“What a lovely picture you paint, Dolly,” Cypress replies, making me grin as we get effectively shoved outside. “Are yousure you don’t need our help with anything?”
“Not until you help yourselves,” she mutters, then slams the door.
Cypress and I stand there for a moment, staring at the house and then at each other before we both start laughing.
“Now look what you’ve done,” he says after a while when we’ve both calmed down.
“Me? You’re the one who got us thrown out.”
He shrugs. “Bound to happen.” His blue eyes shine with amusement. “So, how about it?”
“Aboutwhat?” I ask, even as I feel the heat start to pool low in my stomach, even as I think about how much I’d like to reach for him again, to hold him.
I’ve never held someone like that. Every experience I’ve had before has always felt…impersonal. A mutual satisfaction of a need. But this morning, while I have no doubt it would have been mutually satisfying…nothing about it felt impersonal. Nothing about the way I feel about him does.
“How about a ride?” he suggests, clarifying his statement. “How about we take Cerberus and No Name—”
“Helios,” I say.
“Helios,” he repeats, grinning. “How about we take them for a ride?”
“If you want,” I say, afraid to admit how much I like the idea before falling into step beside him. “Wheredidyou come up with the name Helios, by the way?” I ask him as we head for the barn, thinking to take at least one thing off our list for later. “And Cerberus?”
He glances at me. “Are you familiar with Greek myths?”
“Not especially,” I admit.
“Cerberus is Hades’s dog. A guardian,” he tells me. “Hades is—”
“God of the underworld,” I finish for him, knowing that muchat least. “Really do like thatdistinctive brand, don’t you?” His grin widens. “And Helios?”
“God of the sun.”
My steps slow as I smile, shaking my head at him. “They’re opposites.”
“In a way.” Cypress slows too, keeping pace with me while moving a bit closer so our shoulders are almost brushing. “You know, I’ve been told they attract.”
“You know, I’ve been told that, too. If they don’t kill each other first.”
Cypress laughs, giving me another wry smile, and I can’t remember why it ever bothered me that he does it so much.
“Another thing about Helios?” he asks, likely confident he already has my full attention, but I still nod for him to continue. “He was also all-seeing.”
“All-seeing?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“As in…?”
“As in he liked to watch…” Cypress pauses just long enough to make my stomach tighten before adding, “Overeverything.”
“Right,” I say, but there’s that fucking grin again. “Cy,” I warn, immediately going after him when he takes off for the barn. “Cypress.”
Even after I catch him, we don’t stop running. Not for days.
I think this must be what people who believe in God feel like. Only, I have no need for blind faith when the subject of mine exists right in front of me.
All those years waiting…I’d do it all again.