They should be cool. I need –”
“Award?” Hank cut in.
I waved my hand between us. “Nothing, it was just some design award.”
He grinned at me.
The way he was grinning made me feel funny, al warm inside, like I’d done something great.
“Stop grinning at me, Whisky. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“Any award is a big deal.”
“This one wasn’t.”
“Sorry, didn’t you say you recruited two clients because of it?”
“Wel , yeah.”
“Then it was a big deal.”
“Whisky –”
“Sunshine, quiet,” he said, then he gave me a light kiss so I’d do as I was told. “I’l see you, and your folks, at my house at six thirty.”
“Do you have a suit?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
He gave me a squeeze and started to let go but I held on.
“You hear anything about Bil y –”
His eyes locked on mine and he interrupted me. “Yeah.” I sighed. “For a while there, I forgot about him.” Hank’s arms tightened and his face dipped close.
“Sweetheart, I promise, soon he’l be a memory.” I nodded because I believed him.
My body fitted itself close to his.
Hank’s head came down the rest of the way, this time, not for a light kiss but for a deeper one.
When I was dizzy, he let me go and then he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mom Bombed
I was looking out the window of the black Explorer processing my day and preparing for my night.
I was in Fortnum’s when Luke walked in ten minutes ago, eyes on me and he said one word, “Home.”
I guessed that meant he was my ride.
Annette and Jason had been spending the day casing the other head shops to check out the competition. I cal ed to tel her Hank and I had sorted things out and I was moving to Denver. She was ecstatic. We’d been trailing each other for seven years, Indianapolis to Chicago and now to Denver.
“Bitch,” she said. “With you and me in the ‘hood, Denver isn’t going to know what hit it!”