Page 82 of Devilish Debt
Not so much when it comes to your heart.
Instead of staying focused on the older man on the other side of the island – who may just be more delish than the meal simmering on the stove behind him – I drop my elbow onto the counter and flop my face into my open palm, stare longingly fixated out the patio glass door windows.
“You haven’t been out by the water today, have you?”Garcia casually inquires around his careful slicing.
“No.”
“Why not?”
Pulling my attention away from the beautifully lit pool area doesn’t occur.“I know you’re coelacanth fish ancient-”
“Sweet.”
“-which means your memory is clearly not what is once was-”
“Kind.”
“-but Iknowyou remember the water falling from the sky earlier.”
“I believe you kids call itlluvia.”
“No,” I teasingly retort at the same time I redirect my focus to him, “that’s the dangling thing in the back of your throat.”
Against his own volition, Garcia lightly chortles and shakes his head.“Eres demasiado.”
“I am too much and yet not enough all in the same breath.”
“Sí.” He momentarily pauses his lime cutting.“Now, why didn’t you head out when it stopped pouring?”
“Zero needed a luxury ships worth of help understanding some of the items on the ship’s manifest as well as decoding some of the clues from the riddle it wasvery apparent,he fucked up.”
“So, you stayed with him?”
“Yeah.”
The corner of his lip cockily kicks upward.“You puthisneeds before your own?”
“For like a minute.”
His stare floods with sarcasm.
“Okay, like an hour.”
It deepens.
“Fuck.Fine.Whatever.Yes, I putWild Krattsin the lifeboat instead of myself.”
A full fledge beam breaks out onto his face.
“Oh, like you’ve never done it.”
“I do it all the time,” Garcia openly admits to my surprise.“He just doesn’t realize it.”
“He’s very brilliant, very adorable, but very oblivious.”
“Often.”
“So are you.”
