Page 114 of Under Water
“For fuck’s sake, Easton. You’re as bad as your stubborn-as-fuck boyfriend. Just sign the papers and get you, Rune, and the kid somewhere safe.”
My hand shakes a little as I take the pen he’s holding out for me, and I manage to scratch my signature on all the lines, along with the dates. “Isn’t this, like, fraud?”
He leans his elbows on the desk and rests his chin on his curled knuckles. “Look me in the eye right now and tell me that your mental health isn’t strained as fuck.”
I can’t. So I don’t.
“This is what this leave is for, Easty.” I know he uses the nickname to soften the blow. “No one’s saying you’re losing your mind or not able to do the job. But you’re not going to be at your best if you’re here behind the wheel of a truck, but your head’s back home with your boyfriend and his son.”
He’s not wrong. And in the quiet moments I’d let myself think about going back to work, I had let myself worry about it. But I was planning on figuring it out. Somehow.
“Thank you,” I finally say.
“That’s what I was expecting to hear,” he complains, then stands up and walks around to tug me into a half hug. “I also wanted to let you know my sister’s in real estate. She’s got a little office over by that burrito place y’all like so much. Stop in there this week, and she’ll pull up some rentals that’ll work for wheelchairs.”
“You think the three of us are moving in together?” I demand. I mean, we are. Rune said it was the plan, and I want it to be the plan, but I’m annoyed that I’m so fucking predictable.
Camilo just rolls his eyes and gives me a little shake before shoving me toward the door. “Get the fuck out of my station. I don’t want to see your face here until you’re back on the schedule.”
That would hurt if he didn’t mean it in the kindest way, and I’m still reeling a bit as I make my way back downstairs and toward the lobby, where I spot Rune and Teddy having an ASL conversation between them.
My skills are rusty, but by the classifiers that Rune is using, I’m assuming he’s telling Teddy about what went down at the hotel. I hover back and wait until Teddy pulls him into a hug and signs sorry on the center of his chest.
Teddy notices me first and breaks out into a huge smile as I walk over, and he wraps one arm around me in a half hug. I squeeze him back, then take Rune’s hand into mine.
“I guess we’ll see you in a few weeks?”
Teddy laughs. “Yes. Rune’s still not ready to accept his leave.”
“Three weeks,” Rune says quietly, signing it with his free hand. Then his gaze snaps to me. “Wait, you too?”
I shrug. “Camilo handled it. We have time to find a place. His sister is a Realtor, and he said she can give us a list of places that’ll work for Elio.”
Rune swallows heavily, then rolls his shoulders back before turning to Teddy. “Do not be a stranger.”
Teddy holds up both hands. “Never. But same goes for you.”
We keep the goodbye quick, and I lead Rune out the door and toward my car. The silence between us is heavy, but there’s no tension as I pull out onto the road and head for the police station.
“Did you get a call to come in?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. I thought maybe I’d run across the street to the deli and grab us something for lunch while you handle things?”
“Yeah. I need to eat. My stomach feels like it’s full of boulders, so maybe some soup?”
I take his hand and lift his wrist to my lips and kiss it. “I can do soup.”
Silence falls again, but Rune plays with my fingers the entire way, and I find a spot near the edge of the lot where I can dart across the street while he goes inside. We share a quick kiss in the car before he takes off, and I give myself a few moments before getting out.
And then my phone rings.
It takes everything in me not to toss it across the street and into traffic. But it’s North, and while he was supposed to wait for me to call him, I knew his patience would only last so long.
“Hey, bud.”
“Everyone’s good, right?” he demands.
“Yes.”
