he’d been imprisoned recently and for a very serious assault. I immediately felt a wave of shame for even reacting that way, even though no one knew it. I had kept a smile on my face the entire time, hadn’t missed a single beat, but still… I had judged this man unfairly with just that little bit of information.
Maybe, in turn, that meant Tic was right to judge me. Maybe I wasn’t good enough to be among them. Maybe I was just another hopeless citizen that could never belong…
“You doing alright, babe?” Fen asked.
“Oh, yeah, I’m just getting tired. It’s been a long day for me. What time is it, anyway?” I asked.
“Ten o’clock,” Little Bird answered.
“The night’s still young,” Mav said, and I laughed.
“Then I’m too old,” I said. “It is way past my bedtime. I have to open tomorrow and six am comes early. I still have to drive to Tacoma.”
“What’s in Tacoma?” Mace asked and I smiled a little sadly.
“My mom’s house.”
“You live with your mother?” he asked, looking confused.
“No, my mom died a few months ago. I’m just living in her house.”
“Oh. Oh, man… I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay, you didn’t know.”
“Come on,” Fen said, hoisting himself to his feet. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
I smiled.
“I’d like that.”
Fenris came around the table and held his hand down to me. I took it and let him help me to my feet. I traded goodbyes and farewells with the people at the table and led Fen back to my car just around the corner. He leaned me back up against it, hands on my hips, dipping his head to meet my mouth with his.
I kissed him, and the tension and apprehension I felt in my shoulders eased marginally.
“I love you,” he said, and his eyes held… worry.
I smiled, and it felt brittle. “I love you, too,” I murmured.
“Text me when you get home, baby. I need to know you’re safe.”
I nodded.
“Okay,” I whispered.
He kissed me again and opened my door for me.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said as I started my car and rolled down my window for him. I nodded and smiled.
“Okay.”
He rapped twice on the roof of my Prius and stepped back to allow me to shift it into reverse and back out of the parking space. I smiled and waved through my passenger window steering my little, environmentally conscious, boring car choice out of the lot.
I couldn’t help but feel that keenly… that I was utterly boring, especially after leaving the gathering. All of these doubts about whether I could or would be good for Fenris almost immediately started crowding in.
I just didn’t know if I was cut out for ‘the life’ as he called it. I certainly didn’t feel entirely welcome.
I felt tears well in my eyes as I took the freeway on-ramp onto I-5 South.
Maybe, just maybe, it would be the wiser course of action to end things now… if I waited much longer, it could hurt so much worse when things ended badly, and right now it really felt as though it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ but when.
I had a lot to think about.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Fenris…
“She good?” Maverick asked quietly when I got back to the table.
“I dunno,” I said. “I think so.” Truth was I didn’t think so. Something in her eyes… a little too wide as she’d looked up at me, her posture a little too stiff. I was thinking that she maybe was letting her insecurities get to her.
“I like her, she seems nice,” Mace said, but bro had definitely overdone it. Of course, that level of drunk implied a certain amount of truthfulness.
“It’ll be fine, bro,” Dump Truck assured me.
“If it’s any consolation, and she asks, I like her, too. She seems like a damn fine lady,” Maverick said.
“Not to talk too out of pocket,” I said, giving Little Bird a quick, side-eyed glance. “She’s an angel in the streets and a little wild in the sheets.”
Maverick grinned. “Knew it had to be something to catch your interest.”
I grinned back. “I don’t think y’all got the best impression tonight. She’s shy, and it takes a bit to get her out of her shell. Tic fucked all that up.”
“You know Tic,” Maverick said with a sigh. “Always got some kind of sand in his man pussy.”
Mace, Dump Truck, and a few other guys in the near vicinity had a laugh at Tic’s expense.
“Where’d he fuck off to, anyway?” DT asked.
“Dahlia collected him after she got done with me,”