Witches for Hire (Odd Jobs #1)(86)
Edarra obeyed because she was too exhausted to question him. “Mission complete.”
“Rest as long as you need to in the car, and I’ll put this somewhere safe until the Council picks it up,” Clive said.
“I’ll go bug Simone for Oreos because she can’t say shit about me asking for you.” Jeremy patted Edarra on the shoulder and went inside the office with Clive.
Out of her pocket, her immigration-status card fell onto the pavement. Across the surface, the letters glowed golden and seemed to rearrange themselves. Instead of four heroic acts remaining, as it had appeared before, it now read three. Edarra’s lips trembled with a small smile. Well, what do you know? I guess in this world, I’m not such a failure anymore.
Chapter 23
JEREMY HUDDLED under the quilt as he clutched his hot chocolate in his father’s cozy living room. On the TV screen, Rudolph had reunited with his family, and the snow monster was sent packing. It’ll be weird if Clive watches this and goes, “Hey we have one of those too.” He looked into his mug of misshapen marshmallows that were mostly melted. Could I sit and watch Christmas movies with Desmond? Are we capable of domestic nonsense like that? The sex was great, but he’d forgotten what they were like when they weren’t in bed.
“What are you thinking about?” his father asked.
“Nothing I’ll tell you anytime soon.” Jeremy leaned back on the sofa so he could sit on his legs. “What’s next on the menu? Gremlins?”
His father frowned. “We watched that last night.”
“We didn’t watch the sequel.”
Laughing while he stood, the senator held his hands up in surrender. “All right. Another Gremlins movie, and then I pick the next one.”
He’s so picking White Christmas. “I’m good with that.” The doorbell rang, and Jeremy jumped to his feet. Since he had won the next movie pick, the least he could do was answer the door. “I need another refill, so I’ll go.” Jeremy shook his head as he walked down the hall. Who would so rudely show up this late on Christmas night? He peeked through the curtain and sucked in his breath through his teeth. Speak of the sexy magician, and he appeared. Jeremy opened the door to Desmond dressed in a long gray coat. “I didn’t expect to see you.”
“I wasn’t sure if I was coming over until now.” Desmond held up a blue package covered in cartoon characters. “There weren’t a lot of wrapping paper options left yesterday.”
“What is it?” Jeremy asked as he stared at the oblong shape.
“It’s a chocolate log.” Desmond cleared his throat. “I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries by giving you an extravagant gift. A cake seemed like less pressure.”
Jeremy cocked his head to the side. “That’s a mouthful of subtext.” Him and my dad in the same house again. This will be interesting. He stepped away from the door so Desmond could enter. “A brief visit. I’m watching movies with my dad.”
“You did always like celebrating the holidays,” Desmond murmured.
In the old days they stayed in bed until Christmas passed. Jeremy closed the door behind Desmond and heard the stomp of his father’s feet.
“Who is it?” Senator Ragsdale asked. He stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of Desmond. “Is everything okay, Jeremy?”
“Yeah, we’re just gonna talk.”
Desmond held out the log cake to Jeremy’s father. “It’s something to eat for dessert tonight or tomorrow.”
His father blinked at the present, but he took it. “I’ll put this in the kitchen while you talk.”
When they were alone, Jeremy stuck his hands in his pockets. “Why are you here?”
“I’m tired of playing games. I love you. That hasn’t changed since we’ve parted, and I want what we used to have.”
Jeremy’s legs went numb, but he stayed on his feet. It was just a cake and a phrase Desmond used to tell him every day. There was no reason for his body to have hysterics and twitch from head to foot with the urge to throw himself in Desmond’s arms. Too damn silly! Jeremy shook his head to clear it. “We’ve been over this before. It’s too dangerous, and you have energy vamps on your ass. It’s not really the time to have this discussion.”
“We have sex, some giant threat pops up, and then we have to lie low. Maybe instead of going through crises alone, we’re better together.”
“Desmond, it never works out.”
“When have we given it a real chance since you left England?” Desmond raised his hand before Jeremy could interrupt him. “I’m not bringing that up to blame you, because I think the space between us was necessary. We both became better adults than the stupid kids we used to be, and you’re the one who saw that we needed to change. But I think we’ve waited long enough.” His dark gaze stared into Jeremy relentlessly. “The us right now is probably the best version there will ever be, and we have to make a decision if we’re going to continue this cycle for the rest of our lives.” Desmond pointed at the two of them. “Like today. I want to spend Christmas with the man I love, and I don’t want to be at this point in another year. Is that what you want?”
Jeremy’s vision blurred as Desmond spoke. Why can’t he call me an asshole or a coward? He could take it when they were angry at each other, but earnestness between them clawed its way into his heart no matter how hard he rejected it. “How would it work?”