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“Uh…”

“Goodnight.”With that, Raphael bolted from the room.

“Uh…” I tried to unscramble my brain.“Didn’t they, uh, say they wanted to wait up?”

“Likely they’ll do it in their room.”Jeremy scratched his beard, his bloodshot eyes settling on me.“They like to drop bombs and then run away.”

“For a five-year-old, they’re very competent.I was barely able to tie my shoes.”

“Mine were Velcro until I took up baseball and discovered that Velcro cleats weren’t a thing.They should’ve been.”

I blinked.

Wally rubbed against Jeremy.

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry.Those amazing pants are going to smell like wet dog.”

He waved me off.“They’re going to the cleaners anyway.Everything from today is getting laundered.That was longer than most of the all-nighters I pulled in college.”

“You look exhausted.”

“I am.So you finish drying off, and I’ll get your stuff into the SUV.Then when Marcie comes home, we can just go.”

“Are you hungry?I made grilled cheese.There’s an extra one.I made it for Marcie.So she’d have something to eat when she got home.”

“She ate at the hospital, but I haven’t.You’re sure it’s okay…?”He gestured toward the thankfully clean kitchen.

“Please do.”

“Yeah.”For a moment, he just held himself still.Then he caressed my cheek.“You’re a good man, Phillip.This family owes you big time.”With that, he went to the kitchen.

Wally, darling damp dog, plopped on my lap.

I held my hand against my cheek.

Is Raphael right?Does Jeremy love me?Do I love him?

The notion was insane.

And yet had the whiff of truth from a meddling five-year-old…

Chapter22

Jeremy

Okay,so that was totally unexpected.

As I sat at my sister’s kitchen table and ate the reheated grilled cheese sandwich, I tried to assimilate the last eighteen hours.

Hell, I tried to piece together every moment since I’d tripped over Wally’s leash a week ago.

A week?It’s only been a freaking week?How is that possible?

Honestly, I felt like I’d known Phillip forever.Not in the biblical sense, obviously, although—hello—very interested.

No, just in the deep emotional connection sense.He’d opened up to me about some pretty tough stuff.I’d been even more of an open book with him than I was with most people.Hell, I’d opened my home to him...

A home we were returning to as soon as I finished the sandwich and Marcie returned.I’d apologized to her profusely over and over again for somehow missing her text.When I pointed out she should’ve called, she countered back with, upon arriving at the hospital and realizing things weren’t nearly as dire as she’d been led to believe, she’d remembered my midnight run to drop Phillip off and she worried about me.