Chapter 23 #2
He put one foot on the first step, then stopped to frown at me. “I’m not going to fall through the floor or anything like that, am I?”
Linc was having the time of his life downstairs, going by all the chortling. Sharing your mate three ways came with a side of lots of schadenfreude, apparently.
I kept a straight face. “Everything’s solid. The attic was in great shape, and as a general rule, I typically like my floors solid.”
“Hmm. It’s just that you were all suspicious two minutes ago.” Off he went climbing the stairs.
“Suspicious, huh?”
I could see his stitches as I climbed up behind him, but they hadn’t robbed him of his sense of adventure. Which, to be frank, I didn’t really know much about. If all true crime nuts were alike, he could do bursts of adventure while not leaving the house for days on end like Linc.
Marcus, as it turned out, had more room in the attic than any one of us.
He was about half a head shorter than me and about a head shorter than Ell, but in this space, that meant a lot.
He went right to exploring—not that there was much to explore.
Yes, the place was cool like any secret nook was cool, but it was kind of awkward.
I’d put a beanbag chair and a small table I’d made from leftover wood close to the window, and Marcus went right toward that.
He spotted the birdfeeder right away. I caught a cardinal taking wing, but some of the other birds wouldn’t mind a new observer. The blackbirds in particular had decided they owned the place.
“Oh, wow. You’re a birdwatcher. Like a cat, but you’re a werewolf.”
Uh-huh. This was what I got. My own damn fault. At least Linc and Ell couldn’t hear us up here.
“I’m sure you don’t mean it like that. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to suggest that I’m like one of those house cats watching the birds outside all day and wishing they could hunt them. Also, Marcus, come on. Me, a cat?”
Marcus turned around. He looked about ready to tease me about the cat thing—not that I thought he had it in him to be really mean—but when he saw me, he sort of softened.
Reminded me a lot of watching butter melt on the griddle.
It was in how the lines around his eyes smoothed out, and his lips quirked up just a fraction.
“I mean, this isn’t what I expected. It’s unique.”
I nodded. A ray of sunlight flashed in through the window, illuminating him and giving me possibly the worst of ideas.
“Do you mean you like the attic?”
He looked around. “It’s pretty bare.” He shrugged but turned once to take in the finished if unpainted walls. “Looks like you’re only half done with it.”
“Marcus, if you want to…I mean, only if you wanted to. This could be yours. I could get it all done, but make it exactly like you’d want it to be.”
He pursed his lips. “What, you want to put me in the attic? No, thank you.”
I shook my head. “No, for real. If you… I don’t want to pressure you, and it’s really just an idea—there are many options.
But if you end up deciding that you like it here, if you end up deciding that you maybe want to live here, this could be your room.
Your bedroom, at any rate. We don’t make it a hard and fast rule about who sleeps where—honestly, our socks stick more to the relevant closets than we do to each of our beds—but if you want a space you can make yours, this can be it. ”
I pointed at the point where the roof met the floor.
“I can custom build furniture for the angles. Drawers and stuff like that. I’d custom make you a bed too.
” My eyes went wide. “Oh! I could do a floating writing desk by the window.” I pointed at the small skylight in the slanting part of the roof.
“Your bed under there so you can at least see a small slice of the night sky. You’d be able to watch the moon. Or howl at it if you feel that.”
I could envision it. It wouldn’t even be all that much work, and it’d be fun, getting Marcus to choose how he wanted everything to look, whether he wanted things painted or wallpapered over or left as they were.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking uncomfortable. Shit. I could’ve kicked myself.
I held both hands up. “Marcus, I didn’t mean to push you.”
He cleared his throat. “No, it’s okay. I wanted to come up here. It would be—no, sorry. I’ll just go get dressed. I need a cup of tea, like, an hour ago.”
I moved out of his way, ducking my head so it wouldn’t collide with the roof.
“Yeah. Sorry. I just—you can come up here any time though. If you want to watch the birds, you know?”
He was halfway down the stairs, watching his step. “Yeah. Yes. I’ll do that. But we wanted to go hike today, didn’t we? Fuck, did I really just say that? I didn’t mean it. Just a walk, okay?”
I went down after him. “It’s the best way to break in new hiking boots.”
Back outside the alcove, Marcus looked from his bag to me. “Uh…”
I brushed past him, running a hand over his back. “You get changed, Little Red. I’ll wait for you downstairs. Take your time and…make yourself at home.”
He blushed. Fuck, but our mate had the prettiest eyes. “I’ll just… Well, I’m just putting on clothes, you know? Boring stuff.”
He made me feel fuzzy and warm inside, all flustered like that. “Can I give you a kiss?”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
I leaned in and kissed the corner of his mouth. Just a peck. Just a taste. Hopefully the kind he’d soon want more of.
“See you downstairs, Little Red. Better make it before your tea gets cold.”
I winked at him before closing the door behind me. I stood there for a moment, my head dropping. I heaved a sigh before squaring my shoulders again. He hadn’t hated the idea, I was pretty sure about that. It was in his head now, and all I could do was hope it’d take root there.
I went back into Linc’s bedroom to steal some of his clothes. He wanted me dressed for breakfast, after all. I was pretty sure Marcus would’ve been fine with having something to steal glances at over his tea.