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“Taavi?”

“Si?”

I had to ask. To know that he really did want to be with me. “Do you actually want to go back to school? To live with me?”

He pulled back again, and this time there was a frown on his features. “I wouldn’t be going back to school if I didn’t want to, Val. And I wouldn’t be living with you if I didn’t want to.”

I tried to take Elliot’s advice to heart and didn’t say the shit that popped into my head. The shit about how I’d coerced him into this. About how he deserved better. “Okay,” was what I did say.

“Do youwantme to keep living with you?”

“Fuck. Yes. God. Of course.”

He studied my face. “Then why did you ask?”

I couldn’t come up with a reason that wasn’t being a clingy, selfish, needy ass. “Because I never want you to regret it. Me. I never want you to regret me.” Fuck.

The flicker of a smile that flashed across his lips was bitter, but it was there. “Some days, Val, you’re the only thing Idon’tregret,” he said softly, and I held him tightly and tried to believe that was true.

11

Elliot hadn’t come back,and it had been four hours.

Four hours was more than enough time for me to have gotten worried, and me getting worried meant that I also got irritable. I was trying really fucking hard not to snap at Taavi, and I thought I was doing okay at it, although I was taking a lot of deep breaths.

I’m pretty sure he knew exactly what was going on, because Taavialwaysknows when I’m out of sorts or upset or freaking out or whatever. Even when nobody else does.

The sun was down and twilight had come and gone—I’d turned on the exterior garden lights, hoping to see Elliot’s furry form somewhere in the garden, but I hadn’t. At the very least, they’d light his way home.

I was staring out the glass doors when a hand settled on my lower back, and I gratefully half-turned to pull Taavi into my arms.

“He’ll be back when he’s ready,” my much more logical and in-control-of-himself boyfriend reminded me gently for probably the tenth time.

“I know.”

“And nobody in their right mind is going to fight with a badger with four-inch claws.”

“I know.”

“And he knows the area, so he’s not lost.”

“I know.”

He reached up and pulled me down to press a kiss against my cheek. “Do you want me to go looking for him?”

“I do. But I probably shouldn’t.” I sighed. “I should trust him to be an adult.”

“What time is too much time?” he asked.

“What?”

“At what time will you get worried enough to actually ask me to track him?” he clarified.

“Seven?”

“Okay.” He stood on his toes to kiss my cheek again. “Come help me in the kitchen.”

I knew he was trying to distract me, but it was a good idea, so I let him. “What am I helping with?” I asked.