Fatal Intent - Jamie Jeffries Page 0,48

I’m depressed about that girl, Sarah. Someone mutilated her and left her to die. I can’t stop thinking about how frightened she must have been.”

Dylan put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest. “I know, babe. It’s awful. I’m worried about you, though. You haven’t seemed yourself since you found out about your mom. Are we ever going to talk about that?” His expression was so mournful that Alex’s heart went out to him.

“I’m sorry, honey. I shouldn’t burden you with my feelings, when you haven’t even had a chance to mourn your mom yet. How are you and the boys dealing with it?”

“We’re okay. Their memories of her are blurred, since they went into foster care quite a while before she passed. And I expected it. Don’t worry about us. Alex, I need to know that we’re okay, you and me.” Dylan took her hand in his free one and toyed with her fingers. “I need to put a ring on this hand,” he said.

“It’s too soon, Dylan. I understand, I really do. It’s just that I need this weight off me before I can think of engagement or marriage. Can you be okay with knowing I love you and I expect to spend my life with you?”

Dylan frowned. “I guess I have no choice, do I? I’d better get some sleep. We’ve got a long day tomorrow. The real estate agent has a bunch of houses lined up, since I couldn’t tell her exactly what we wanted. I think we’re going to see every open rental in Mesa tomorrow, and then in Tempe on Sunday.”

Alex nodded. He wouldn’t be sharing her bed tonight, then. It was just as well, since she didn’t feel much like lovemaking anyway. “See you in the morning.”

Dylan gave her a longing look. Had he wanted her to ask him to stay? Before she could say anything else, he heaved himself off the bed and went to his own room, closing the connecting door behind him. Alex turned on her side, still fully clothed, and wept herself to sleep.

~~~

Dylan tossed and turned before going to sleep. Alex didn’t seem to be into this house-hunting trip and he didn’t have any idea how to get her engaged in it. Her unenthusiastic response to his remark about a ring on her hand felt just like when she’d asked him if he was crazy for proposing to her all those months before.

I thought we were over this.

Eventually, sleep found him anyway, or he thought it had when he woke up disoriented. He opened his eyes and spotted the boys on the other bed, doing their best to remain quiet and still entertain themselves. They were wrestling, which had two possible outcomes. Either they’d start giggling and he’d have to wake up anyway, or one of them would hurt the other, resulting in howls and a less pleasant wake-up call.

With a sigh, Dylan resigned himself to getting up and starting the day. The clock said six-thirty. Oh, joy. He had two and a half hours to kill before they were to meet the real estate agent.

He got up and padded to the connecting door, half expecting to see the door on the other side closed and inaccessible when he opened his side. To his surprise, it stood open, so he peeked in to see if Alex was awake. She lay on the bed in much the same position where he’d left her last night, and it looked as if she’d fallen asleep in her clothes. Dylan backed out of her room and shut his door carefully.

“Boys,” he said. “Alex is still asleep, so don’t start making noise. If you want, we can go down and see what kind of breakfast they have. Or you can watch TV, but with the volume very low.”

“Breakfast! Breakfast!” Davi shouted, bouncing on the bed to punctuate his demand.

“Shh.” Juan had it covered. He pounced on Davi and put a pillow over his head. When he let his struggling younger brother up, Juan said in a fierce stage whisper. “Be quiet! Don’t wake Alex up, faggot.”

“Juan!” said Dylan, shocked. “That isn’t a nice word. You will not call your brother names, especially when you don’t know what they mean.”

“It means idiot, Dylan,” said Davi, coming to Juan’s defense.

“Um, no, it doesn’t. Just don’t say that anymore. Come on, you two get dressed and let’s go find something to eat.”

An hour later, the three returned to the room. Dylan turned