19. Leo
Chapter 19
Leo
When I come home from work, Kai sits on the floor, surrounded by board game boxes. He grins, jumps up, and bounds over to kiss me.
“Welcome home.”
“You didn’t follow me to work today?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then how did you get out all these board games in—what?—the five minutes it took me to walk upstairs?”
He shrugs. “I’m fast.”
“Uh-huh. I don’t even own Frustration. Or Scrabble.”
“They’re from Janice.”
I wipe my hand over my face. “How?”
“They look fun.” He grabs my hand and bounces on the balls of his feet. “Can we play one? Or three? Or four? I’ve never played a board game before. ”
I laugh. “Let me grab some food first, and then, yes, we can play as many as you want.”
I’d give him the moon on a stick if I could. His pure eagerness is enchanting.
“I can help you cook.”
I give him a doubtful look.
“I can!”
“All right.” I take my coat and shoes off and put them away neatly. “Are we cooking for two?”
He shakes his head. “I might have a little nibble of yours just to taste it.”
We cook pasta, cheese sauce, and bacon together. Kai takes direction well. I adore standing close behind him, guiding his hand to show him how slowly to stir the cheese sauce. We steal several kisses as we cook together, which makes everything take longer. Not that I mind. It’s fun. Kai is fun. I’m more relaxed around him than anyone else. He brings out the best in me.
We sit on the floor, and Kai reads the board game boxes while I eat. Occasionally, he leans forward so I can feed him a forkful of food. For someone who doesn’t need to eat, he seems to enjoy doing so. I assume it’s to experience the flavours and textures.
“This one looks fun.” He pushes Frustration towards me.
“I’ve played it before. It can be frustrating.”
He laughs. “I’d guessed from the name.”
“Are you sure you want to play this one?”
He nods eagerly.
“All right. ”
He opens the box. The playing pegs are already in situ, four for each colour.
“I want to be red.” He grins.
“I’ll be blue. You have to press the dome in the centre to roll the die. When you roll a six, you can move one peg to the Start position. Then you roll again to move it. You can’t land directly on your own peg, but you can hop over them. If you land directly on one of my pegs, you send it back home. The aim is to go clockwise around the board, getting all your pegs along the finish line before I do.”
Kai blinks. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“It’s simple, I promise. You’ll get it as soon as we start playing. Why don’t you go first?”
“Okay.” He presses the dome and rolls a one. “That means I can’t go, right?”
“Correct.” I roll a three.
We go back and forth, rolling every number on the die except six for several turns.
“I can see why it’s called Frustration,” Kai mutters.
“I warned you.”
“You did. Oh! I rolled a six. So now I put my peg here?” He places his first peg on the Start position.
“Yes. And roll again.”
He rolls another six. “Can I get another peg out?”
“No, because there’s only one Start position. But you get to move six and then roll again.”
“Okay.” He does so, rolling four next.
I take my turn and roll a three .
Kai gets his first peg two-thirds of the way around the board before rolling another six. I’m still stuck.
“Mum used to hate this game.”
“Why?”
“Because she always lost. One day, it got tidied away and was never seen again.”
“Did you win often?”
“Sometimes. Dad won most. There’s no skill. It’s purely a game of chance. I think that’s what Mum didn’t like. At least with Monopoly , there’s strategy. Scrabble is about how good your vocabulary is, and you have to be good at putting clues together and ruling options out to play Cluedo. But this? It all comes down to a roll of the dice.”
“Did you play board games a lot?”
I shrug. “It was a rainy day activity. I haven’t played them in years. I kept them because they reminded me of my parents.”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
I lean over, cup his cheek, and kiss him. “You’ve nothing to be sorry for. I’m having fun. If I avoided everything that reminds me of my parents, I’d never do anything.”
“You rolled a six.”
So I did. Finally.
The game takes less than ten minutes. Despite my annoyingly slow start, I win.
“Huh. Best out of three?” Kai grins.
“Or we could try a different game. Although not Monopoly. ”
“Why?”
“It can take hours, and I have to be up early for work. I’d much rather get an early night with my guardian angel. We could cuddle up and fall asleep together.”
“Sounds amazing.”
“Much more fun than Monopoly.”
“Much.”
I look at the board games. Which would be the most fun for Kai? Not Scrabble, although I could be wrong. Trivial Pursuit? How good will his general knowledge be? How much attention does he pay to things happening in the world? Would he know what people called an upturned collar in the nineteen-eighties, what is the Beach Boys’ most famous song, who the quarterback was for the Washington Redskins when they won their first-ever NFL championship, what similar app predated TikTok, which pilot successfully crash-landed in the Hudson river, or which book inspired a two-thousand and four film starring Hilary Swank? My guess is probably not.
“Let’s try Cluedo. It’s better with more players, but we can do it with two.”
“We could take it next door and see if Janice wants to play. She enjoys your company.”
“Do you?”
“Enjoy your company? Of course.”
I laugh. “I mean Janice’s?”
“As long as she doesn’t try to force-feed me cream, yes. ”
“You don’t like cream?”
He replies with an indignant look. “I don’t like lapping things out of a bowl.”
“She thought you were a cat. I thought you were a cat. You have no one to blame but yourself.” I glance at the litter tray, which is still in situ, even though I haven’t had to clean it since Kai revealed himself to me. Never mind. I don’t want to ask the question on the tip of my tongue. I don’t need to know.
“You should get rid of it,” Kai whispers.
Yes. Yes, I should.
I pick up Cluedo. “Okay, let’s see if Janice wants to play. She will expect you to drink tea and eat biscuits.”
“I can manage that.”
We take the board game, leave the apartment, and knock on Janice’s door. She opens it a few minutes later.
“Leo! And Leo’s sweet young man.”
“Uh, Janice, this is Kai, my?—”
“Boyfriend!” She claps her hands at chest height. “We’ve met.”
“We were wondering if you wanted to play Cluedo with us.”
“I’d love to, but I’ve never played it.” She ushers us into the apartment, closing the door behind us.
“That’s okay. Neither have I. Leo can teach us both,” Kai says.
“How is Cayenne? You could bring him around as well. I have some cream in, especially for him.”
My voice dies in my throat .
“He’s sleeping,” Kai says.
I still haven’t got used to the fact that angels can lie. Even so, I’m grateful for the save. I stare at the chintz carpet, which is more brown than beige. The pattern clashes with the cream and green chintz of the chairs and sofa, so much so that the flowers swirl and undulate if I stare at them too long. At some point, I’ll have to explain that Cayenne has gone. Even if Kai was prepared to continue masquerading as a cat, he’s been with me for seventeen years. In cat terms, that’s a long time. If Cayenne were a real cat, he’d be ancient.
“You’re not going to stand there all day, are you? Sit. I’ll put the kettle on,” Janice says.
“Are you okay?” Kai whispers as we sit on the sofa together.
I smile and nod. “Just thinking about Cayenne.”
Kai frowns.
“We can talk about it another time.”
He puts his hand on my knee and squeezes gently.
“Thanks.”
Janice makes tea while I teach Kai how to set the Cluedo board up. He chooses to be Miss Scarlett. He likes red. I go for Professor Plum. When she joins us, with tea and a plate laden down with biscuits, Janice picks Mrs White.
“We haven’t had a chance to have a proper chat, Kai. The last two times we met, you were in such a hurry. I want to know all about you,” Janice says as she takes her turn.
“What do you want to know?” Kai asks .
“Where you’re from. What you do for a living. Do your family live close? How you two love birds met.” She stares at us with gooey eyes.
“Uh—”
“That’s a lot of questions,” Leo says.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just so pleased that you have a special someone in your life. And Kai seems like such a dear.”
Kai beams, making my tummy flutter.
“My family don’t live close,” he says. “They’re a really, really long way away.”
Is that his way of saying he doesn’t have a family? Knowing he’s not alone is not the same thing at all.
Janice frows. “Oh, that’s a shame.”
“Nah, it’s okay. We’re not close.”
Janice’s expression falls.
“Don’t be sad. I’m happy,” Kai says.
“Do you work with animals too?”
“I’m a bodyguard.” He puffs his chest out and smiles proudly.
Janice raises her eyebrows and sweeps her discerning gaze over him. “A bodyguard? You don’t look—Well, I suppose looks can be deceiving, can’t they?”
Kai sniggers. “In my case? Absolutely.” He throws me a mischievous glance.
“Are you a black belt in karate or something?”
“Or something.” He pinches a biscuit off the plate and then takes his turn.
“And how did you meet?” Janice asks .
“I saved Leo’s life,” Kai says matter-of-factly.
Janice gasps. “Are you all right? What happened? Why haven’t I heard about this before?” She stares at him, then me, back and forth like she’s watching tennis.
Is he talking about pulling me out of my parents’ car or pushing me out of the way of the runaway trollies? Is he referring to something I’m not even aware of? How many times has he intervened to ensure I stay alive?
“Okay, maybe that’s a slightly dramatic statement. Some trollies almost ran him over. I pushed him out of the way.” Kai is concentrating on the Cluedo board, his brow furrowed slightly.
“That was very brave of you,” Janice says in an awestruck voice.
Kai shrugs. “I have fast reflexes.”
And inhuman regenerative powers.
“You weren’t hurt?” Janice asks me.
“No. Thanks to Kai.” My tone is sappy, but I don’t care. I smile at him.
He glances up, catches my gaze, and grins. He is so beautiful.
Janice presses her hand over her heart. “Thank goodness. You’re lucky Kai was there.”
“Yes. Very lucky,” I reply.
Kai blushes.
“Well, look at the time,” Janice says.
I blink and check my watch. It’s not late, and we’ve barely begun the game .
“I promised I’d ring Ethel. An old school friend. Can you believe we’ve kept in touch with each other for sixty years? I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to throw you boys out.”
“What about the game?” Kai asks.
“Other night?”
“Sure.” He packs it away.
“Leo, would you help me take things to the kitchen?”
“Of course.”
I gather up as much of the tea and biscuit things as I can manage and put them beside the sink.
Janice puts her hand on my arm. “Enjoy your time together.” She winks.
Heat floods my face.
“You make a handsome couple, and it’s clear how much you like each other. Enjoy every second of that feeling.”
I open and close my mouth a few times.
“It’s precious,” she says.
“You don’t need to call anyone, do you?”
She smiles, and her eyes twinkle. “Go home, Leo.”
Wow, this is mortifying and also sort of sweet.
Kai joins us, hugging the Cluedo box to his chest. “Ready?”
“Yes. We’ll see you soon,” I say to Janice.
She gestures to the door. “Have fun.”
I drag Kai out of her apartment and into mine before I spontaneously combust.
“Why are you blushing so hard?” Kai asks .
“She threw us out so we’d come home and?—”
He raises his eyebrows. “And?—?”
I point at the bedroom door. “ And .”
“Oh! I should thank her.”
“Don’t you dare.”
He laughs, puts the board game down, and hugs me, resting his chin on my shoulder. “As fun as it was to play games, I’m glad we get to cuddle now.”
I hold him in return. “Yeah, me too.”
“Leo…”
“Mmm?”
“I—that is to say—you’re?—”
I coax him to lift his head so I can cup his cheek and stare into his eyes. “You’re not often lost for words. What is it?”
His cheeks glow a soft shade of pink. “I think you’re great.”
I chuckle. “I think you’re great too.”
“Cuddle time?”
I kiss him softly, thread my fingers through his, and lead him to the bedroom. “Cuddle time.”