it’s really interesting,” Gideon reassured me. “What’s one of the games you developed?”
“Well, my company has quite a few, but the first one that I built myself is called Dominion of the Gods. Players battle these gods who’ve enslaved them…”
“Wow, I think I’ve heard of that one,” Gideon said.
I was sure his eyes were on me but I had no idea how I knew that. “Gideon, are you looking at me right now?” I asked as I turned my head in his direction. He was still just one big dark shape that much of the blind spots covered up.
“Yes,” Gideon said softly.
A warm sensation went through me and not just because the man next to me was watching me but because I’d been able to tell he was. I had no clue how that was even possible, but it gave me this odd sense of power. How long had it been since I’d felt this way? Like I could still see things even though my eyes didn’t work?
“We’re here,” Gideon said a couple minutes later.
“Oh,” I murmured. The truck shifted slightly as Gideon got out and a handful of seconds later, my door was being opened. Gideon’s fingers closed gently around my upper arm and I reluctantly got out of the truck.
Instead of him leading me to the cabin, we ended up standing there. I was caged in by the truck and Gideon, but that just made me feel oddly safe. I could smell that intoxicating clean scent on him. I found myself breathing it in.
“I’ll make sure you get inside okay,” I heard Gideon say after a long pause that had felt strangely charged.
I nodded. “Thanks for the ride, Gideon.”
“You’re welcome,” the man before me responded, then he was weaving my hand around his arm so I would have something to hang on to. I hated knowing that I had just moments left with him. I tried to think of something to say in the short amount of time it took for him to get me into the cabin.
“You have my number, right? Call me.”
My heart leaped at the knowledge that he wanted to talk to me again, but it plummeted just as quickly when he said, “In case you have any problems with the cabin.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” I said.
“Okay, unless you need something else—”
There was no missing the impatience in Gideon’s voice as he spoke, so I quickly said, “No, I’m good. Thanks.”
A beat of silence followed, then Gideon murmured, “Alright, see you later, then.”
“See you,” I managed to say as lightly as I could. “Oh, and Gideon?” I called because I’d heard him take a few steps and knew he had to be near the door.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for taking the long way home.”
Chapter Ten
Gideon
I didn't hear from him for a whole week. One week of not knowing whether he was okay or not. One week of driving myself crazy imagining him lying unconscious on the floor of his cabin because he'd taken too much insulin or because the cuts on his feet had gotten infected. The only thing that had kept me from banging on his door had been seeing the little wisps of smoke coming up from his chimney, as well as the footprints in the snow by the log pile in front of the cabin. I'd checked up on him daily from afar and while I hadn't seen him, there'd been enough proof that he was alive and well, so I hadn't had an excuse to go see him.
That wasn't to say I didn't help him out a little bit. Like making sure the small pile of logs in front of the cabin near the door was always full so he wouldn't have to try and figure out where the larger pile of chopped wood behind the house was. We’d also had another power outage after a rough storm, so as soon as I'd realized the electricity was out, I’d hurried over to his cabin to get the generator started and I’d turned it back off as soon as the power had returned. Beyond that, there hadn't been much I could do. I’d found myself wanting to call him several times via the cabin's landline, but I'd resisted each time. I'd chalked up the conversation we’d had in my truck to us both having vulnerable moments and nothing more. I was also more than a little bit bothered by the fact that I’d come so close to leaning in and kissing him.
As hard as I tried