realize it’s almost noon, according to Spider’s bedside clock. Expecting Pip or Dee, I slip on a robe that Dee lent me and open the door and blink.
“Monica?”
She stands in the doorway looking uncommonly awkward. There’s a pile of clothes folded on her hands. She won’t meet my eyes, but her gaze flicks to the bandaged wound on my temple before they return to the clothes. “I… um. I didn’t… I mean…” She thrusts the clothes at me. “Here. Yeah.”
“Did Dee send you up here?” I take the clothes hesitantly, waving her in and stepping back to give her room.
“Nope.”
“….Oh.” I bite my lip.
She twists her hands. “Look, I… About yesterday. I didn’t know. Pip told me about what happened with Gary last night. About what you did.”
The admiring smile on her face registers, along with the apology in her eyes, and I feel my mouth make a silent, “Oh.”
She clears her throat and jerks her chin at the clothes. “I hope those fit. They’re the smallest I have.”
“These are yours?” Hope rises in me, hope for something I didn’t believe was possible.
I look over the stretchy grey pants and dark tee, neither meant to be particularly revealing. Relief sweeps through me that they don’t belong to some floozy of Spider’s. “Uh… thanks.”
Monica shrugs. “It’s no big deal. I figured it was the least I could do.” Her smile is awkward, but it’s also warm. Warm the way she used to smile at me before I stole those tips.
My heart explodes, feeling suddenly huge and full. It feels as if a heavy weight that’s been sitting on my chest has suddenly lifted.
“But you better enjoy them while you can,” she adds with a smirk. “As soon as Spider comes back, he’ll probably have me run off for the same sexy shit he’s been getting me to pick up for you since you got here.”
The teasing light in her eyes is exactly the same light I used to see in them when she teased me about sending me to serve the bikers at The Devil’s Den, for my not knowing what bikers were. My heart grows a little bigger.
Then my eyes widen, the implications in what she just said smacking me in the face.
The clothes Spider had me wear on my first day here out of his closet were obviously from one of his women, but the rest of them…
I growl and shake my head at the ceiling, dropping the clothes on the bed. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me he was buying those things?”
Picking up on the anger in my voice, she holds in a snicker. “Oh my God. You thought they were from other women he… Oh.” She covers her mouth, her shoulders shaking.
“Ohhh.” I shake my fists. “That… that…” I can’t find a word fitting for him that wouldn’t make my parents’ hair curl.
Monica giggles. The pleasant, purely playful sound wipes away weeks of animosity between us, and suddenly I feel as if I’m walking on air.
Then she sobers and cocks her head. “Look, Emma, I’ve heard what Rat’s been babbling on about to the rest of the guys. About why you stole that money. He was going on about it this morning with Pip.”
My heart leaps.
“Spider might be too much of an asshole to believe you, but I get it. If I had known why, I never would have…” She trails off, and her eyes are suddenly wet.
My eyes sting, my throat tightens, and the next thing I know, my arms are around her. Her arms squeeze, and I close my eyes, tears splashing my cheeks.
We stand there for a long time in silence before she finally pulls back and once more clears her throat. “So. Um. Since you’re going to be stuck with nothing to do for a while…”
I push the door shut and go to the bed to dress, looking at her when she trails off.
“I was going to curl up with some popcorn and watch a movie. Join me?”
I wipe my eyes and nod happily. “What are you going to watch?”
As I strip off my robe and pull on my pants and shirt, it hits me that I’ve never watched a movie all the way through, only catching parts of them, usually the Hallmark or wholesome kids movies the Porters let their boys watch.
“I thought I’d watch Star Wars or something,” she says, opening the door while I straighten my shirt.
“Star who?”
She widens her eyes and grins. “Wow, girl. You don’t know what