Chapter 202: Her Husbands Were Terrible Influences

Dove put the route sheet beside her plate instead of agreeing while she was excited about leaving. She had bought enough crap on impulse before dying. Five days on broken roads deserved more thought.

Thorne finished his tea and leaned close enough to read over her shoulder. The truck would travel south on the main road, turn west before a damaged bridge, and stop at a former highway rest area where merchants had set up a regular market. The trip took five days, including a market day. They could take their pickup, but sharing the scheduled truck would use less of their fuel and leave both men free from driving.

"We’d still have time on the room," she said.

"We would," Edrik agreed. "If we take the trip, we keep this place until we’re sure we want something else."

The road offered new places to trade and things to find, but she wanted a room waiting at the other end of the return trip. For once, she could arrange both instead of choosing which loss hurt less.

A knock at the front interrupted them. The landlord had found a sound replacement pane through a repair merchant and wanted to measure the frame before promising it would fit. Dove let him in, moving the route sheet away from the edge of the counter.

The repairer measured the frame while Thorne pointed out the temporary brackets. He uncovered the replacement pane on its padded rack, and Dove resisted the urge to touch it. She wanted her view back without grit blowing through the bottom of it.

The landlord covered the pane and fitting as a repair to the building. She agreed to clear the front tomorrow morning and asked how long the repair would take before her visit to Iris.

"You keep proper hours now," he said, sounding mildly surprised.

"I’ve been inspired by wanting to sleep."

He smiled, wrote the time on his sheet, and left with the repairer. Dove looked around the shop after the door closed. Her owned shelves were fuller, the recovered counter rolled where she needed it, and the room behind the curtain was theirs for another stretch of paid nights. Leaving for a few days didn’t have to mean losing it.

Thorne sat on the bed when they went through, holding out his hand. She took it and settled across his lap, her back against his chest. His arm went around her waist with the familiar weight that still made it easier to breathe.

"You can want to go and want to come back," he said.

"That’s annoyingly reasonable. I was trying to have a dramatic problem."

"I could make it worse," he offered, settling her more securely on his lap. Dove felt the laugh against her back before he finished saying it.

"Don’t you dare," she told him, reaching back to keep his face close enough for a kiss.

He kissed her cheek, looking much too pleased when she turned to catch his mouth instead. Edrik stayed by the washroom door for a moment, watching them with the quiet focus that always made her aware of her own skin.

"You. Come here," she told him, patting the mattress beside them. "Unless you’re planning to stand there looking like someone’s very handsome problem all night."

"I was waiting to see how long you could resist asking."

"Terrible guess. I was enjoying making you wait." When he came close, she caught his hand and pulled him down beside them. Dove leaned forward to brush a kiss over the corner of his mouth, then stole another because he looked as though he hadn’t expected the first. He caught her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. "You can have another, sweetheart. You don’t have to steal them." She held his gaze and leaned in again, pleased when his smile disappeared as she took her time.

Thorne’s fingers moved gently along her side. She caught his hand before he could find the spot that made her squirm.

"No tickling. I have dignity."

"You hid the last chocolate behind a washcloth."

"That was strategy."

Edrik reached to the small shelf beside the bed and handed her the chocolate she’d been saving. She looked between him and the empty space behind the folded cloth.

"How long have you known?"

"Since you told Thorne not to look there."

She broke it into three pieces, making theirs larger without pretending she hadn’t. They noticed anyway. Thorne kissed the back of her shoulder, and Edrik took his piece from her fingers with a look that warmed her face.

It was ridiculous how much she wanted evenings like this. She had a whole system full of things she could buy, and sometimes the best part of the day was sitting on a bed while two oversized men let her be a brat about candy.

She put the employee’s address beside the route sheet when they went back to the table. Thorne looked at it without reaching for it.

"Do you want to see them?" she asked.

"I want to know they’re all right. That doesn’t mean I’m leaving you."

She hated how much relief she felt at the second part. She hadn’t wanted to make him choose, but apparently she had been waiting for him to do it anyway.

"You can miss things," she said, tracing the corner of the paper. "I’d be very annoying if someone offered me my old apartment back. I’d still want you in it."

He caught her hand and kissed her knuckles. "Then you’ll come if I go. They can get used to us together. Tomorrow’s too soon. I’ll send word that I’ll visit after our trip, if they’re still here."

Edrik leaned against the table. "They’ll be delighted. I’m excellent company."

"You threatened the last man who interrupted dinner."

"He interrupted dinner."

She laughed, then picked up the route sheet. Tomorrow they would look at the truck, ask where they would sleep, and find out which stops allowed searching. Tonight she wanted her men and a bed that wasn’t going anywhere. Thorne put his friends’ address on the shelf, where he would find it when they came back.

Thorne followed when she pulled his hand. Edrik put the papers away and came behind them, his smile changing when she reached for him too. She kissed him first, then drew Thorne close enough that she didn’t have to choose whose warmth she wanted more.

"No more visitors," she murmured. "I’m busy."