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“Understood.” Sort of…
“If somebody has you smiling, El, then think about the last time it happened. When was that?”
She didn’t have to guess, and it would be a lie to say that any of her time with Jay had produced any of the same feelings. “It’s Bishop, Mom.”
“Bishop?”
“Yes.”
“Not that there are a lot of Bishops walking around, but are we talking about Bishop O’Kane?”
“The one and the same.”
Mom pulled Ella around face to face and put both hands on her shoulders, manicured fingernails pressing into her skin. “Then I think some second chances are meant to be.”
***
Brick lay on the floor, running in his sleep, probably chasing a squirrel. It’d been a good day at GUNS. With Locke’s words in his head, Bishop sat in bed, propped against the backboard with his cell pressed against his ear, because fuck it, texting wasn’t doing the job anymore.
“Hello?” Ella answered groggily.
He should have said good night. Her mumble had been sleepy and soft. “Hey. Just checking on you. Go back to bed.”
“I don’t want to.” Her voice rose, waking. “Don’t hang up.”
His stomach jumped, and fucking hell, he dropped his head back, because when she said that, he was stoked. “Beach treated you well today?”
“Not too bad. I went snorkeling and went to a wildlife preserve.”
“Fun.”
“There’s this place back at home. It’s honestly my favorite place in the world, at Seneca Park. There’s this little hut.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, I guess that’s it. It’s just a hut. But it reminded me of here somehow.”
“Nice.”
“Maybe I could show it to you.”
“Sure.”
“Nah, that’s silly, actually. You’d be bored out of your ever-loving mind.”
To this point, none of their excursions had been boring. Even the boring-sounding ones, which were all of them. If it was her favorite place in the world? “Likely won’t be boring. Add it to our to-do list.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “I will.”
“You need to go back to sleep?”
“I… I talked to my mom about you.”
“Oh?” He faltered at the unexpected conversation twist. “Talked, how?”
“Mother’s intuition or something. I don’t know. She wondered if maybe I was… seeing someone?Orinterested in someone.”
Ella was work. They hooked up. They had a past. Herparentswere the reason Titan had the Eco-Ella job. One phone call from her dad, and his ass was out of a job. But fuck it; he didn’t care. What was her answer? He shifted in his bed, repositioning a pillow behind him. “What did you say?”