“Is that gonna be bad?”
“We don’t know yet. George doesn’t like looking like a fool. He’d go after Hank but there’s nothing to get on Hank.
Instead, he’l likely go after Lee and Shirleen as retribution.”
“How?”
“Lee’l be okay. He doesn’t play by the rules but he covers his tracks. But Shirleen used to deal drugs.” I gasped at this news but Mace talked through it. “Now she’s fostering two runaways and Jules and another social worker at the Shelter pul ed some strings to place Roam and Sniff with her. Roam and Sniff might be moved out.
Jules might lose her job.”
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“It’l be okay,” Mace told me.
“It doesn’t sound okay.”
“Don’t worry about it, Kitten.” And he didn’t sound worried. Not at al . And I trusted him to be right so I let it go.
“Shirleen used to deal drugs?” I asked.
“Yeah, she was never busted and she’s been clean awhile.”
“I can’t believe that of Shirleen.” And I couldn’t.
“Even good people do bad things, Stel a. Shirleen’s good people. She just did bad things. Now, she doesn’t.
She’s a good foster carer, she loves those kids. Would lay down her life for them, proved it this morning. She’s also a good friend. That’s al you need to know. End of story.” It was my turn to fal silent because I trusted him to be right about that too. And, with what I experienced of Shirleen, I knew he was right.
Then I shared, “This is weird.”
“What?”
“You. Me. Talking.”
I heard the smile in his voice when he said, “I like it.” You could hear my smile in my voice when I said, “Me too.”
Then I decided it was time to start beating back those demons. I had to start right away because I didn’t like him living with them and I wasn’t going to let him do it one second longer than he had to.
“I like you coming home to me,” I told him softly.
The minute I stopped talking, the air in the room changed. It felt like it became heavy, close but warmer.
Mace didn’t respond but he did move, final y touching me, his fingers, whisper-soft, at my waist.
I went on, “I like making breakfast for you. I like you in my kitchen. I like that henley you wore today, it looks great on you.”
“Kitten,” he murmured and his fingers shifted down the smal of my back. He leaned his body into me and pul ed me closer.
me closer.
My hands hit his hard chest, one slid up and my fingers curled around his neck. “I like to hear Juno’s tags jingle when you give her a rubdown. I like hearing your clothes hitting the furniture.”
After I said that, his lips hit my neck then slid up to behind my ear.
I turned my head so my lips were at his ear and I wrapped my arms tight around his middle. “I’m sorry I fought you, Mace,” I whispered. “But now that your mine again, I’m never going to let you go.”
He turned his head and I could swear he was looking at me in the dark. I felt my face grow warm under his gaze, my soft body already warming from his hard one pressing into mine.