Edgar said. Casual again, so casual. The imp of the perverse was strong with Poe.
His brother stirred the sauce, the picture of disinterest. “Yeah, I mean. Bones is cool.”
“That’d be so clutch for Allie to have more help,” Edgar said. “Jamie was talking about picking up more shifts at Le Corbeau too. They worship Aunt Alaitheia.”
“Allie doesn’t mind the kittens,” Poe said as his knife flew through an onion, mincing it in seconds. “So maybe I could stay a while.”
Onion hit the hot pan and sizzled, and Edgar’s phone pinged with Jamie’s text.
***
Edgar juggled the front doorknob, his key, and the lasagna pan that Poe had shoved into his arms on his way out the door.
“Hi, honey. I’m home,” Edgar said under his breath and smiled.
He put the lasagna on the square of countertop not covered in boxes and went in search of Jamie. He found them on top of a ladder, cursing the high ceilings they’d only ever praised before. Not wanting to startle them, Edgar moved right behind them before saying, “Hi.”
Jamie startled anyway, measuring tape going flying as they tried not to fall off the ladder. Edgar grabbed them easily from behind, and Jamie startled again.
“Sorry, babe.” Edgar set them gently on the floor, and they pressed their palm to their chest.
“I can’t get like a Hi, honey, I’m home or something? Jesus, if you don’t wanna live together, just say so instead of murdering me.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to startle you from across the room. I wanted to be ready to catch you. And, uh, I did say that. Just. Very quietly.”
Jamie made the face they always made when they thought Edgar had said or done something adorable and they thought they weren’t showing it.
“How’s the family?” Jamie herded him into the kitchen.
“Good. Allie had a brilliant idea. She’s gonna hire a hybrid babysitter and clothes seller at Magpie Vintage so that she can have Nour in the shop. When they’re awake, the babysitter can help out with them, but when they’re asleep, the babysitter can do stuff around the place.”
“That is a good idea,” Jamie agreed. “Now, where’s my lasagna?”
Edgar looked at the counter where the dish lay. “How’d you know Poe made us lasagna?”
“Because I requested it.” Jamie looked at him like he’d asked something strange. “He asked what we wanted for dinner on move-in day.”
“He texted you? He offered?”
“Yeah. He offered so we wouldn’t have to cook, and I said I wanted lasagna.” Jamie was speaking carefully, as if concerned that the simple concept was evading Edgar.
But what had evaded Edgar was something else entirely: Poe had changed. He wasn’t sure when it had happened or if it had been too incremental to notice until now, but the Poe Lovejoy who had shown up the night Allie went into labor was not someone who would offer to make lasagna from scratch so someone else wouldn’t have to cook. He wasn’t someone who adopted three kittens or lived with his sister. And he certainly wasn’t someone who would’ve described a kid as cool and been excited to hang out with their aunt, cooking food in the city he’d once sworn he would never return to.
It was a day full of so many firsts that Edgar was a bit overwhelmed. But he forced himself to put any uncertainty with his family out of his mind and took Jamie’s hands.
He gazed into their eyes and brushed a piece of hair from their forehead. This was his person. This was his home.
This apartment, where once Edgar had retreated from the world alone, was now a home that he and Jamie shared.
“We live together now.” Jamie screwed their face up into an adorable expression.
“We do,” Edgar said. “I kind of can’t believe it.”
They both stared at each other.
“Can I show you something?” Jamie asked, holding out their hand.
In that moment, Jamie could have led him a hundred miles away to the top of a volcano, and Edgar would have followed them.
As it happened, they only led him to the closed bedroom door.
“Okay, I hope you don’t mind,” Jamie said. “But you said you were sick of it. And obviously if you don’t like it, we’ll change it.”
Jamie seemed to be having an internal argument about whether to include any more caveats, then fell silent and opened the door.