at Lottie, who was retreating with the food, but, I would note, he did not move from being bent to me.
“Lottie’s romantic,” I said, and regained Mag’s attention. “For a stripper.”
That earned me another smile.
Then I got my hand captured and I was pulled out of the couch.
Apparently, Mag and his cargo pants and utilitarian boots and zip-code chest entering the vicinity served to calm Smithie down, and I knew this because his head didn’t explode, and he didn’t shout anymore.
Instead, he went to Tex, cut the line and ordered a coffee.
Mag sat us at a big table in the corner, everyone joined us, and as food was distributed and tucked into, I watched how they worked this.
Mag was not one of them, but he was Lottie’s, so he fit.
I was Lottie’s, so I fit.
We sat. We ate. They chatted. Mag flatly refused anyone paying him for their food, he got a lot of, “My turn next time” and “Catch you on the flipside” and it was just…
It was just…
A family get-together in a used bookstore and coffee emporium.
But me?
I’d had a bag filled with drugs in the trunk of my car just yesterday.
My apartment had been tossed, my brother was in mortal danger and I hadn’t told my mother, my father or my sister, nor gone to them for help, because I couldn’t be sure if they would and I couldn’t take the blow if they wouldn’t.
And I was realizing my best friend was a senior citizen I took shopping and out to family chain restaurants because I didn’t have time to do lunch or go to movies or out to clubs with people my own age.
But furthermore, I was just so weird, no one wanted to hang with me anyway.
And I essentially had to pay Gert to spend time with me (though she would do it even if I didn’t grab the check).
It wasn’t only my apartment that was in ruins.
My life was.
And it was me who’d led it to that.
“Hey.”
I’d gone to a storage unit in the middle of the night even if a man who probably was in the position to know just how lunatic that was advised me against it.
“Hey.”
And I helped my brother out, my mom, dad, sister, whoever, all the time.
Whenever they needed it, I was there.
But I didn’t let them lean on me.
I let them shit all over me.
“Hey.”
It was Mag’s tone but also the fact he took hold of my chin and turned my head from staring unseeing at my puddle of melting custard to his amazing face.
“Baby,” he murmured when he got one look at me.
My next thoughts came unexpected and tore through me like a bullet.
I want you to be mine. I want that to be my world. That a guy like you would turn out as awesome as you seem and I’d earn your attention, then your heart, and then we’d teach our kids to be smart and protective and funny like you and not anything like me.
“Evie, honey,” he whispered. “Come back to me, yeah?”
I made myself nod.
He took his fingers from my chin but did it gliding one along my jaw a little in a light, sweet, reassuring touch.
“You’re gonna have moments like that,” he shared. “When I’m not here, you still got people around. Let them help you pull yourself out of ’em. Okay?”
I made myself nod again.
“This is gonna get sorted, Evie. It seems a lot and it seems scary, but,” he grinned a grin I could tell he didn’t fully mean, glanced toward the store then back to me and joked, “we haven’t lost one yet.”
I made myself smile.
He knew I didn’t fully mean it either when he vowed, “I promise, it’s gonna be okay. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I pushed out.
His face got soft.
Oh God.
That look.
That look on Daniel Magnusson aimed at me.
I WANNA MAKE YOU MINE! I screamed in my head.
“Forget the custard,” he ordered. “I’ll take you for more when you can eat it without it being melted. Eat your curds and your burger.”
“Roger that, sergeant.”
“I only made corporal.”
“What?”
“Nothin’,” he said then took a massive bite of his burger.
Why did dudes do that?
It wasn’t going to fly out of his hands and make its escape before he shoved the whole thing in his mouth.
He watched me watching him chewing.
And with his mouth still full, he asked, “What?”
“You eat like a frat boy.” I said it like a tease so he wouldn’t take offense.
He didn’t.
He swallowed, smiled (again! gah!) and then leaned close to