“Child,” he murmured gently, “the minute I looked at you, you broke my heart. That lost look in your eyes. Damn.”
Oh God.
I felt my chest rise and fall with the effort to stop myself from crying.
“Look around, Evie,” he said. “You’ve been found.”
I swallowed.
Actually, it was more like a gulp.
Smithie bent and kissed my cheek.
When he straightened, he told me, “I got a phone too. You need anything, darlin’, you call on me.”
As if he sensed I was about to lose it, he didn’t offer me any further kindnesses.
He left.
I concentrated on finding my insurance agent’s number, calling her, reporting the incident and learning that they’d have to come and look at my car.
I then texted Mag that I needed the deets.
Within a minute, he’d texted me the deets.
It was already at a body shop, waiting for the go-ahead to be fixed.
Not surprising with these good, kindhearted people.
I sat with the book.
Jet took a break and sat with me.
Indy took a break and sat with me.
Tex boomed at me.
Duke studied me like he was trying to figure me out (so I avoided looking at Duke).
Then Roxie showed with two men she introduced as Tod and Stevie, who both wore wedding bands and made it clear in sweet ways that they belonged to each other.
Roxie also had a number of bags, and after she made the introductions and Jet and Indy had wandered over, she said apropos of nothing, “Shut up. I won’t hear it.”
She then yanked out three pairs of faded jeans (two distressed, all three cool), five tees (and they were fab) and two cardigans (slouchy and overlarge, in great colors).
And after all of this littered the seating area I was in, she dumped two big Soma bags at my feet and stated, “Undies, bras and nightwear. And the other stuff is no big deal since we got it all at a vintage store, so it cost practically nothing.”
It was the “practically” part of that that bothered me.
Then Tod dumped a big Sephora bag at my feet and said, “Cleanser, toner, moisturizer and some cosmetics. And shut up, I won’t hear it either.”
“But I don’t even know you,” I noted.
“Girl, we got a communal slush fund for shit like this,” he returned.
I’d been reading so I did not find this surprising.
Still.
“I—” I started.
“Shut up,” Tod said.
“But I—”
“Shut up,” Tod and Roxie said in unison.
“But—”
“Shut up!” Tod, Stevie, Roxie, Indy and Jet all said once.
I shut up.
Air kisses were then exchanged, even with me, and Tod, Stevie and Roxie took off, Jet going with them to pick up her boys (she had three sons) and get home to make dinner for her family, Indy going to pick up her kids (she had a girl and boy) before she met up with Lee and they went to her in-laws for dinner.
This was when I got call number two from Mag.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“How’s things?” he asked.
“The Rock Chicks are bossy,” I informed him.
“Good bossy, or bad bossy?” he asked.
“Is there a good bossy?” I asked in return.
“Yes,” he answered.
Hmm.
“I have a bunch of new stuff and I don’t think they’re going to let me pay them back for any of it,” I shared.
“Then it’s the good bossy,” he stated. “See you around six.”
He hung up before I could say another word.
I folded all my new stuff up and returned it to the bags.
Then I went back to reading.
It happened at close to six.
With perfectly imperfect timing, it happened just when the bell over the door rang and I looked up from reading about when Indy performed with Tod at a drag show and then she, Ally and Tex got into a car chase after shots were fired at the gay bar.
I looked up to see Mag walking in, eyes on me, a smile on his handsome face.
Because of this…
Because I’d spent the day with nice people who looked after me, got me lunch, bought me stuff I needed, handed me orgasmic coffees, instead of what I might have been doing if Lottie and Mag had not intervened in my life: cowering in fear while sorting through the ruin of my apartment…
Because of all of this, when my phone rang and I looked down at it and saw it was my mother calling, I took the call without thinking.
I put it to my ear as Mag approached me, my eyes to him, and began, “Hey—”