Alice sighed. “Joelle—”
“I know you’re not one for advice, Al, but in this case you need to do yourself a favor and listen to me. When it comes to Loki, you. Don’t. Have. A. Problem. Say it with me—you don’t have a problem. Stop trying to invent one like all those idiot heroines you see on the romance channel just so they can keep themselves from being happy.”
Ouch. “I’m not trying to keep myself from being happy.”
“Then why are you struggling to convince yourself there’s something wrong when there’s not? Though I guess I kind of understand,” Joelle went on while Alice tried to come up with an appropriate response. “I did pretty much the same thing when Gus and I first got together.”
Alice scoffed. “What do you mean? As I recall, the two of you met and, like, five minutes later you were married.”
“Right from the first, I kept thinking he was too good to be true. Sure, Gus was my idea of the perfect man, but he probably had something horrible going on underneath. Like maybe he was a serial killer, or he didn’t like dogs.”
“There’s a pretty wide gap between those two points, Jo.”
“But goddess that I am, I took a chance on him anyway,” Joelle went on, clearly ignoring her. “I took that chance because I believed I deserve to be happy, and that was what Gus brought to my life—happiness. Before I knew it, Gus had us living together, and then married.”
“I remember.” Alice nodded. “A total whirlwind.”
“And from that first moment to right now, I’ve been almost insane with the greatest happiness I’ve ever known.” Joelle smiled into her eyes. “Whether you want to believe it or not, you deserve to be happy, too, Al. You just have to be brave enough to go for it.”
“Loki and I are sort of living together already,” Alice said slowly, while Joelle’s words echoed in her ears.
I kept thinking he was too good to be true.
But I took a chance.
Be brave.
You deserve to be happy.
Joelle sucked in a sharp breath. “What?”
She nodded. “Loki announced that he didn’t fit at my place, so I’ve been spending all my nights over at his house.”
“Has he given you keys to his place? It’s just a long-term sleepover until he gives you keys.”
Alice reached into her pocket and pulled out her new Badtz-Maru. “They came with the keyring.”
“Whoa.” A bubble of laughter burst from Joelle as she grabbed up the keychain to examine it. “Badtz-Maru?”
“A biker Badtz-Maru, according to Loki.” She shook her head in a dazed kind of way. “I haven’t seen my apartment in days. To be honest, I haven’t even thought about it until this very moment.”
“Oh, wow.” When Joelle executed such a dorky little chair dance, Alice couldn’t help but smile. “I’m stunned.”
“Me, too.”
“No surprise there. You’re the most cautious person on the planet, so this has got to be a huge deal for you.” With a happy sigh, Joelle held up the keys for examination. “Who am I kidding? It’s a huge deal, period, but you’re really doing it, aren’t you? You’re taking your relationship to the next level.”
“Apparently.” Alice nodded, not sure if she felt more elated or terrified. “I’m still not sure how it happened, but we’re actually kind of a couple.”
“Well, of course you are. You’re the cutest damn couple in all of Chicago, as far as I’m concerned.” With another laugh, her foster sister threw her arms around her shoulders for a quick, bone-cracking hug before backing up to look at her hopefully. “Hey, can I be your matron of honor? I’ve got the most amazing idea for your bachelorette party. It’ll be freaking awesome, as long as we don’t get arrested.”
“Whoa, I said we’re living together, but that’s as far as it goes.” Alice put a hand up in the hope of slowing down not just Joelle, but her own wildly racing pulse. “I’m not even sure I want to let my apartment go yet.”
Joelle blinked. “Why in the world would you keep it? Break the lease and go. Your landlord always did give me the creeps, so just put it all the in rearview mirror and get the hell out of there.”
“I don’t know what my lease agreement entails, but I doubt I’ll get the security deposit back if I just up and leave.” Then again, with Loki looming over her landlord, he might be more than happy to put up with anything she did just to see the back of her. “Man, life is weird. A little over a month ago all I wanted to do was hold on to that apartment after Felix blew up my life.”
“Yeah.” A look of deep sadness crossed her friend’s face at the mention of her brother, before she perked up. “But when the pieces of that world fell back together, they took on a Loki-sized shape, right? So it wasn’t all bad.”
“No,” Alice agreed softly. “It wasn’t.”
Joelle glanced at the open kitchen archway as the sound of male voices came closer, before handing Alice her keys. “Listen, hon. I don’t like telling people what to do, but… please think about letting your apartment go, okay? Or if you decide to keep it, make sure you tell Loki you’re doing it, and why. I don’t know him that well yet, but I have a feeling he’s a lot like Gus. And Gus would never have forgiven me for keeping an exit door like an apartment. And he really would never have forgiven me if I kept the existence of that exit door from him.”
Alice shifted uncomfortably as she recalled Scout’s comment about the foster-kid mentality. You want to make sure the door is open in case you need to make a quick escape… “I’m not keeping anything from Loki. I just haven’t had a chance to think what to do.”
“Think fast,” came the low reply. “Men like Loki don’t wait for a woman to decide whether or not they’re committed. It’s all or nothing when it comes to men like him, so that’s what you need to think about.”
For some reason, Alice’s skin iced over. “All or nothing?”
“Exactly. Right now you have it all. But what if you didn’t? Think about what life would be like without Loki in it. If that’s the life you want to live, then go ahead. Keep the apartment. But if you and Loki are already at the stage where you can’t stand the thought of living apart, then be bold enough to rearrange your life so that it fits around Loki and the love you have for each other.”
Alice choked on the last of her cookie. “Love? What the hell, Joelle. I never said that I loved Loki. And he’s never said he loves me.”
“Badtz-Maru, Al.” Again she took the keyring from Alice’s hand and held it up between them. “A big, brutal guy—a Gravedigger legacy, for God’s sake—went shopping for a Badtz-Maru. For you. Honey, if that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.”
*
“You’re quiet.” Behind the wheel of the Hummer, Loki glanced at Alice before reaching over to lay a hand over the tightly laced knot of hers. Not surprisingly, her fingers were ice-cold. Damn. “Did Joelle say something to piss you off?”
“No, we just talked about… uh, about how she went all-in with Gus right from the beginning. And I showed her my Badtz-Maru keyring.”