Somehow, he made it down the hall. Marcus had spilled his soup trying to feed himself, so Flix ladled out another bowlful and started over. He didn’t know what else to do.
***
Devin toweled dry the large ceramic platter that had held the arroz con frijoles they’d eaten for dinner. By the dim light of the lone solar-powered lamp, he returned the platter to the cabinet and drained the sink. He wiped his hands on his pants and sighed as he watched Joe and Navarro sit at the table and argue.
After more than a week in Purcell, Devin’s patience was running out. Something about that wall had spooked Joe. They hadn’t returned to the border since their first visit.
The days and nights at Navarro and Liliana’s had passed pleasantly. Time had mostly healed Devin’s aches and pains. They all enjoyed dinners with real food and entertaining conversation. During the day, Devin helped Liliana by organizing the contents of the community shed — a sturdy concrete block building in the back yard that stored all the crap the residents had dragged here from their former lives. Peter stayed underfoot in the kitchen with Sadie, Flix took care of Marcus, and Joe and Navarro had sewn themselves together at the hip. At night, Devin and Joe collapsed into bed and fell asleep almost instantly. They woke in the gray dawn and had slow, drowsy sex before Navarro barged in like clockwork every morning and dragged Joe away. Some nights, Devin counted himself lucky that the twins and Peter slept on the couches, otherwise Joe and Navarro would probably stay up talking until dawn.
Marcus’s arm and leg seemed fine, but he could barely walk. They’d have to wait longer for his heel to repair itself, and Navarro had told them Marcus would need extra rest to recover from the trauma, so Devin understood that they weren’t yet able to leave. But he wanted Joe to want to leave.
He wanted to leave. As much as he enjoyed eyeing up Navarro and sleeping in a bed every night, the north called to him. These past few days, hearing people come by asking for Dr. Suarez, it had dawned on Devin that he didn’t even know his own last name. One more thing he’d lost when his parents had died.
Liliana nudged him with her hip. “Why so glum, Dev?”
Devin summoned a smile. “Tired, I think. My boss works me too hard, and my partner can’t shut his brain off at night.”
“That boss of yours sounds like a bitch. You should tell her to back off.” Liliana hopped up to sit on the counter and covered Devin’s hand with her own. “I’ve appreciated your help out in the shed, but if you need less work, I’m happy to let you off the hook.”
“God, no. Messing around in there’s the best part of the day. Spares me from having to listen to those two whisper right in front of me.”
Joe and Navarro didn’t even glance up from their glaring contest. They were always pleasant enough when the kids were nearby, but alone, they argued a lot. Devin didn’t understand it. As much as they fought, he’d expect them to spend as little time together as possible, but that’s not what they did. They sought each other out. Navarro cajoled. Joe snipped. But they also sneaked peeks at each other and smiled.
“Don’t mind them,” Liliana said. “They were like this before.”
“How did you keep from killing them?”
Liliana laughed, big and loud enough to startle Joe and Navarro. “I made friends with strong people who could restrain me.”
Navarro rose and kissed Liliana’s cheek. “Telling whoppers?”
“It’s all true.” Liliana threaded her arms around Navarro’s neck and pulled him close. “Bedtime, darling. Leave late nights for the young.”
Navarro twined his finger with a lock of Liliana’s hair and winked at Devin. “Lili has always been much smarter than me. Night, Muscles.”
Holding hands, Liliana and Navarro headed toward their room, and Devin was hit with a flash of envy. It must be nice to be so settled, so sure of who you were and where you were meant to be. He couldn’t help thinking that the north held that sort of satisfaction for him.
Joe rose from the table. Purple bruises from lack of sleep lined his lower eyelids and made his eyes bigger, sadder. “Need any help finishing up?”
Devin shook his head. He took Joe’s hand and tugged him toward the living room. He wasn’t sure what his plan was, but he needed to get Joe out of the house. “Let’s check on the boys and go for a walk.”
At the living room, Joe dropped next to Marcus’s hip on the couch and ran down the Navarro-prescribed checklist of Marcus’s symptoms, the same as he did every night. Devin hovered over the back of the other sofa and watched Flix use a silver marker to draw designs over the tops of Peter’s feet.
“I can’t believe he lets you do that.”
Flix glanced toward Peter’s closed eyes. “’Cause he’s asleep. But he always sticks his feet in my lap, at least, when he’s not acting like I have the plague. Drives me crazy. This makes it not so irritating. Thanks again for the marker.”
“No problem.”
The marker had been one of Devin’s finds out in the shed. He hadn’t known what it was, so brought it into the house to ask. Flix filled him in. Devin had never learned to write, so the marker was useless to him and, most likely, just about everyone in the town. Flix treated it like it was made of gold, though. Devin had been happy to hand it over.
He doubted Peter would be so happy tomorrow morning when he woke up with his feet
