Page 19 of Twister

“Yeah. That’s why I think you’re good for him. He sparkles around you. I’ve missed it.” Yet another chair scraping sounded, as she must have shifted in her seat again. Typical Rose. She never could sit still. “Say you’ll stick around? Let him sparkle some more.”

Another long pause, and then he uttered a rough and emotional, “Rose….”

“Just say that you’ll think about it? Please?”

Resigned, Marshall sighed. I knew exactly how hard it was to say no to Rose, and I’d had years of practice. Poor Marshall had no hope. Even I would have struggled this time. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”

“Yay!” Rose squealed in excitement, and I think I heard her clap her hands a little too. “I think you’ll enjoy it here! In Rockdale, I mean. The town tends to collect the lost and the lonely.”

“Rose—”

“Oh, I know, I know. You’re not lonely. Not like Daddy.” She stopped talking when I heard plates being piled together. “But you are lost. Aren’t you, Sparkle Marshall?”

The silence that fell was almost deafening, broken only by Rose’s chair scraping the floor again and the general noise of her moving around the kitchen area. The sink tap went on, and I could hear the water hitting each plate as she rinsed them before placing them in the dishwasher.

When things quieted down, Rose asked, “Can you let Daddy Danny know I’m outside? I want to go play with Puppy Bucky now that the rain’s stopped.”

“Sure…,” Marshall said weakly.

“Thanks! Come on, Puppy Bucky!”

I heard Rose unlock and slide open the sliding door that led out to the rear decking, the scrape of Bucky’s nails on the floorboards as he scrambled to follow her, and then the slide and click of the door as she closed it behind them.

Standing there for a minute to get my bearings, I thought about last night and how the memory of Marshall moving under me had played on my mind this morning.

The way his head tilted back, his gasp as he came.

The way he’d relaxed afterward, his nails lightly scratching my back as we lay on the couch simply existing.

We’d eventually tidied up and gone our separate ways after a lengthy good-night kiss, but my dreams had been consumed of thoughts of him, driven by his scent that had lingered until my shower this morning.

And I thought about how I’d felt when I came home after picking Rose up to find he’d prepared lunch for us and then offered to fix a broken gutter.

Hell, Rose was right—in a way, at least. I had been lonely, and that dark yawning feeling of loneliness that had teetered on despair for so long had slowly disappeared over the course of the last couple of days. But when I searched for that same feeling now, I couldn’t find it.

Being around Marshall felt good . In such a short time, he’d made me happy—happier than I’d been in years. How was that possible? We barely knew each other.

Obviously, there was attraction between us.

The steamy frotting session we’d had last night proved that.

Yes, he was years younger than me, but there was a dynamic there that worked a million times better than the dynamic I’d originally had with Jackson.

I couldn’t deny being curious to where Marshall and I could take things… if only we had more time together.

But we’d only known each other a few days. I couldn’t know all of this after such a short amount of time, surely?

My mind wandered to my twin brother, Henry.

He’d recently become involved with a work colleague and, much to my alarm, had asked that work colleague to move in with him after something like two weeks.

He said he’d known, that even with the minimal time they’d spent together, he knew they were meant to be together.

Was this what that felt like?

It couldn’t be. Right?

Laughing at myself and how silly I was being, I shook my head and forced myself into motion, heading into the kitchen to see Marshall sitting at the island, looking completely dazed as he watched Rose outside. “You okay, Marshall?”

He jolted slightly before his eyes cleared when he saw me approaching him. “Yeah, just… thinking, I guess.”

Chuckling, I gathered the condiments that were still on the table and moved them closer to the sink so I could wash the stickiness off the bottles and put them away. “Rose did a number on you, huh?”

“Yeah, you could say that.” I eyed him when I heard him swallow loudly. “Oh, she’s outside with Bucky. She said to tell you that.”

As I wet a dishcloth and wrung it out, I grinned. “I know. I heard.”

He leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table and ran his fingers through his thick mop of hair. “How much of that did you hear?” He looked a little pale, maybe even a little ill.

“I heard enough,” I said, leaning over to wipe the counter down.

He lifted his elbows and leaned back so I could clean his spot, then immediately resumed his position when I was done.

“I’m glad that she asked you to stay longer, but don’t think you have to just because she asked you.

I know she can be a bit blunt and overwhelming at times.

” I left the cloth on the end of the counter and crossed my arms, grinning when I saw Marshall’s eyes bug a little as my arms flexed, so I did it again.

“I’ll admit I didn’t realize that she’d picked up on my loneliness, but that’s something I’ll talk to her about.

Don’t feel obligated to stay because she pointed it out to you.

I know you said you have places to be, and I’m fully aware what last night was and what it wasn’t. ”

Marshall nodded, but it almost looked like he was sad about what I was saying. That couldn’t be right. He scratched his fingers through his hair and huffed, as if he was frustrated. But with who? Me? Or himself?

Chewing my bottom lip nervously, I decided to hedge my bets.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

“That being said, know that you’re more than welcome to stay here for as long as you like.

Take the time to explore Rockdale, even after you get your Jeep back.

I promise you that we won’t mind you sticking around. ”

The tension in his shoulders eased as he sat back a little to study me. His eyes delved deep, probing the veracity of my words. He must have realized how truthful I was being because he decisively nodded. “Thanks, Daniel. I’ll think about it.”

A quiet, fluttering hope blossomed in my stomach at the knowledge that Marshall wasn’t immediately dismissing what both Rose and I had said.

That hope bloomed even further when he got up and asked for a cloth to help me clean.

One more thing that Jackson had never done in all the years that we’d been together, and Marshall had consistently done it every time we’d eaten together.

Marshall was going to have to be careful, or I was going to fall hard for him.