When I woke up on my own and felt well rested I got suspicious. I stretched, running my hand over the cool sheets of Slivko's bed, and then got up and grabbed my bathroom bag before venturing out into the oddly quiet house. After freshening up I wandered out to the living room where I found Penny at the dining room table with a cup of tea and the photos.
"Ah, good morning," she smiled when she noticed me standing there. "The boys have all gone to work, Reg didn't have the heart to wake you."
I sighed as my shoulders slumped. I was supposed to go there and help them.
"Don't worry, I'm here to take you," Penny assured me without me having to say a word.
"Thanks. Where's Grace?" I asked as I took a seat at the table too.
"She said she wanted to sight-see for a little while, she took your car. Said she'd meet up at the garage later though," Penny said as she set the photos down and leaned forward with a barely contained smirk about something. "What do you say to some breakfast?"
"Oh, it takes my stomach a while more to wake up, I have a hard time eating first thing when I wake up," I explained, catching a glimpse of the photo on top, the one of me on Slivko's shoulders.
"Well, help yourself to whatever you find and let me know when you're ready," She smiled at me before setting her tea down and gathering up the photos again.
It was odd to be alone with Penny, I was only used to Slivko, and more than that I was used to him navigating the unknown for me. I must have sat still and silent for a little too long because she looked back up at me and her pretty lips curved up in a warm smile.
"I like these pictures," she said as she laid all the ones of me and Slivko down and set the rest aside. "Since his mother passed... It's just nice to see him happy again. To see him care about something. It's like you brought back a part of him I didn't think I'd ever see again since he went to war. And I'm grateful."
I gave a shy, nervous little laugh as I shook my head. "I don't think I can take credit for anything like that, it's not like I knew what I was doing."
She looked at the pictures again, some of my moments with Slivko laid out in front of her, some still hidden in only our memories. "You two really went through a lot together, didn't you?"
"You have no idea."
'''''
She took me down to the garage where I was greeted by an oil stained Slivie with a huge smile on his face.
"You didn't wake me up," I pouted, making him smile wider.
"You looked too cute all curled up in my bed, I wanted you to get enough rest," he explained.
"Well, you're just going to have to think of a way to make it up to me," I told him, getting the playful light to come play in his eyes.
"I got something in mind, don't you worry," he said as he poked my nose, leaving a black smudge on the tip that I didn't bother wiping off.
He leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips.
"That wasn't it, right?" I made sure, seeing the smudge my nose left on his cheek.
"No," he laughed. "You'll know when I make something up to you. Promise."
He led me to the office and gave me a ring with a few file cabinet keys on it. "All the paperwork is in this room. It might not be in good order, but it's in here," he told me as I looked around. "Do you need anything?"
I saw plenty of pens and paper and an adding machine and couldn't think of anything else I'd need at that moment so I shook my head. "I think I'm good here."
"I really appreciate you helping us out," he said as he kept rubbing a rag between his grayed hands. "I'm really glad you're just here in general, but it keeps feeling like a hallucination- seeing you in familiar places."
I smiled knowingly as his eyes were busy drinking me in. "I know, that was my room and the diner for me, you know?"
"I love that you punched your ex," he said out of nowhere and we both laughed.
I tried to get closer to him but he took a cautious step back. "I'm all dirty, I don't want to get any on you," he explained.
Still I stood right in front of him and looked up into his eyes. "I hope I never punch you in the face."
He chuckled at that unexpected statement. "Is that a warning not to do anything stupid?"
"No, it's me hoping you're never my ex," I said softly.
I got a hands free kiss. "I don't think you have to worry about that," he said quietly, his lips still close to mine. He gave me another kiss. "I should get back to work," he said before giving me a third kiss, making me smile. "I don't know how I'm going to get anything done," he said before a fourth kiss.
"Same here," I agreed with him, pulling back gently from a fifth kiss and brushed my nose against his instead. "But we better try, right?"
"Right," he agreed begrudgingly, our faces still close together.
"When will you be clean again?" I asked, leaning in myself now just to have him be the one that pulled back with a laugh of motor oil and mint.
"seven-o-clock is quittin time here on a good day."
"Is it a good day?"
"You're here, it's a fantastic day."
'''''
As much as I loved flirting around with my greasy, muscular boyfriend in his oddly sexy coveralls, I quickly got fixated on the project at hand as well. I'd sit there working on things, not even noticing the hours pass. Sometimes they'd have to pry me away from it, convince me not to bring any of it home, and had to let me leave notes at the end of the day so I'd be able to pick up where I left off easily.
Grace would be around about half the time and mysteriously vanished the rest. I still wasn't sure what kind of sight seeing she was doing and she wouldn't really talk to me about it. She seemed quite chummy with Penny though.
Before I really knew it, the weekend was right around the corner. Grace, Penny, Billy and I helped Slivie, Peter, and Matt get ready for the car show. In all the hustle and bustle, Slivko and I managed to find a moment to ourselves. They had a miniature junk yard behind their shop, old cars and salvage bits they used for parts and one of the things they had out there was a plush back seat tucked under the awning and usually covered with a tarp. At the moment the tarp was set aside. I ran my finger along the the collar of his T shirt as I laid on his chest.
"It's not exactly a hammock, " he admitted, making me smile as he brushed his fingers through my hair.
"Nothing is like that Hammock," I agreed.
"But we... we're still like we were that night, right?" he asked, looking up at me so intently.
"What do you mean?" I asked, laying my hand comfortingly on his chest.
"We..." he stopped and looked away for a moment, composing his thoughts. I stayed quiet and let him. "That's... when we fell in love, right?"
I smiled down at him. "That started much earlier, but yeah, that's when it got obvious. And I hope you're not worried that the days of us holding each other close and having deep conversations is over just because we don't have the worlds most comfortable hammock anymore," I said as I reached over and took his hand in mine. "I'll still play with your hands, and sniff you," I said before ducking down to take a deep inhale of the crook of his neck, making him laugh.
He looked up at me seriously then, pressing his palm to my cheek and brushing his thumb across it. I leaned into his touch. "You know I really do love you, right?"
"I do know," I said. "I really do love you to. Monsters or no monsters. Jungle or no jungle. It's still the same."
I must have said the right thing because he pulled me into a kiss that easily put the one from the airport in second place. His fingers tickled my neck and tangled in my hair with a gently tug that sent tingles down my spine.
"Are you going to go away again?" he asked when we parted, both of us having to catch our breath. His brows were drawn together and his eyes looked sad.
I thought about what I was doing, how my parents were thousands of miles away and I was just crashing at Slivko's house, no job, no feeling of permanence outside of my feelings for him. But none of that made me want to run home for the comfort of stability. I looked at Slivko and I told him the truth.
"I don't think I can."
A big, relieved smile lit up his face and he seemed like he was about to kiss me again but we were interrupted. Ed, the one and only hired hand at the otherwise family business came out and turned a few shades of red when he saw us. The rest were looking for us to finish getting things ready. We got up and meandered back hand in hand, feeling like things ran even deeper between us now.