Page 53

CHAPTER 53

T hat night, after working all afternoon on cleaning up the last room in Oddities, I went upstairs. I was still trying to sort out my life. Maybe tonight I wouldn’t dream about Serena.

Maybe tonight I’d do something about Marley.

Maybe I’d just get some sleep.

Marley followed me as far as the living room at the top of the stairs.

“You okay?” he said.

I nodded.

“What about Serena?”

I took a deep breath. “It’s fine. It’s like the other shoe dropped. My worst nightmare came true. She’s alive. So now I can stop dreading it. I’m fine. Pretty sure I’m fine.”

“Okay,” he said, hesitating. Then he gave up. “Goodnight,” he said and went back to Ozzie’s apartment.

I went in and sat down on my bed and thought. Somebody had tried to kill me yesterday. Okay, they thought they were aiming at my mom, but that was bad, too. And either way, I’d be dead. And then Marley had crawled under a truck to defuse a bomb, and he could have died. We both could have been dead. It was pure dumb luck we weren’t.

But we were alive now.

My mom always said, “Life is too short to wait for tomorrow,” which is pretty funny when you look at what she’d been doing since I was born. But if I’d died today, it would have been way too short. She meant that you couldn’t wait around for life to happen, even though that’s what she’d been doing to keep me safe for nineteen years. But I didn’t have a reason to wait for my life, especially if my life was going to be that short.

Here’s the thing. I broke up with Darius, who I’d truly thought was the love of my life, a month ago. And now when I hung out with Marley, it felt really good. Not just friends good. Good. And let’s face it, he’s hot. And Darius and Mei were gone. And we were still here.

And I did not want to be any more alone than I already was.

And my mother had said when I figured out what I wanted, I should go get it.

So I took a deep breath and crossed the hall into Ozzie’s apartment and startled Marley as he came out of the bathroom.

“What’s happened now?’ he said, looking braced for anything. And really, really good, all tousled dark hair and broad shoulders in an old white t-shirt and everything I wanted.

Why had it taken me so long to figure that out?

“I had a thought,” I said.

He closed his eyes. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry.” I just stood there, not sure what to say next. I mean, “I think I’m in love with you” probably wasn’t a great lead.

“Uh, anything else?” he said when the silence had stretched out too long.

“Yeah. What’s bothering you?”

He shook his head. “I’m good.”

“No,” I said, stalling. “It took you two weeks to move in here. So something’s wrong. Spill it, and then we’ll be back to normal. Also, don’t defuse any more bombs.”

“If I spill it, we won’t be back to normal.” When I didn’t say anything, he nodded. “Yeah. So I’m gonna go check on Pike and Coral.”

I grabbed him by the shirt. “Reggie’s over there, they’re fine. Tell me what you’re upset about.” And if you give me any kind of encouragement, I’ll tell you what I’m doing over here.

“I’m not upset,” he said, looking me in the eye. “I’m being . . . careful.”

I let go of him and folded my arms in front of me. “Tell me, and we’ll get it out of the way. You don’t have to be careful with me, what am I gonna do, yell at you?”

“I can take you yelling at me,” Marley said. “That happens all the time.” I must have glared because he said, “Okay, okay.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve been helping the old guys with the treasure hunt. They’re not as spry as they used to be.”

I frowned at him. “That’s what you were being careful about?”

“No. Shut up and let me finish.”

I shut up.

“We found a bunch of stuff. Dmitri let me have a piece of it, too, even though none of us can ever sell any of it because?—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that part,” I said. “So you think I’ll be upset because you took a piece of treasure?” He gave me a look, and I said, “Right, shutting up.”

“So.” He took a deep breath. “It was a ring, the kind of thing they used to press into wax to sign stuff, and it has a woman engraved on it who has wings, like an angel, and a big stick, not very well engraved, just kind of scratched in there like it was still moving, and it was so much like you, and I asked and Dmitri gave it to me.” He dug something out of his pocket and showed it to me.

It was an extremely beat up gold ring, very simple with a flat top, and if you squinted at it really hard, it had a woman scratched into the flat part, and she had wings and was holding something out to the side, like a big stick. It looked very, very old, and very, very beat up.

And I wanted it because Marley thought it looked like me.

“We could probably clean this up,” I told him. “I mean, we’d have to be careful, but it’s gold so it’s not going to dissolve in water or anything.” I held it out to him. “Kinda small for you.”

“It’s not for me,” he said, and I froze.

“For Mei?” I said, trying to sound upbeat.

He shook his head. “Mei and I were together for over a year, and I liked her a lot, but I never once thought about giving her a ring.” He met my eyes then. “I saw this one and I knew I had to give it to you. Angel with a big stick.”

“Me.” I swallowed. “So what does that mean?”

He sighed. “It means whatever you want it to mean.”

“What do you want it to mean?”

He hesitated again, and I realized why he’d been cautious about telling me. We were in deep water here.

“Well,” he said and stopped, and I waited and he finally gave in. “I would like it to mean that if anybody hit on you, I could kick their ass.” When I blinked at him, he added, “I would like the right to kick their ass.”

“That is the worst declaration of love I’ve ever heard,” I told him.

He winced. “Sorry.”

I looked at the ring. “I’m assuming that if I put this on, I will have the right to kick the ass of any girl who tries to flirt with you.”

He blinked at me. “Uh . . . yeah, I guess. Find a big stick and hit them with it.”

“Marley, do you love me?”

He swallowed hard, and then before he could say anything, I said, “Because it’s taken me a while to figure this out, but I think with Darius, it was easy and I loved him a lot, but with you it’s different; it’s serious, it’s important, and it’s really right, and I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you, and I almost died this week and life is too short to waste time, so if the rest of this relationship keeps going in the direction I think it’s going, if you even look at another girl, I’m going to kick your ass, so . . .”

I ran down because he was just staring at me, very still, there in the middle of Ozzie’s beat-up living room. “Say something, Marley,” I said finally, and he shook his head, and I thought, Oh, hell, he doesn’t want me.

And then he leaned close, and my breath kicked up because he was so close, and he whispered in my ear, “My name is Marco, Boppy, and I love you. It’s always been you.”

And I lost my breath. And when he pulled back, I followed close enough to whisper in his ear, “I am very glad to know you, Marco, and I love you, too. Always.”

And then I kissed him because I had to.

He didn’t grab me or anything, just kissed me back, and it was so good, just right, you know? It was so right, and then he put his hand on my cheek, and I never wanted that kiss to end, so when he finally put his other hand on my waist, I didn’t wait for him to pull me close, I just went, wanting to be against him, wanting to feel him against me as the kiss got rougher and . . .

He’s a really good kisser.

“Yeah, I love you,” he whispered. “It’s been hell being this close to you and not touching you and?—”

He stopped then because I was kissing him again, I had to, it just felt so good, and yeah, I know I’d only broken up with Darius a month ago, so I was a heartless slut, but this was different, this was safe and right, this was hard work and laughter and teacups and Ice Station Zebra , this was where I was supposed to be, with Marley. I really think we’d been such good friends for such a long time that the love was already baked in, I think we’d loved each other for a long time, I think we just had to bite into it.

Also I didn’t care, I just wanted to be with him.

“I don’t want to sleep alone tonight,” I whispered to him.

“Yeah, I don’t want that, either,” he said and kissed me again.

And then he reached over and locked the door.

* * *

Later that night, curled up warm and happy next to him, I said, “Hey, wait a minute, I never got that ring.” So we had to go find it because we’d kind of forgotten it in the kissing and the touching and the nakedness that ensued. But we found it, and we sat on that floofy white comforter on the bed, both of us stark naked, and he put that ring on my finger, which was ridiculous because we were too young to do that, and he said I could wear it on a chain around my neck if I wanted, and I said, “On my finger, Marco,” and he put it on and kissed me again and . . .

I didn’t care that it was too soon, I didn’t care at all. Life was short, or at least it could be.

And this was so right.

I mean, the ring fit.

And I slept like a baby all night in Marley’s arms.