Chapter 34
CHAPTER 34
WREN
It smells like home.
It’s the first conscious thought I have the following morning. My eyes are still closed, and my other senses are the ones to come alive first. I smell the earthy-sweet spice of the redwoods around us, the campfire I presume Ellis has started in the ring outside our tent, the salty dampness of the ocean nearby, and Ellis’s scent on the sheets.
I hear the crackling of that fire and a few distant birds chirping, and farther off, I hear the ding of a phone. My face rustles against something when I turn into my pillow, and I crack open my eyes. An origami bird with one wing worse for wear after I inadvertently rolled over it awaits me, Open me written on its neck. I smile and yawn at the same time, eagerly unfolding it. The first thing I see is my hastily scribbled signature in the corner.
After pushing me back against the tile last night, Ellis went to his knees and hooked my legs over his shoulders before bringing me to his mouth. He took me to the edge on his tongue with cruel efficiency twice before he’d stopped and toyed with me, leaving me bereft.
“Do you think you’d move back into our house?” he asked me after the second time.
“Ellis.” It was half-growl and half-plea. I could feel the vibrations of his voice inches from me, but it wasn’t enough to tip me over that edge. I tried to push against him, and he held me firm. I peeled my head off the tile and gave him a filthy look. “I was planning on saying yes, but right now, I’ve got half a mind to—”
“Would you sign something? Put it in writing? Have your people call my people?”
“Your people are my people,” I growled.
He laid a featherlight kiss against me like a sweet little please , and I tried to chase it, but he pulled back and gave me an expectant look. “Yes,” I whined. “I’ll sign something, just—”
“Good,” he said. He held my eyes and spit on my clit. “You belong back home with me.”
He proceeded to make me feel exceedingly agreeable thereafter, and we jogged back to our site in the dark. After he followed through and made me sign a statement saying I’d move back, we made love one more time. We lay naked in bed under a pile of fluffy covers after, drowsily touching. Only the nighttime birdsong and crickets singing around us.
“So,” I’d asked, my eyes half-closed. “The tattoos?” I traced the outline of one of the wings as he tucked a pillow under his cheek, his lids blinking heavily.
“Just wanted something permanent,” he’d said. “Something that can’t be erased, even when everything changes between all of us.” He’d laughed through his nose and shut his eyes.
“One of them looks suspiciously like a wren,” I’d murmured.
“Nah. That’s just a tit of some kind,” he fibbed sarcastically, not bothering to open his eyes. My laugh seeped away the last of my energy, and I drifted off.
Aside from my sloppily scribbled agreement, the rest of the note says:
You looked too pretty (and you were snoring too loud) to wake. I was getting tempted, though, so I took myself on a walk to the camp store to grab us coffees.
I love you, Byrd.
—El
I hear a phone go off again from somewhere, so I reluctantly unearth myself from the covers and go hunting for it. I hear it again and realize I left it in the truck yesterday. By the time I get to it, I see I’ve missed Micah’s call a third time.
His name pops up before I can hit Call on his name, and I quickly swipe to answer.
“Micah?”
“Hey, Wren,” he says, relief thick through the phone.
“What’s wrong? Everyone okay?”
“Yeah. No, yeah, we’re good,” he says, and I blow out an annoyed sigh. “I just need to go get my baseball stuff from your place. I can’t stand it anymore.”
“God, Micah. You scared me.”
“Sorry for the power calls.”
I laugh. “All good. You know where my spare key is?”
“Still under the gnome?”
“Yep. All the stuff is in my safe in the garage. Let me know when you’re ready to write down the combination.”
“K. Hang on.” I hear him moving around and rifling through the drawers at Ellis’s place. “Jesus, what grown man has this many pencils?” he mutters to himself. “All right, I’m ready.”
I fire off the combination to him and hang up the phone, which is when the playback hits me. What grown man has this many pencils?
“… living my life in pencil, because I don’t think I can get shit right the first time.”
“… did some work on a campaign fire when the rest of the crew took time off.” Which was last fall.
“I want to be connected with my wife again.”
“Just wanted something permanent. Something that can’t be erased.”
“El”
“L”