Incubus Dreams - Laurell K. Hamilton [29]
He nodded, as if he didn’t trust his voice, and was careful not to look at either of us as we walked him toward the lights of the parking lot. Micah pretended that nothing was wrong. I pretended that there were no tears to see. I kept my hold on his arm all the way to where Jason waited standing beside his car.
Jason opened the passenger side door for Louie, giving me a questioning look over Louie’s shoulder.
I started to shake my head, but Louie hugged me. Hugged me suddenly, and fiercely, so tight it took my breath away. I thought he’d say something, but he didn’t. He just held on, and I wrapped my arms around his back, held him, because I couldn’t not hold him. About the time I thought I was going to have to think of something to say, he stepped back. He’d been crying while he held me, but I hadn’t felt a single sob, nothing, but the fierceness in his arms, his hands, and silent tears.
He blinked and gave Micah an odd smile, that was almost a sob. “How did you talk her into moving in with you?”
“I moved in with her,” he said, voice very quiet, very even, a careful voice, reserved for frightened children, and overly emotional adults. I’d heard that voice often enough aimed at me. “And she asked me.”
“Lucky,” Louie said, and that one word sounded like it meant anything but, lucky.
“I know,” Micah said, and he put an arm around my shoulders and moved me just a little back from Louie, so there was room for him to get through the open car door.
Louie nodded again, too rapidly, and too many times. “Lucky.” He slid into the car, and Jason shut the door behind him.
Jason leaned into me. “What just happened?”
It wasn’t my secret to tell, but it felt like dirty pool sending Jason to drive Louie home without warning him. “It’s his secret to tell, not mine. I’m sorry. But let’s just say he’s had a rough night.”
Louie knocked on the window. The sound made both Jason and me jump. Micah had either seen it coming, or had better nerves than we did. Jason moved back enough so the door could open. “Don’t bother to whisper this close to the car. I can hear you.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be, it’s not like he didn’t see the fight. Tell him, so I don’t have to.” And Louie closed the door again. He leaned his head back against the seat, and more of those completely silent tears began to escape him.
We all looked away, as if it were somehow shameful to watch. I think we’d have been less embarrassed if he’d been undressed. “What is up?” Jason said.
“He proposed to Ronnie, and she said no.”
Jason’s mouth dropped open just like mine had. “You are joking me.”
I shook my head. “Wish I was.”
“But they are like one of the happiest couples I know.”
I shrugged. “I don’t explain the news, I just report it.”
“Shit,” Jason said. He glanced back at his car, and at Louie. “I’ll get him home.”
“Thanks.”
Jason gave me a shadow of his usual grin. “Well, can’t send him home with you. Wouldn’t that complicate the hell out of things?”
“What?” I asked.
Micah kissed me on the side of the face. “The ardeur rising with Louie in the car. Speaking of which . . .”
“You guys go,” Jason said, “we’ll be okay.”
I kissed him on the cheek, quick and sisterly. “You’re a braver man than I am, Gunga Din.”
He laughed. “That’s not the original quote, is it?”
“Not exactly, but it’s still true.”
He looked suddenly serious again. Very unJasonlike. “I don’t know if I’m brave or not, but I’ll get him tucked in.”
“We have to go,” Micah said. He started leading me toward our Jeep.
I kept looking back as Jason went around the car and got in. Louie sat motionless, head back. From a distance, you couldn’t tell he was crying.
Micah pulled me in against his body, hugging me loosely to his side. I leaned in against the solidness of him and slid my arm around his waist, so that we finished the walk touching from chest to thigh.