Chapter 16 #2
Madison put Pierre in his cage and covered it, moving him out of the kitchen so he could sleep.
When she returned, the only barstool left was next to Kyle since all of the Plus Ones were settled in pairs.
She stiffened for a moment before seating herself and edging her stool a little further off, pretending it wasn’t properly shimmed.
Of course it was, but Kyle helped her, giving her more space.
Everyone pretended not to watch, but Phoebe squeezed his thigh under the table, her lips pressed firmly together. Yeah, because it was painful to see them like this. All their former ease with each other was gone.
“Okay,” Brooke called out too loudly as she gathered up a bunch of straws, which she’d cut different lengths. “Shortest straw wins first round of questions.”
Kyle earned the short straw, and he loosened up his shoulders as if trying to get into the spirit of the game.
Because dude was tense as Madison sat stiffly next to him with a foot between their barstools.
“All right. Here we go. I’m taking a page out of old Thea’s book tonight and asking a positive question. ”
Thea clapped. “I love that. Can I answer first?”
“You bet.” Kyle’s smile was coming back into play. “What is your happiest memory so far?”
“Oh! I know. I know.” She was jumping up and down on her barstool so much Jean Luc put his arm around her.
“The day when I decided to stay in Paris and start my bakery only to have Jean Luc propose moments later, and then I found out you guys wanted to back my bakery. Happiest moment ever! Who’s next? ”
“I’ll go,” Jean Luc announced. “It was the day my beautiful Thea agreed to marry me.”
“You two crazy kids are so sweet!” Dean was already lifting his lady’s hand to his mouth for a kiss. “The moment I met my Lady Jacs, of course.”
He listened to Brooke and Axel share their happiest memories, meeting each other—the love theme continued—while he rolled the question over in his mind.
Except it wasn’t hard to answer this one.
The memory that instantly rose up was of him and Phoebe laughing until they had tears running down their faces, lying on the floor, after they’d read aloud from Taming of the Shrew. He could still hear their banter.
Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.
Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
He’d made a face and held up his hands before continuing with his lines, trying to match her theater-rich British accent and failing.
Petruchio: My remedy is then, to pluck it out.
Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.
Her insulting tone had him biting his lip to keep from laughing.
Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
Katherine: In his tongue.
The throaty way she’d said tongue had made desire pool in the regions Shakespeare would have called nether. Why did no one use the term nether regions anymore?
Petruchio: Whose tongue?
Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.
Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.
Then she’d rolled on top of him, tossed aside the book he had in his hands, and told him she didn’t want him to be a gentleman. That she very much wanted to come again.
And she had.
So had he.
“Earth to Doc,” he heard Kyle call. “Do you have your memory?”
When he came back to the present, he noted everyone in the room was looking at him. Even Phoebe was leaning toward him expectantly. He was suddenly shy. That memory was so personal. So special. So theirs.
Another certainty seemed to rise in his heart.
He wondered if it was his version of Arthur pulling the sword from the stone.
All he knew was that Phoebe and his roommates were waiting for a response, and he wanted to share the truth of his happiness with them.
Even if it meant sharing contents of his heart in a way he’d never imagined.
He took a breath and reached for that invisible sword. “Last night with Phoebe, reciting Shakespeare on the floor with a bottle of wine and laughing so hard we were wheezing.”
God, the satisfaction that infused him as he watched her smile turn into what the Bard might call tremulous…
The light in her eyes, from her very soul, brightened until he was sure she could light his whole universe and beyond. She lifted a trembling hand and stroked his jaw, showing him why love poems were written.
Because when you felt like this, had moments like this, you had to write them down. You never wanted to forget what they looked like. Felt like. How they had shaped your whole world.
“Ah, my dearest Horatio,” she whispered, “you have at last rendered me completely in your grasp.”
To which his reply came easily from his heart, “Then I am glad, for I was already in yours.”
Her mouth was suddenly sweetly kissing him, and he tangled his hands in her hair. The touch of their lips was brief because he was aware of his friends around him, but it radiated joy through him.
“Ah, they are so in love!”
Dean’s voice.
Sawyer gave Phoebe another smile, one that could compete with one of Thea’s, before turning to his friend. “Yeah, we are.”
He reached for her hand under the counter.
“Not to break up that beautiful moment.” Dean pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. “But the only person yet to answer is Madison. Happiest moment?”
She picked up her drink and took a hefty swallow. “The day I got the duck with cherries recipe.”
Sawyer watched shock ripple across Kyle’s face. “That’s mine too,” he rasped, completely out of sync with the game because the questioner did not have to answer his own question.
Madison took another healthy drink as they stared at each other, unblinking.
“You didn’t need to drink, Madison, and you did twice,” Thea pointed out sweetly. “Did you forget?”
No, Sawyer knew without asking that she’d needed liquid courage to share the memory, and God knew what kind of agony she’d experienced knowing she and Kyle had the same answer.
Brooke had mentioned walking in on Madison hugging Kyle after she’d gotten that recipe. And Madison wasn’t a hugger.
“It’s easy to forget the rules,” Sawyer said to save her from a reply. “I find all this talk thirsty work.”
He took a sip of his drink for good measure and met Madison’s gaze. There was gratitude in it. His gaze slid to Kyle, who reached for his cognac and took a deep sip like a man dying of thirst.
Yeah, two people could not go on like this while living together.
He’d been the only third person who was consistently at home.
Had his recent absence been making things more difficult?
God, he almost wondered if he should ask them if he needed to bring Phoebe back here.
Only he wasn’t convinced they needed a buffer.
Maybe what they really needed was the space to get everything out in the open without anyone else around.
Yeah, so he’d stick with going to Phoebe’s for the time being.
“We need another question.” Brooke’s take-charge voice broke the tension. “Shall we draw straws again?”
They all agreed, and soon Dean was asking a silly question about how everyone would spend a playdate with Pierre.
Brooke said she’d take him to get a manicure, and Jean Luc had them all guffawing when he said he’d bring him to the French courts in an old French wig.
Then Phoebe answered that she’d take him to a tragic French film because she’d heard parrots’ cries are heartbreaking.
Drink and Divulge remained light, perhaps because no one could handle another Kyle and Madison moment, or because they’d realized Sawyer had shared as much of his heart as he could handle tonight. Whoever said happiness wasn’t intense?
After the game wound down, he and Phoebe hung out with the others a little more. He smiled as he overheard her chitchat with Thea about her new bakery, which Phoebe was genuinely excited about, noting which bread tickets she’d purchased so far.
“All right, I really like her, Sawyer,” he heard Brooke say quietly.
He looked over his shoulder. She was shrugging into her coat with Axel’s help. Axel rolled his eyes as he put his hands on her shoulders, smoothing out her coat. “I knew you’d come to it, elskede.”
“I like to take my time on important things.” She kissed Sawyer’s cheek.
“She’s handling the business side with the utmost professionalism while making you as deliriously happy as someone in love can be.
I saw how you looked at each other as you were sharing your happy moment. Nanine will want to meet her next.”
He pushed his gold spectacles up. They both understood how much that meant.
It was his version of bringing his girl home to meet the parents.
Only his parents sucked, and he still hadn’t returned his mother’s texts or calls.
And for the first time in his life, he wasn’t feeling guilty about it.
Progress. “I know, and I want that. She’s become as important to me as all of you. ”
“That’s when you know it’s real and true,” Axel said with a nod. “I can see why you suit, and I’m delighted for you both.”
“Thank you.” He decided to go with all the emotion of the night and man-hugged Axel, who only stiffened for a moment before slapping him on the back.
God, dude had big hands.
“I see we are brothers of sorts now,” Axel observed with a smile. “I find it good.”
Sawyer shot Brooke a wink. “Me too, bro.”
“And now you go too far.” Axel took Brooke’s hand as she chuckled. “We will see you soon, I expect. Good night, everyone.”
Brooke blew kisses, and the rest of his roommates and their Plus Ones started grabbing their coats and saying their goodbyes. He followed suit, helping Phoebe into her coat, but his eyes were on Kyle and Madison.
She was wiping down the kitchen island, which Thea had already done. She was so eager to evade Kyle’s lingering gaze that she acted like a beachcomber for shells, only in her case it was breadcrumbs.
“It was wonderful seeing you again, Madison,” Phoebe called out. “If you and Thea need a bread taster for your cardamom brioche, let me know. I’ll even hunt down the finest smoked cardamom available as my contribution.”
That had Madison lifting her chin in her usual tough but accommodating nod. “We might take you up on that. Take care of Doc. It’s cold out, and the streets of Paris are dark.”
Pheobe gestured to her purse. “I’m armed with pepper spray, a hat pin, and a bad attitude when needed.”
“You’re in good hands, Doc,” Kyle only said, tucking his hands in his pockets. “Night, you two. Phoebe, thanks for coming.”
“Thanks for having me.” She threaded her arm through Sawyer’s. “Shall we brace ourselves and step into the mysterious night, Horatio?”
He almost groaned. “I’m never going to hear the end of this one, am I?”
She laid her head against his arm, bringing a warmth he’d never thought possible into his heart. “You know you love it.”
“I do, my rose, I must confess,” he said softly, walking her to the doorway.
The silence behind them felt deep, though, and he turned and looked over his shoulder in concern.
Kyle and Madison were standing across from each other with the island between them, staring at each other.
He turned to leave, wishing he could do more than leave them alone to work it out.