back.
“Yeah?” I pressed. “That’s all?”
Her fingers worked idly at the edges of my cut. I felt her heartbeat speed up through my palm on her back, but stayed patient in waiting for her answer.
“I love him, Jandro.”
The relief whooshed out of me in a long breath that became a laugh. “Well, I was expecting much worse. Did you tell him?”
“No.” Her eyebrows knitted together, her bottom lip pulling between her teeth. “I don’t want to overwhelm him with…you know, intense feelings while he’s still getting used to this.”
“He’s not overwhelmed by you,” I said. “Fuck, I’d bet Foghorn’s sperm that he’s in love with you too.”
“But he’s never felt like that before, right? What if it freaks him out?”
“He can be a big boy and get through it like the rest of us. Remember, he’s got us to lean on too.”
She relaxed with that assurance, leaning heavily against me. “Please be there for him. I know you all have your manly pride or whatever, but I want him to know he has someone besides me.”
“He always has me, although he doesn’t need me like he used to. My boy’s grown up.” I scratched my head with a laugh. “Fuck, we’ve all been so busy running around, I just realized we haven’t really talked much in the last few days.”
“Talk to him,” she urged. “Spend tomorrow with him.”
“And what if I have plans?”
“I think you can skip cuddling the chickens and yelling at Foghorn for one day.”
“I do not cuddle them! It’s called checking for parasites, I’ll have you know.”
“If you say so, guapito.” Her smile brushed my cheek. “You’re the best, you know that?”
“Eh, I figure I can place in the top four.” I stood up with a groan, keeping her legs wrapped around me. “You want to wait for the others or turn in now?”
“Let’s go in.” She kissed me deeply, palms cupping my neck. “Can we eat dinner in bed?”
“Hm, Reaper’s not gonna like that.” I nudged the side door open with my foot as I proceeded to carry her inside.
“Good thing he’s not here.” Her lips quirked. “We finally got our alone time.”
“Perfect,” I sighed against her mouth, carrying her through the doorway of our room. “So that means I get dinner and dessert all to myself.”
It didn’t take much convincing to get Shadow to hang out the next day. I invited him to come with me and Larkan to the garage we were borrowing to do our maintenance and repairs. He accepted with his usual grunt, the only change was his insistence to kiss Mari goodbye before she left for the hospital. The big dude joined our lineup in seeing her off like he’d always belonged.
Reaper was taking her today, shooting down her pleas to drive with surly growls that turned down her beautiful smile.
“Just let her, Reap. She needs to learn,” I urged.
“Nah, later,” he grunted, easing the bike onto the road. “Too much traffic through the city in the morning.”
“I did fine with Gunner the other day,” she protested.
“Do I look like fucking Gunner? I said no.”
“You and me then, Mariposita,” I reminded her. “We’ll do a lesson when you have a free afternoon.”
She nodded, setting her chin on the back of Reaper’s shoulder with a pout as they rode away. I watched them until they turned the corner, trying to figure out this weird sensation in my gut. Reaper was overprotective on a good day but he seemed over the top with it lately, even for him..
I shook it off, figuring it had to do with war planning and having more at stake now, knowing that his family was here. Clapping Shadow on the shoulder, I headed for our steeds. “You ready, dude?”
“Yeah.” He followed me, tying his hair back to keep the wind out of it.
That was new. Every passing day, he seemed to hide his face less and less.
Larkan came up a minute after us, after struggling to release himself from Noelle clinging to him on the front porch. We pulled up to the garage ten minutes later, parking in front of the spare bay that Dave, the owner, let us work out of.
Our prospect was in a surly mood from the get-go, barely saying a word to me while throwing tools around carelessly and grumbling to himself as he worked. Shadow was being a much better helper than him just by replacing a few tires.
“Quit throwing your tantrum like a bitch and spit it out already,” I told Larkan from