Chapter 44 #2
“My mom broke all my cameras,” Torin admits. “It was easier to pretend I wasn’t interested in photography anymore than risk her breaking more if I replaced them.”
When I thought one of them had destroyed the book that I’d left in their library, Callum warned me that Torin had his own childhood horror stories. I feel terrible that I bumbled into one of them, and a painful one from the look in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I say, squeezing his hand.
He lifts it and brushes a kiss across my knuckles before he lets it go. “You didn’t know. And technology has gotten a lot better. I’ll get a better camera with more lenses.”
“This house is big enough to turn one of the living rooms into a darkroom if you wanted to,” Archer suggests.
Torin looks thoughtful. “That actually sounds like fun.”
I perk up. “Can you show me how you develop film?”
Torin nods. “Once I remember how, I’ll show you.”
“We’ll go shopping and replace your camera and lenses. Baking can happen whenever, so we won’t spend all day in here. Do you know which camera you want?”
He stares down at me, a soft smile playing on his lips and an inscrutable look stamped on his face. “I think I get it now.”
I tilt my head. “Get what?”
“How you collect people who would do anything for you. We’re very lucky to have you, June.”
“We definitely are,” Archer says while Callum nods his agreement.
As Torin and Callum talk about the nearest stores that sell camera equipment, I peer up at Archer, who's stroking one hand up and down my back. “What about you? What do you want to do today?”
He shrugs. “Whatever. I don’t have a hobby.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “Everyone has a hobby.”
Callum has pulled his cell phone out and is showing Torin something on it when he turns to me and confirms, “He really doesn’t. He just joins in with whatever everyone else is doing.”
“But you played sports with Callum,” I say to Archer.
“Yes,” he says, “because his dad was paying me to. It was something I did, but it was never my thing the way it was his.”
Archer told me his childhood wasn’t the best, and Callum said he didn’t grow up with much. What if he never learned to play the way the rest of us did?
Grasping the front of his shirt, I tug him down to press a kiss on his lips. “Then we’ll do something different every weekend until we find the thing that you love to do.”
His eyes soften as he cradles the back of my head, and a smile tugs at one corner of his mouth. “Have I told you that I love you?”
I sniff, wanting to cry. “No. I love you, too.”
“Well, I do, so damn much I don’t care what we do, as long as I’m doing it with you.” He kisses me. “I noticed you haven’t mentioned your job. What do you want to do about that?”
“You don’t need to work, June.” Torin stops talking with Callum to tell me, his brow furrowed. “We can look after you. Whatever you need or want, it’s yours.”
“I quit,” I admit. “I was going to find—”
Archer kisses me and repeats. “You don’t need to work, June, seriously.”
I smile at him. “I was going to say that I want to do something. Maybe not clean hotel rooms, but something. Jack helped so many people even though he barely had time or money, and I want to do more than I did when I was living with my parents. Jack told me what you did, by the way. Where did the money come from?”
“Callum’s dad paid me to watch him, but I never felt good about spending that money.” Archer shrugs. “He’ll put it to use better than I would have.”
“Well, thanks. You changed his life, and I will be forever grateful. So will he.”
“Part of me is going to miss walking you to work every morning.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to hide my smile. “Yeah? And not the packed bus?”
He lowers his head and says into my ear. “I saw you trying not to laugh when a guy who smelled like he hadn’t showered in five days stuck his armpit in my face. That was very cruel of you.”
I laugh. “You deserved it.”
He pulls back to smile at me. “I probably did.” He kisses me and lifts me off the counter and sets me onto my feet. “Now let's get baking. You have to tell me how you’re a shit cook but a good baker, `cause we’ve talked about it and it doesn’t make sense to any of us.”
“They are two completely different skills,” I tell him as Callum and Torin line up, ready to help me bake up a storm.
“They’re kind of not,” Archer says.
“He has a point,” Callum says. “If anything, I thought baking was harder.”
Torin holds up a silver food scale. “If you’re required to weigh your ingredients, it’s harder. Weighing or measuring of anything automatically levels a skill from like a three out of five to a four.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not,” I say. “I’d say I’m a four as a baker and maybe a one as a cook.”
Callum’s eyebrows shoot up. “One? What’s the worst thing you've made?”
“Just one thing?” I ask. “Like yesterday or farther back?”
They stare at me.
“Yesterday?” Torin asks, eyebrow raised.
I scrunch my nose. “I got distracted talking to River and forgot to add water to the pasta I was making for our lunch.”
Their lips twitch.
“When did you remember?” Callum asks, clearly trying not to laugh.
Cheeks burning, I dip my head to hide my red face. “How about we make a chocolate fudge cake? Or chocolate chip cookies? What do you want to bake?”
“Uh oh, now I’m curious.” Callum loops his arm around my waist, tugs me against his side, and kisses me. “When, beautiful?”
“When the pan started smoking and River had to tell me I was about to burn down my apartment,” I admit.
No one says anything for a good long time.
I let out a sigh. “Go on. Get it all out. You all look like tomatoes.”
They explode into laughter, and I can’t help but smile as tears run down their cheeks.
We spend a couple of hours baking, laughing, and learning more about each other at the start of a day jam-packed full of fun things.
This new life with my mates feels like it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.
And I’m happy. So much happier than I ever thought I could be.