The air in the room shifted, the temperature dropping. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself, ready to put mycoat back on, crawl underneath her covers, and hide for the rest of the day.
My eyes met hers, a lump forming in my throat. “I think…I think he doesn’t want to fall in love with me.”
“What!” she screeched, her eyes nearly popping out of her head.
I bit my bottom lip, and she waved her hands in a “Hello? What the hell?” gesture, waiting for more.
So I gave her all I could. Which was a short summary of what happened this morning, nothing more. I didn’t tell her about the sadness lingering in his eyes or the way he would subtly push me away when I got too close to his walls. I also didn’t tell her about how, when he wasn’t near me, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Hayes Mitchell, somehow, had become tethered to my lifeline. Now, my future and all plans were losing their shine, the illusion of perfection that I’d been panting for. Unless he was in it, my future wasn’t bright and shiny. It was dull.
“Have you tried talking to him?”
I nodded, my eyes stinging. “He wouldn’t even look at me after, Cardinal.”
“Do you?” she asked. “Do you love him?”
Yes.
I have loved him for some time.
Downstairs, Grayson called for us. I shook my head and inhaled a slow breath. “I can’t—I can’t talk about it right now,” I whispered. “I just really need to have a good day with my family, and talking about this won’t give me that.”
She understood. Of course she did.
Instantly, I was wrapped up in one of her warm hugs. “It will all work out, Margo.”
“What do you mean your favorite superhero isn’t Batman?”
I looked down at Sarah and Michael’s son, Derek. Even though he was a twin, he looked just like his father and his sister like their mother. He’d been sitting on my lap for the last half hour, discussing the very crucial topic of comic books with me.
I scrunched my nose at him, laughing. “Well, why should Batman be my favorite?”
The six-year-old tilted his head to the side and held up his hands, counting off by a finger. “One, Batman is a billionaire who uses his money for good. Mommy and Daddy say that if you have a lot of money, you should use some of it to help the people around you, and Batman does that. He helps Gotham. Two, he has a backup plan for each member of the justice league.”
“A backup plan?” I parroted, raising my brows. “What kind of backup plan?”
The little boy blinked at me, unable to handle the fact that I didn’t already know this information. “Well, Superman is a good guy,” he said.
Butterflies swarmed in my stomach as my eyes flicked across the living room to where Hayes stood by the fireplace. Ash was there, talking to him, but he wasn’t listening. His eyes were on me, his jaw tight, the beer in his hand still full. Dinner was about to be served. He and Grayson had set up a long table in the center of the living room. Carrie and I set and decorated it after we came downstairs. Shortly after that, Michael, Sarah, and the kids arrived with Rossy in tow.
Derek came to me immediately, and I’ve been trapped on the couch ever since. He was diagnosed with level two autism last year. He was very brilliant, spoke well, and was ahead in all of his classes. Though when he became over-stimulated, he was prone to having horrific meltdowns, which put a lot of stress on Sarah and Michael. Especially with the baby. Derek’s current hyper-fixation was superheroes, and he loved talking about them with me because, according to him, “I didn’t talk to him like a kid. I talked to him like a normal person.”
“Superman is a great guy,” I said, loud enough for Hayes to hear.
His nostrils flared, his eyes flashing with pain. He was trying to hold it together, a ticking time bomb ready to explode, leveling everything around him. His grip on control was about to be nonexistent, and it was killing him.
Derek didn’t pick up on the sadness in my voice and didn’t really care about any of the Red Snake men aside from Dominic, who’d apparently given him a Batman action figure for Christmas. He cleared his little throat, the tone of it reminding me of one of my professors. “Right, so Batman knows that Superman is strong, and when he turns into Dark Superman, Batman has to use the Kryptonite against him. Batman always keeps a supply of it in case he needs to beat Superman.”
My chest tightened. “So you’re saying that Batman knows every member of the Justice League’s weaknesses?”
Derek smiled. “Exactly. He’s the perfect superhero because he will do anything to protect the innocent, including taking down his friends.”
I turned my head to look at Hayes once more.
Did my Superman have a Kryptonite?
“Plus, Batman has cool cars.”
A wide smile spread across my face as I looked back at the boy. “You’re damn right about that. I love the Batmobile.”