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“HOW LONG DO YOU THINK you'll stay?” I asked, as
He stooped down, picked up the new clothes he had gotten in town, and lifted an eyebrow in my direction. “I'm not even moved in yet and you're already trying to get rid of me?”
“No!” I spluttered. “I just... I mean... This is all just...”
He walked to my side and planted a sweet, soft kiss on my cheek, then moved his lips to my ear. “There's no pressure. This doesn't mean anything about anything. It's me putting myself in a position to take care of you, and that's all. Don't overthink it, Lily.”
Don't overthink it.
Easier said than done.
A couple weeks ago, I'd been in California, living the life of a nomad and going wherever I pleased. Just me and Silver and the empty road in front of us. No ties except to the love we both had of carne asada fries and a good milkshake. No one to take care of, no one to go home to.
No one to threaten us.
I'd moved home when my aunt called me to tell me my mother had been in a car accident and needed someone to watch over her, and the moment I stepped foot back in my hometown, everything had changed. I'd had immediate suspicions that my mother's crash hadn't been random but had been the work of the men who'd driven me out of town in the first place, and that suspicion was strengthened when those men—my ex, Tony McCarthy and his father, Mark—had immediately started haunting my footsteps. I'd had a run-in with Tony almost immediately, and then another, and then another, and had found out that he and his father essentially owned the town's police department. I'd weathered a rock through the windshield of my van and a nighttime visit from Tony himself, when he threatened me and my mother if I didn't give him another chance.
And I would have left town again just to get away from him, if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd gone from having no one to care about to having multiple people to take care of.
Because somewhere in the midst of all the drama, I'd found Warren, and he'd become...
Really, really important.
Which was a complication, because I knew that if I cared about him, it made him a target for Tony and his father, too.
So now there were four of us—me, my mom, Silver, and Warren—and we were all in the McCarthy crosshairs. All in danger, in one way or another, until we figured out how to make it stop.
So yeah, I was wondering how long Warren was going to be staying at the house I shared with my mom. I was worried about my mother and me, and our safety... and I was worried about Warren himself.
“I'm not overthinking it,” I told him seriously. “I'm wondering how long you're going to let me protect you.”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes, telling me exactly what he thought about that. But as he turned, I saw the quirk of his mouth and the slight flush across his cheeks that told me that he didn't mind it as much as he wanted me to think he did.
In fact, I was willing to bet that he actually liked the idea of someone looking out for him. From the little he'd told me, he hadn't had much in the way of affection or protection when he was a kid, and I was betting that me implying I cared enough to want to protect him to was doing more for his ego than anything else ever had.
I grinned at the thought, picked up my own stack of boxes, and trailed after him, making a list in my head of the things we still needed to move.
***
“I THINK THAT'S IT,” I said, looking around the newly crowded living room in my mother's house.
It hadn't looked like that much in the house. But now that it was here, stacked up against all the things my mother already had...
It was going to be a crowded couple of weeks.
And I was going to love every second of it.
I slid my hand into Warren's and looked up at him. “Want to unpack now or do it later?”
“Later,” he said immediately. “Right now, I want a shower. And then a nap. That was a lot of work for this old man.”
I snorted with laughter at that. “Old is right. You're what, forty-five? Fifty?”
He turned before I could get out of the way and sprang at me, his hands already going to my ribs and tickling me mercilessly. “I'll show you old, young lady.”
I shrieked and made to run, surprised at this suddenly playful side of him, but he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, his face against my neck, and I grew suddenly still. What was this? First he'd been like a little kid, all threats and tickle fights, and now he was holding me like he never planned to let me go.
A sudden cough from the other end of the room interrupted the moment, and we both straightened and looked toward the door into the kitchen, where my mother was watching us with her eyebrows raised. “If you two could take a break from your lovefest to help me outside, that would be great.”
“Outside? Where are you going? You know you can't drive on your own.” My mother's body had been broken in several places when she got into the crash, and she was still wheelchair bound. If she thought she was going to hop into her car and go for a drive, she had another thing coming.
Not that I would have complained about time alone with Warren.
She gave me a deeply jaded look. “I know I can't drive, daughter. That's why your aunt is coming to pick me up. I thought you two might like some time alone to unpack.”
Her words held a world of unsaid commentary, and I felt myself blushing at the thought of what she thought we were going to be doing.
In her house.
With her knowledge.
“Mom,” I groaned. Can we not—”
“Talk about it?” she asked breezily. “I'd rather not. Which is why I'm going out. You two are welcome to take my room, though. Warren would never fit into that tiny bed in your room, and it's not as though I'm using the one in my room.”
I started to protest because now we were going to be sleeping in my mother's bed, but before I could say anything, she'd motioned for Warren to wheel her out of the house, and he was stepping forward and getting behind her.
And then I was watching him push her out of the house, my fingers already itching to grab his hand and take him upstairs to the bedroom.
Because as long as my mother wasn't going to be here...
***
AS IT TURNED OUT, WE did more sleeping than anything else. We stumbled upstairs, grasping at each other and giggling at the idea that we were going to be sleeping in my mother's bedroom, and when we saw the bed, we fell into it gratefully. Warren stretched out and sighed with deep appreciation.
“Your mom's bed is so much nicer than mine.”
I snuggled down next to him and let him wrap his arms around me. “Even nicer with you in it.”
“Mmm,” he said. “There are so many things I want to do with you right now. But I think I want to close my eyes for a little bit first.”
I closed mine as well, loving the feeling of his chest underneath my cheek and his arms around me. “Tired?” I asked.
“Exhausted. I haven't been sleeping well either.”
“Why not?”
His arms tightened. “Because I didn't have you with me, and I like to have my things where I can reach them. You don't think I moved in just for your sake, did you?”
I grinned. “I did, actually. Are you saying you're actually here for selfish reasons?”
“The most selfish reasons in the world.”
And we didn't say anything else. Because although my skin was burning with excitement at how close he was, and my body was aching with the need to feel him inside me, right now, in this moment, I was content to settle for the warmth and safety of having him with me.
Besides, it had been an awfully long time since I'd slept well. And as I felt myself drifting off, the world around us getting hazy and distant.
And there was something important in that fact.
But I wasn't going to think about it right now. I was busy letting sleep come for me, tucked up against the man I loved and knowing that no matter what happened, we'd keep each other safe.
