his hair and tried not to hiss at the cold water.
“Caught naked by who?” he asked as he soaped his hair and private places.
“You have delivery men at nine. They’ll be bringing a dresser to put in the far corner against the wall. There’s plenty of room there, but you need to supervise and make sure the cat doesn’t get out.”
“I know not to let the cat out,” Jackson muttered. “But why are we getting a new dresser? What’s wrong with the old one?”
“The old one is mine. The new one is yours. You need more clothes.”
“How can I need more clothes? You keep buying them for me. I’ve got my own section of the closet!”
“Well, I’ve bought you some more. Casual clothes. Jeans, T-shirts, those weird shorts that make me think of you naked.”
“Basketball shorts?” Jackson chuckled and turned off the water in a hurry because he was freezing. “You ordered me new basketball shorts? I have three pairs already!”
Ellery waited until he stepped out of the bathtub to greet him, towel around his waist, with a chaste kiss on the cheek. “This way you can throw those out,” he said calmly. “And some of those T-shirts that are hanging on by threads. And some of the underwear you got in high school. And some of the socks that peel off your feet.”
Jackson gaped at him. Ellery had been on a not-so-subtle campaign to change up Jackson’s wardrobe over the past year, and granted, a lot of their adventures had taken out parts of the wardrobe in general attrition. But this wasn’t a skirmish or even a battle. This was D-Day on Jackson’s remaining clothes, and he was unprepared.
“But… but….” Ellery smiled, cat-like, and Jackson was suddenly indignant. “You,” he said in irritation, “do not get your way all the time!”
“Of course not. If I got my way, we would not have just had sex in the shower, and boy, you showed me. I learned my lesson about daring you, didn’t I?”
Jackson glared at him. “Shut up.”
Ellery kissed him on the lips. “Shutting up now, Detective. Wouldn’t do to make you mad. You might blow me next, and then I’d be in real trouble.”
“I know where you keep your sex toys, Counselor. Don’t make this a contest.”
To his everlasting joy, red crescents appeared high on Ellery’s cheek, and his bluster drained out of him, replaced by the color. “I… those were from when I was single and, uh, you know.”
Jackson’s turn to capitalize on his discomfort. “Sure,” he placated. “I’ll never mention them again. They’ll just, you know, sneak up on you. By surprise.”
Ellery’s eyes narrowed. “But not this morning, unless you want to really surprise the guys delivering the dresser.” And with that, Ellery turned on his heel and went to get dressed.
Jackson dried off and brushed his teeth, then did the same, picking nylon basketball shorts that, he had to admit, were almost transparent, and a T-shirt with a collar barely hanging on by the threads, that read “Duct Tape: It Can’t Fix Stupid But It Can Muffle the Sound” with a little silver line of duct tape weaving through the words.
Or it had a silver line of duct tape weaving through the words, but that was the first thing to go before the lettering started to flake off. The shirt was dark blue—or had been dark blue—but it was getting sort of greenish with overwashing, and there were holes in the armpits.
Jackson looked at it mournfully as he tugged on the hem and realized that even though he’d put on some much-needed weight that summer, it still flapped around his hips because it had been stretched out beyond all repair.
“Are you touching it like that because you’re trying to say goodbye?” Ellery assessed as he walked past Jackson and into the hall. “And I’ll make you some oatmeal for breakfast. Don’t worry, I won’t forget the margarine and teaspoon of sugar.”
“Why would I say goodbye?” Jackson retorted to his retreating back. “It’s got a few good years left!”
He tugged at the hem again and sighed when another portion of the neck gave way.
Goddammit. Did Ellery always have to be right?
Jackson was still feeling sulky when the furniture guy arrived. Just the fact that the dresser had to be moved instead of assembled meant that it was not only pricey, but also that it wouldn’t interfere with Ellery’s tastefully heavy furnishings.
In fact, it looked like a twin to Ellery’s dresser, and Jackson sighed. It was official. After