strings till long after Evan was born. I seduced him, not the other way around. He wouldn’t look at me till I was eighteen and I had to work to get that man. And he’s just forty-three.”
“Right.” Nick’s stomach rolled queasily. “You love him?”
“Yeah. Not like exploding hearts and flowers, maybe, but he’s the best guy I know. He’s generous, kind, he has a big heart, and he adores Evan. He’s my best friend.”
“You’re happy with him?”
“Better than ninety percent of the girls in town, fighting with the guys they say they love, arguing over money or drinking or jealousy or some stupid stuff. Evan and I have a good life. Randy takes care of us. I work at a preschool. Evan’s in kindergarten.”
“And when Randy’s sixty and you’re still young?”
She gave his arm a hard shove. “I don’t need you screwing around with my life.”
“I’m not trying to. Just saying—”
“Don’t! You can go marry some nice woman exactly your age and have a perfect middle-America life and leave mine alone. It works.”
“I didn’t—”
“Who are you to tell me what love is, anyway?”
“That’s not—”
“Is yours perfect? I’m not hearing about your wonderful wife and two-point-five kids.”
“And you won’t! You’ll hear about my fucking husband!” He drew a sharp breath, but it was too late to take back the words.
Ari’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened, but as he was bracing for a lecture on unnatural lifestyles, she began to laugh. “At least my marriage is the good old Bible tradition. Even if the witches in his congregation act like I’m the whore who trapped the saint.”
“Um. Really?”
“Hell, yeah. I think half of them were out to get him for themselves.”
“Is it a problem?”
“Nah. They’re getting used to me now. We go to community dinner at the pastor’s house and no one glares at me anymore.”
“That’s good, I guess.”
She nodded. “I don’t care, but Randy’s into the whole church-as-family bit. He didn’t like being caught between me and them.”
Nick couldn’t hold off any longer. “What about a gay brother-in-law? Will that be a problem?”
“A bit?” Ari tilted her head, as if thinking about it. “Not from Randy. He did the big city street kid outreach for two years, and he was good at it. He’s got a pretty open mind. The church wouldn’t like it, though, and his mom would have fits.”
“Will you tell Randy?”
“Eventually. Probably.”
“Do… do you care?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Your friend that came with you. Is he your husband?”
“Not yet. But my partner, yeah.”
“What’s his name again?”
“Brian.”
“Does he make you all happy with flowers and fluffy kittens?”
Nick had a flash of seeing Brian grappling with a killer on a tossing deck over the ocean, knowing Brian could die at any moment and having to let him save himself. Of Brian pale and passed out, after a hard, vital Find… “I’m not sure I’d say fluffy happy, but he’s the one.”
“Then it’s not up to me, is it?”
“No, but if I wanted to see you again? To see Evan?” I have a nephew. It was an unsettling thought, but a wave of protectiveness hit him. That kid’s never going to end up in foster care while I’m alive. “Will you call me, if you ever need something, or he does?”
“You want me to?”
“Hell, yeah. Like, if something happens, I want to be there for him.”
“I don’t know. I don’t really know you, do I? Randy has friends and relatives I could ask for help.”
“You’d let your kid grow up with Bible-thumpers?”
“What are you talking about?”
Nick realized he’d let his thoughts run ahead of his mouth. “I want to help with other stuff, but especially if something happened to you or Randy, I want the kid to know he has family. That he’s not alone. Someone always wants him, whoever he turns out to be.”
Ari gave him a long, dark stare, but then she put a hand on his arm. “Foster care sucked for you?”
Nick wasn’t answering that. Nothing in his life sucked the way hers had. “Like, you could write my name down somewhere for him, that I’m his uncle. And keep in touch?”
“All right.” She bit her lip. “Are you on Facebook?”
“Um. No. Undercover cop. It wasn’t a good idea to have my pictures and real name out there.”
“Instagram? Twitter?”
“I could be.” Social media had never been his thing, except as a research tool. Maybe because he’d known how exposed people were on them. Exposed… “Eventually.” He’d almost forgotten the lingering threats hanging over Brian, particularly from