chorus of voices as he went in. Oh, good. Gabby and Chris were both there, dressed in their jeans and sprawled out in his living room, beers and a giant pizza between them. Audra was curled up on the recliner, her adorable little-girl looks made even cuter by her perky blond ponytail and honest-to-god bobby socks. Audra hadn’t even bothered with jeans; she was wearing pajama pants and one of Simon’s sweatshirts, and she looked a good halfway into the plate of pizza on her lap.
“Simon!” they all called as he walked in. He hung his coat on its peg and took his bag of goodies into the living room, grabbing a bottle of water from the counter as he did.
“Freeloaders!” he joked. “What are we watching?”
“Pointless action adventure,” Gabby said with a deeply satisfied sigh. “Jason Statham… mm….”
“Agreed,” Simon and Audra said together, and Chris rolled his eyes.
“I get Captain Marvel next,” he said earnestly. “I need a pretty girl. Back me up here, Simon!”
“He already backed up Jason Statham,” Gabby complained.
“Yes, but he plays for all the teams, so he can give me two votes.”
Simon chuckled. “I’m easy either way,” he said, and Chris held his hand up for the five.
“Excellent. Way to be a friend.” And with that, Chris heard the crinkling of paper in Simon’s hand and sniffed the air. “Wait. What do you have there?”
Simon peered inside and then held the bag up to his face and breathed deeply. “Snickerdoodles,” he said happily before refolding the top of the bag and setting it on the end table. “But I need a piece of pizza first.”
“Where did you get those?” Audra asked. “Oh! And I forgot to ask, did you return that little dog today? She was so adorable. Did she make it home okay?”
“I did return the little dog,” Simon said with a look at Gabby. “And the people watching her at the moment were so very glad they didn’t have to tell the owners that she was missing.”
“Well, how did she get way out here?” Audra asked. “I mean, that address was in Folsom, right? That’s a long ways!”
“It is,” Simon agreed simply. “And they were as surprised as we were.”
Gabby gave a snort. “Oh yes, they were.”
Simon sent her a sharp look, trying to remind her that he’d confided the whole weirdness scenario to her and she didn’t need to let it out. Gabby rolled her eyes in return.
“So,” Gabby said sweetly, arching an eyebrow. “Are those from Alex’s roommate?”
Simon nodded, taking his first bite of pizza. “Mm-hmm. Why?”
“How was Alex?”
He sent her a dark look. “Fine,” he said. “Fantastic.”
“Are you going to see him again?”
Chris and Audra looked from Gabby to Simon, and Audra was the one who asked the question. “See him? As in date him? Date who?”
“Yes,” Simon said shortly, ignoring Audra and fixing his eyes on Gabby. “By the way, Gabby, I hate you. Without reservation.”
“Don’t be mad at me,” she told him. “I like the idea. As long as, you know, you don’t get too stalky or weird.”
“I told you, Gabby, if things go wrong, move my office to another branch,” Simon said.
“Alex, right?” Chris clarified. “I mean, I know you said you liked him, but cookies and cinnamon rolls in one day? Sounds serious!”
“The little redheaded associate who always wears tan?” Audra asked.
“He’s five foot eight,” Simon defended. “That’s a perfectly average height.”
“He’s a perfectly average guy!” Chris exclaimed. “And I meant what I said—he’s a good person. You’re sure you won’t miss the bling?”
“You have no idea how interesting he is,” Simon muttered. “And he’s… kind. And passionate. And his roommate bakes magic cookies, so be nice.”
“I like him,” Gabby said staunchly. “He’s so damned competent he could probably be moonlighting as James Bond or Harry Dresden, and we’d never know it.”
“Harry Dresden,” Simon seconded, because if anybody resembled the well-known fictional wizard it was Alex Kennedy—minus a few inches in height and a really impressive leather coat.
“What makes him Harry Dresden?” Chris asked, mostly in jest, which was why Simon answered him mostly in jest and not for real.
“Because he does magic things to my heart,” he said, grinning foolishly. Ah, yes—those kisses in the last light of the sun. The way seeing Alex’s slight form, moving in that practical no-nonsense way in a neighborhood that was obviously being taken over by forces Simon wouldn’t have believed in even the day before, had made Simon feel safe, secure.
Alex was steady—so steady he could stay the