in your pocket, I’m making you pay that back with your allowance!”
“But Dad—”
“I’ll take the phone, sir,” his father said, extending his hand.
Jackson met his eyes solidly, and Dad looked at his kid again.
“Don’t worry. He won’t get it back.”
“But you said it was so I didn’t get lost.”
“Well, you’re not leaving my side now, are you? Mom’s got the little kids, and you and me, buddy, we’re like glue. It looks like you need to learn how to read again, doesn’t it?”
The kid’s eyes got huge, and his face got red, and Jackson turned the phone over, feeling reassured.
“Thanks,” he said soberly. “I don’t like it when people hurt the defenseless.”
The guy nodded. “I’m a cop. It’s my job to protect, so I get what you mean.”
Jackson stared at him as he retreated, his kid complaining bitterly with every step. It looked like Dad was holding firm, though, and Jackson let out a deep breath.
“A cop,” Ellery said, his first words in some time.
“Yeah, I know. Surprised me too.”
Ellery was looking at him like he did sometimes, his eyes wide and a little glossy, his face open and full of wonder. Jackson didn’t understand that expression; he didn’t know what he’d done to warrant it.
“Surprised the hell out of me,” the docent muttered, and Jackson grinned at him.
“Well, may we all meet more cops like that,” he said, thinking that his own attitude may be a teeny bit biased against law enforcement.
“May there be more cops like that,” the docent said. “I’ve got to go, but thanks so much for the assist.” He smiled fondly at his friend the giant octopus. “Buddy here is grateful too. He just doesn’t talk that much.”
Jackson chuckled and was surprised by Ellery’s grip on his hand.
“What?” he asked, turning to him again.
“Nothing,” Ellery said, eyes bright. “You… you do things like that. It will never cease to amaze me.”
Jackson was about to shrug him off, make light of the way he was looking, pretend he hadn’t done anything.
But the thing he’d just done—trying to fix something small, teaching someone something valuable about the world—it was apparently one of the reasons Ellery stuck with him through fifty-dozen trips to the hospital and the unpacking of copious stacks of emotional baggage.
He swallowed, and disregarding any curious onlookers, he linked his fingers with Ellery’s as the two of them wandered through the darkened environs of the rest of the cephalopods.
“What?” Ellery said softly, and Jackson squeezed his hand. Maybe a younger, friskier, Jackson would have pulled him into a corner and kissed him, and maybe an older, healthier Jackson would do that too. But this Jackson, in this moment, was just so happy to know he’d done something real, something that made Ellery look at him like that.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “That’s kind.”
Ellery paused in a dark corner and tugged on his hand before kissing Jackson softly. Jackson regarded him in the black light of the aquarium and smiled slightly.
“What was that for?”
“I am so in love with you.”
And Jackson didn’t flinch or shrug or get embarrassed. “I love you back, Counselor. I’m so glad I’m good enough for you to love.”
Another kiss, and then they separated, mindful of the bustling families and excitable children around them. They kept their hands linked, though, as they wandered the aquarium, open to the experience of wonder.
That night they ate practically downstairs from the hotel, consuming big bread bowls of the best clam chowder in the world. They took their bowls to a concrete wall that overlooked the beach below, watching children as they ran in and out of the waves. The ocean was too cold to go swimming. Even Jackson knew that now. He’d been hurt too badly plunging his feverish body into brutally cold water to ever take his heart for granted again.
For the moment, he would welcome the man beside him, the light sparkling off the sea, and this moment in the sun.
THAT NIGHT as they walked into the hotel room, he tugged on Ellery’s hand and took him to the window.
“What?” Ellery asked, his voice as wondering as a child.
“The view’s nice. I… you know. Wanted to share it with you.”
“Jackson?”
“Yeah?”
“Can we make love tonight?”
Jackson kissed him gently, like it was their first time. As Ellery opened his mouth and gave underneath his hands, Jackson’s heart beat loudly in his ears, and he was grateful for how strong it sounded. How alive.
Their clothes disappeared, and they lay on the bed, skin to skin. Their