chapter NINETEEN

Grace

It has been two weeks since our talk, and living with Nix couldn’t get any better. The veil of agitation has been lifted, and harmony once again exists in my world. We are like long-lost best friends, and I completely embrace our renewed relationship.

“Are you ready for dinner?” Nix’s husky voice booms in the distance. The distance being the kitchen where he has spent most of the afternoon.

He has forbidden me to come out of my room, except for bathroom breaks.

Without answering, I line up sixteen canvas portraits against the wall and some on the floor. Excitement shoots up my veins as my eyes feast on my accomplishment. I hope Mama Ada and everyone else fall in love with every single one of them.

A knock on my bedroom door startles me and makes me sprint toward it.

“Whoa! Slow down there, tiger!” Nix exclaims. “You’re that hungry?”

“That, and I don’t want you to see them.” Playfully hitting his chest, I walk past him, toward the kitchen.

I stop mid-step when Nix covers my eyes. He pulls me close to him with my back against his chest.

“What is going on?”

“I’ll let you go if you promise to do two things,” he whispers softly.

His warm breath feels good against my skin. So good, I crave it.

There goes another set of penance.

“Okay,” I manage to squeak the word out of my vocal cords.

“One, do not move.”

Is it my imagination, or did he just pull me closer?

“And two, open your eyes only when I tell you to. You get me, Grace?”

My hands feel clammy, and my knees are seconds from buckling under his hold. If he says another word, I am going to collapse.

“Grace,” he says my name again.

And, again, his breath fans across my skin. And, once again, the pitter-patter of my heart goes crazy. And, yet again, I crave more.

Another set of penance is stacked on top of the one I have yet to do.

Nix nudges my left shoulder, which helps in snapping me out of my stupid hallucination.

“Yeah. Yes, I get it.”

He chuckles behind me while I squeeze my eyes tighter. I am taking deep breaths in and slowly letting them out to stay upright. Lucky for me, my brain is still working. Nix nudges me forward, and I mimic his every step until his breath fans my face again.

“Open your eyes, Grace.”

My body stills, and my breath hitches when I see three white roses in a vase at the center of the table. Two aged gray candleholders with thick white candles light up the rectangular glass table with a stylish espresso-colored X-base.

Nix walks and stands behind a contemporary chair at the end of the dining table. “Please take a seat.”

Shyly, I approach him, feeling out of place, dressed in nothing but black jogging pants, an oversize sweatshirt with a tattered white shirt underneath, and socks. “Wow, you made a whole spread for me? Peanut butter and jelly would’ve been fine.”

Nix chuckles hard as he struts to the other end of the dining table. “We are definitely saying grace before we eat. Pun intended, sweetheart.”

I giggle at his comment and hear his term of endearment loud and clear. I lead the prayer before digging in. Our friendly conversation continues well into dessert. After taking my last bite of Mama Ada’s chocolate truffle cheesecake, we take our conversation to the living room. Nix pushes two armless taupe-accent chairs close to the glass wall. We sit in comfortable silence while our eyes admire the sparkling city lights below and the colored lights adorning the boats of different sizes by the dock.

“Thanks for dinner,” I say, focusing on the water ahead.

“It’s the least I could do. You’ve been nothing but patient with me. And thank you for spending time with Mama Ada. You’re a good diversion, you know. I know doing what we do bothers her a lot. It stresses her out, especially our situation right now. You being around sort of calms her a bit.”

I look at him, only to find his eyes are already on me. “She just loves you and your brothers to death. Mama Ada understands the importance of what you guys do, and that’s the hard part to accept really. We all want someone to fight evil, right? We just don’t want it to be someone we love.” I cock my head, weighing if I should ask him the one question that has been bothering me for a while. “How…” I swallow hard, pushing down my wavering confidence. “Um…how did she manage to convince the three of you to live with her?”

Nix laughs, shaking his head in amusement. “Well, where do I begin? It took her a minute, maybe a few seconds, to suggest that we stay with them. She cried for us, for my parents, but she stayed firm in her decision. We were shocked, to say the least. For about a week, she would commute from Dana Point to San Diego to drop off home-cooked meals. Finally, she gave us twenty-four hours to make a decision.” Nix chuckles, leaning forward. “Actually, we’d already made up our minds. We had fallen in love with her, too, just as quickly as she had. I just hope our line of work won’t kill her from a broken heart.”

“She understands that. I think it takes a special person to do what you do.”

He looks away and covers his mouth. “You’re too kind to me, Grace. You don’t know half of who I am.”

“Even if I don’t, I know you have a good heart.”

“You don’t have to say that to make me feel better. I know I’m a jackass.”

“Hmm, you’re a it-is-my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy, but you have a good heart. Again, stop saying that about yourself,” I say brusquely with a bite.

He stands, walking closer to the glass wall. I follow, standing a little too close. My eyes land on his stoic reflection on the glass.

He tugs on his earlobe before facing me. “Do you know how many people I’ve killed and how much money I get for doing it? Do you want to know how I killed them instead? Or how about the many girls I’ve fucked out of their minds? Or would you rather hear how I cussed out your God when he took my parents away from me?”

It’s in this moment I realize how badly beaten his heart is. He gifts me with a smile so sad, it matches the ache in my heart. His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he tries to swallow the truth of his words.