had an exciting day,” Gram said. “Good thing I made so many muffins.”
Gavin let out a long breath. “Best day ever.”
“Wait, how many of those have you eaten?” Logan asked Levi as he popped the last of a muffin in his mouth.
“Four,” he said around his bite.
“That’s it, brodentical, if you ate the last one, I’m destroying your face.” He wound his arm around Levi’s neck, trying to get him in a headlock, but Levi slipped out, twisting Logan’s arm behind his back.
“Boys,” Gram said. “Not inside.”
They both stopped and said, “Sorry, Gram,” in unison.
It was so weird when they did that.
Jack stopped by to give us an update. The FBI had Felix Orman and his goons in custody. They’d need to talk to Fiona, but it could wait until tomorrow. He apologized for having to take her dad in, but she assured him she understood.
Eventually, the muffins were gone, and everyone went home after saying their goodbyes. I held Gram a little longer than usual when I hugged her on my way out.
I took Fiona home. After feeding Sasquatch, we went straight to the bedroom, stripped off our clothes, and got into bed. It wasn’t a sex thing. I just needed to touch her, have her body next to mine. I needed to feel her breathe.
She shifted so she could look up at me. “I need to tell you why I went to Luke’s shop.”
I brushed her hair back from her face. “I don’t care why you were there. If you want to be friends with Luke, it’s fine. You can go feed the squirrels together if you want.”
“No, you don’t understand,” she said with a soft laugh. “I wasn’t there just hanging out for no reason. Don’t forget, I rejected him. It’s not like he wants to be besties with me.”
I tipped my head in acknowledgment. She had a point.
“I went to see Luke because he has literally the only compatible convertible carriage for the Pontiac in a five-hundred-mile radius. I swear, I called everyone I know and a whole bunch of people I didn’t know. Nobody had one. Finally I found a guy who used to have one, but he told me he’d already sold it to Luke.”
“Luke must have bought it thinking he’d get the Judge from Walt.”
“Exactly. So I convinced Luke to sell it to you. And now I just need to convince you to buy it from him and use it to finish the car, even though you’ve sworn you’ll never do business with a Haven.”
“How’d you convince him to sell it to me?”
“He needed a set of dials for a Mustang Boss restoration. I knew a guy who had them. And before you hear some crazy rumor about me running around town with Luke Haven, I did ride with him in his truck to go get it, but it was only so he’d agree to sell you the part you need.”
Touching her face, I shook my head slowly. “Now I really feel like an asshole.”
“You kinda should.”
“Beautiful, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. You also saved my life today. Although I would have forgiven you anyway.”
I gazed into those hazel-green eyes that got me every time. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you.”
“Right back at you, Bailey.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “I have another confession.”
“How many new houseplants did you buy?”
“Zero,” she said, laughing again. “But that’s an excellent idea. Some plants would really brighten up the shop. No, that’s not what I need to confess. And maybe I don’t even need to tell you because it doesn’t change anything, but I just think it would be wrong to keep this from you. You trust me and I know how special that is and I don’t ever want to break that trust.”
She was making me a little nervous, but I just nodded, waiting for her to continue.
“I called my mom this morning. God, was that really today? It seems like ages ago. Anyway, I was thinking, for just a minute, that maybe I should leave Tilikum for a little while and go to Iowa, like I’d planned.”
I opened my mouth to tell her no fucking way, but she put a finger to my lips.
“I know, I know. Terrible idea. And I swear it wasn’t because I was going to leave you. I promise. That’s why I need to tell you, because I don’t want it to come out later and you get the wrong idea. This morning, all I knew was