Chapter Thirteen
Thirteen
M erle’s bed was huge, like king-size. He’d invited her to stay the night. Normally she wasn’t a clinger—she always needed her space. But tonight she’d said yes. So Liberty sat across from him at the foot of the bed wearing one of his T-shirts and shuffling the tarot deck she always kept in her bag.
“Tell me again why you have so many baseball shirts if you hate the sport,” she invited as she shuffled the cards. “It seems strange that you’re keeping them.”
She felt mellow, which wasn’t usual these days. It seemed like, for the first time in a very long time since Nan had gotten sick, the energy of the goddess was flowing through her and around her. She’d felt out of the flow for too long.
There were times when it seemed she hardly knew anything about Merle. Like all the shit she thought she knew before she’d come to D it endeared her in a way she didn’t expect.
He swallowed. “What if I don’t?”
“Then you don’t. The cards aren’t going to bring down doom on you if you don’t listen to them.”
“Did I sound ridiculous when I said that?”
“A little bit. It’s just something to think about. So maybe you could introduce your parents to someone you are dating. Maybe you don’t cut your hair when you go see them. Something to introduce the conversation without being too direct about it.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he said.
He didn’t sound convinced, but it would take time. Merle didn’t jump the way she did to make a snap decision. He was one for thinking every detail through before he made that choice. And whatever he did decide, it would be something he could live with.
Unlike her, running to find out more about the man she’d never wanted to know and then getting scared when the information was so close. Living with the outcome of that search wasn’t going to be easy. She’d put things in motion on an impulse and now she wasn’t sure how to deal with the results.
She put her hand on Merle’s cheek and languidly kissed him, inviting him to end this trip to the spiritual realm, because sex made her stop thinking. His arms wrapped around her as he rolled her underneath his large frame, deepening the kiss.
Seemed he might need the distraction too.