SKIPPING TIME

Chapter 13

As soon as they got in the room, Cacee crouched to let Shane out. She covered his furry face in kisses and checked along his sides again for any kind of break. He seemed to be recovering fine. His tail swished as much as it always did. She carried the pup to the bed and laid him down. He curled up and licked her hand before tucking his tail over his nose and letting out a content sigh.

She took her first good look around the room. Tiny. Bleak. No TV. Peeling wallpaper. A dresser someone might have hauled in from the curb. From a nearby room a baby wailed, and a drunk joined in, warbling loudly. She took a deep breath. The air smelled like body odor.

She glanced at Jess. He'd slouched against the wall and covered his face with his hand.

She kept her voice upbeat. "This isn't bad."

"You don't have to lie. This blows."

She went to stand by him and coaxed, "At least it's A Room of Our Own."

Jess didn't lower his hand, but a smile curled up a corner of his mouth. His eyes peeked over the ridge of his fingers and met hers. "You're my Angel in Blue Jeans. You know that, right?"

She recognized the song from Train and knew it was called Angel in Blue Jeans. But that wasn't what Jess said. He said my Angel in Blue Jeans. And Jess didn't get song titles wrong.

She fiddled with the bottom of her hair as she smiled."I Have You to Thank. You know You're My Hero, right?"

Jess paused for a long minute, which was odd, because he was usually fast to outdo her if she used more than one title to answer him. Plus she'd given him a pretty open-ended statement to work with. She waited as he lowered his hand and stared into her eyes. His gaze was a little shy but his voice didn't falter as he said, "You know I Would Do Anything For you, right, Cace? You're..." He hesitated but then finished in the same steady voice, "All I Need."

His words fell on her like sunlight, breaking up the dark clouds of fear and despair that remained just below the surface of her cheerful demeanor. Before she could lose her nerve, she stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips across his cheek. Jess let out a low sigh, leaned closer and pressed his hand to the small of her back, as if to keep her exactly where she was.

Inside the dark universe of her body, a million bright stars were born. They strung a burning Milky Way across her chest. Her arms. Her fingers and stomach and legs and toes. Planets formed and comets sizzled and galaxies spun themselves into her veins. Her lips lingered against the soft stubble that coated the bottom of Jess's cheek. How had she never noticed it? How could anything feel as good as that light prickle against her lips? The only thing that would feel better than this would be his mouth. And all she had to do was turn her head. Why did it matter who he was or how cold he could be? How could that matter when he did things like call her his angel and tell her she was all he needed .

She stared at the red smears trickling from Jess's forehead to his jaw line through half-closed, dreamy eyes. He's still bleeding, stupid. You're thinking about kissing him while he's bleeding everywhere. She glanced down at his arm and saw that the shirt Jess held against it was soaked all the way through with his blood.

Slightly dazed, she gave her head a small shake and forced herself to step away from Jess. The kiss had lasted maybe three seconds. Longer than a normal peck on the cheek, but not nearly long enough for her to feel this completely...undone. She tried to speak in her normal voice as she said, "Okay. You definitely won that round. Now go get cleaned up before you pass out from blood loss." Her voice wasn't even close to steady.

Jess tugged her hair and grinned at her, looking immensely pleased for someone covered in blood. "I'm fine. But if it will make you feel better, I'll clean up. Just try not to miss me too much while I'm gone."