"Sookie," said Dermot, and I jerked myself into the here and now. He was standing in the kitchen wearing plaid sleep pants, his normal night gear. His golden hair was still damp from the shower.
"Feeling better?" I smiled at him.
"Yes. Could we sleep together tonight?"
It was as though he'd asked, "Can we catch a camel and keep it as a pet?" Because of Niall's questions about Claude and me, Dermot's request struck me kind of weird. I just wasn't in a fairy-loving mood, no matter how innocently he intended it. And truthfully, I wasn't sure he hadn't meant we should do more than sleep. "Ahhhhh ... no."
Dermot looked so disappointed that I caught myself feeling guilty. I couldn't stand it; I had to explain.
"Listen, I understand that you don't intend that we have sex together, and I know that a couple of times in the past we've all slept in the same bed and we all slept like rocks.... It was a good thing, a healing thing. But there are maybe ten reasons I don't want to do that again. Number one, it's just really peculiar, to a human. Two, I love Eric and I should only bunk down with him. Three, you're related to me, so sleeping in the same bed should make me feel really squicky inside. Also, you look enough like my brother to pass for him, which makes any kind of vaguely sexual situation double squicky. I know that's not ten, but I think that's enough."
"You don't find me attractive?"
"Completely beside the point!" My voice was rising, and I paused to give myself a second. I continued in a quieter tone. "It doesn't make any difference how attractive I find you. Of course you're handsome. Just like my brother. But I have no sex feelings about you, and I kind of feel the sleeping-together thing is just odd. So we're not doing the fairy sleep-athon of comfort anymore."
"I'm sorry I've upset you," he said, even more miserably.
I felt guilty again. But I made myself suppress the twinge. "I don't think anyone in the world has a great-uncle like you," I said, but my voice was fond.
"I'll never bring it up again. I only sought comfort." He gave me Big Eyes. There was a hint of laughter turning up the corners of his mouth.
"You'll just have to comfort yourself," I said tartly.
He was smiling as he left the kitchen.
That night, for the first time in forever, I locked my bedroom door. I felt bad when I turned the latch, like I was dishonoring Dermot with my suspicions. But the last few years had taught me that one of my grandmother's favorite sayings was true. An ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure.
If Dermot turned my doorknob during the night, I was too soundly asleep to hear it. And maybe my ability to drop off that deeply meant that on a basic level I trusted my great-uncle. Or trusted the lock. When I woke the next day, I could hear him working upstairs in the attic. His footsteps sounded right above my head.
"I made some coffee," I called up the stairs. He was down in a minute. Somewhere he'd acquired a pair of denim overalls, and since he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath, he looked like he was about to take his place in the stripper lineup from the night before as the Sexy Farmer with the Big Pitchfork. I asked Sexy Farmer with a silent gesture if he wanted any toast, and he nodded, happy as a kid. Dermot loved plum jam, and I had a jar made by Maxine Fortenberry, Holly's future mother-in-law. His smile widened when he saw it.
"I was trying to get as much work finished as I could while it wasn't so hot," he explained. "I hope I didn't wake you up."
"Nope. I slept like a rock. What are you doing up there today?" Dermot had been inspired by HGTV to hang some doors in the walk-in attic to block off a part of the big room for storage, and he was turning the rest of the floored space into a bedroom for himself. He and Claude had been more or less bunking together in the small bedroom and sitting room on the second floor. When we'd cleared out the attic, Dermot had decided to "repurpose" the space. He'd already painted the walls and refinished and resealed the plank floor. I believe he'd recaulked the windows, too.
"The floor is dry now, so I built the new walls. Now I'm actually putting in the hardware to hang the doors. I'm hoping to get that done today and tomorrow. So if you have anything you want to store, the space will be ready."
When Dermot and Claude had helped me carry everything down from the packed attic, I'd gotten rid of the accumulated Stackhouse debris-generations of discarded trash and treasures. I was practical enough to know that moldering things untouched for decades really weren't doing anyone any good, and the trash had gone in a large burn pile. The nice items had gone to an antiques store in Shreveport. When I'd dropped by Splendide the week before, Brenda Hesterman and Donald Callaway had told me a few of the smaller pieces had sold.
While the two dealers were at the house looking through the possibilities, Donald had discovered a secret drawer in one of the old pieces of furniture, a desk. In it, I'd found a treasure: a letter from my gran to me and a unique keepsake.
Dermot's head turned at some noise I couldn't yet hear. "Motorcycle coming," he said around a mouthful of toast and jelly, sounding almost eerily like Jason. I snapped myself back to reality.
I knew only one person who regularly traveled by motorcycle.
A moment after I heard the motor cut off, there was a knock at the front door. I sighed, reminding myself to remember days like this the next time I felt lonely. I was wearing sleep shorts and a big old T-shirt, and I was a mess, but that would have to be the problem of my uninvited guest.
Mustapha Khan, Eric's daytime guy, was standing on the front porch. Since it was way too hot to wear leather, his "Blade" impersonation had suffered. But he managed to look plenty tough in a sleeveless denim shirt and jeans and his ever-present shades. He wore his hair in a geometric burr, a la the Wesley Snipes look in the movies, and I was sure he would have strapped huge weapons to his legs if the gun laws had let him.
"Good morning," I said, with moderate sincerity. "You want a cup of coffee? Or some lemonade?" I tacked on the lemonade because he was looking at me like I was crazy.
He shook his head in disgust. "I don't take stimulants," he said, and I remembered-too late-that he'd told me that before. "Some people just sleep their lives away," he remarked after glancing at the clock on the mantel. We walked back to the kitchen.
"Some people were out late last night," I said, as Mustapha-who was a werewolf-stiffened at the sight and scent of Farmer Dermot.
"I see what kind of work you been doing late," Mustapha said.