Page 27 of Trees Take the Long View

"Maybe. I dreamed three owls were coming here." I lay down beside him, stretching out, and trying to cover another yawn. "It was a pretty cool dream." Not the first time I'd had a slightly prescient dream, either, but I didn't really want to try explaining that right now, while I was feeling so sleepy and relaxed. It wasn't as though my dreams were always true—or necessarily about important things, when they were. I'd had no dreams warning me not to become a cop, for instance.

"Sounds like it." He lay down beside me cautiously, on his side, so we were facing each other that way, some space chastely between us. It would have been so each for one of us to reach out and touch the other, but we didn't. We looked at each other.

"Are you still okay, following me around for a bit longer?" he asked, his eyes serious, showing concern. "Because in all likelihood, I'll be moving on tomorrow, unless something major comes up here. We've set things in motion, and I'm already getting notified of other things I have to move on. So...how about it? Are you coming with me?"

"I wouldn't miss it," I told him, and reached out, very lightly, and brushed his cheek with my fingers. "Not for the world."

#

Clouds looked like mist out the airplane window. We hadn't been in the air long, and I was already restless. The curse of itchy paws? Nope, this was sexual frustration...

I needed to concentrate on something else.

"So tell me, how were you going to fix me and my situation? When you first came looking for me, I mean. I highly doubt letting me tag along forever was in the long-term planning."

"There was no long-term planning. I was going to talk to you, see if there was anything I could do to help, and if you'd ever consider working for the S&P again."

I smiled at the thought. Even Dean couldn't talk me into that.

He pointed a finger at me. "Don't look so smug. You may just yet. I put in for you to be reimbursed as a consultant, both for investigative help about the judge, and for tracking down the missing child before that."

I snorted. "It was just to help you. I didn't ask for anything in return."

"Yes, but you quit your job because of me, and I think we both know you're not thinking particularly clearly right now." He gave me a stern look.

"What do you mean? I'm thinking very clearly."

"No, you're thinkingmate, mate, mate, and not 'what is the fiscally responsible thing to do here?'"

The person in front of us turned to give us both a scandalized look. We were on a plane, and I'd thought we'd been talking pretty quietly. I gave the traveler in arms a stern look back, and he turned around hastily. It wasn't that rude to talk about mates in public. Now if I started talking in detail about what I'd like to do right now, that might be different.

And boy, did I. Sometimes it was easy to be around Dean, and sometimes it was so very hard to wait. Patience was something I could do, but that didn't mean there wasn't some sexual frustration involved. Especially when he was sitting close, smelling excellent and enticing...on a crowded airplane where there was no possibility we could do anything at all about it, even if he'd suddenly decided he was ready.

I snorted. "I'm pretty sure I've never thought 'fiscally responsible' in my entire life. Finances are usually not my top priority. Why do you think I was doing seasonal work and living in a tent?"

This seemed to give him pause. "I assumed it was because you were so stressed out from your recent experiences."

"Well, yeah, that's true, but I mean, I've never wanted a two-car garage and a mortgage. I like the freedom to roam, move around, you know? I'm kind of a wanderer. Think of how much we've got in common." I nudged his arm with mine.

"All the more reason to take your earnings where you can, then. It's nice that you can be carefree, but I don't want you to suffer from dropping everything to follow me."

"I'm not suffering, except perhaps from sexual frustration." I gave him a hopeful look, but he rolled his eyes.

"Sure you are, big guy."

Ahead of us, Mr. Offended huffed.

"I am, honestly. It's—"

"Be that as it may," he interrupted, before I could get into the details of my suffering. "I don't want you having financial issues because of me." He tried to look stern, and failed.

"So you're going to fiscal me up, is that it?"

"That's not how—"

"You're going to take financial control and make sure I get a good fiscalling, huh?"

This time he did laugh. "Stop trying to make 'fiscal' sound dirty. It won't work."