Page 114 of I Could Never
“What the…” Josh grumbled.
“Scottie!” I laughed.
He moved between us and situated himself as if it were a totally normal thing to do. Leaning against the headboard, he made himself comfortable and pulled up a video on his device. Josh and I smiled. I knew we were both thanking our lucky stars to have Scottie back safe and sound.
“He never used to come in here in the morning,” I said. “I wonder if he was checking to make sure we were still here—for obvious reasons.”
Josh dragged himself out of bed. “You’re the best cockblocker ever, Scottie.”
Despite the ambush, Josh was still visibly hard through the gray sweatpants he’d slept in. He disappeared out the door. Who knew how far we would’ve taken things had Scottie not interrupted.
Since Scottie seemed content in the bed, I got up, leaving him there, and went to find Josh, who was now standing by the coffeemaker in the kitchen.
He lifted a mug. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.” I smiled. “You’re looking all sexy in that T-shirt while I look like the Easter Bunny.”
He leaned against the counter as he waited for the coffee to drip out of the machine. “Well, my plan to cover you from head to toe, so I couldn’t access you easily, didn’t work. I still want you right now, even though you’re in that getup.” He caressed my hair. “We need to talk. But later tonight. Maybe after Scottie goes to bed. Alright?”
I gulped. “Okay…”
Unsure whether he wanted to talk about Scottie or us, I didn’t ask him to elaborate; a part of me was scared to find out.
“I just want to enjoy this day without any stressors,” he said.
“What are we gonna do?” I asked.
“Nothing. Hang out with him. Watch some of Wayne’s movies. Eat ice cream. Fucking decompress from the nightmare of the past two days.” His hand found mine.
I linked my fingers with his. “You won’t hear me complain about that.”
Josh took me into his arms and held me, resting his chin on the top of my head.
A knock at the door caused us to step away from each other.
“Who the hell is that this early?” he asked.
Josh went to answer it, and I followed. My heart sank when I saw a police officer standing there. I knew Scottie was safe in Wayne’s bedroom, but my first inclination was to panic. It must have been PTSD.
“Sorry to disturb you folks.” The officer looked over at me and chuckled, a reminder of how ridiculous I must’ve looked in this damn onesie. “The owner of the house where Mr. Longo was found discovered this framed photo on the ground underneath the clubhouse he’d been hiding in. So we figured we’d return it to you. Mr. Longo must’ve had it with him when he escaped from the group home.”
I took the photo from him. It was the one of the three of us taken at Michael and Vanessa’s Christmas party.
“Wow.” Josh covered his mouth, staring at the photo.
“I gave that to him when we dropped him off at the group home that first day,” I explained to the cop. “Thank you so much for returning it.”
“It’s our pleasure. Glad everything worked out.”
“Thanks again, Officer,” Josh said as he shut the door. He turned to me with a look of awe. “Scottie took two things with him when he decided to escape—his device and a photo of the three of us together. I’d thought him getting out was sort of accidental, just a result of them leaving the door unlatched. But now I think he might have thought it through.” Josh scratched his head. “I think he was…”
“Looking for us,” I finished his sentence.
“Yeah,” Josh muttered in a daze. “Holy shit, Carly.”
My chest felt heavy. “I know.”
***