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  “Now,” she went on, taking him out of his thoughts, “I need to clean up and get some sleep. Malachi is getting sorted tomorrow and I need to be on my game. You can take from that I’m not kicking your ass out. I’ll tell you now, I do have a temper so that doesn’t mean you won’t one day be sleeping on the couch. I know this because Dad did this on occasion and I am a lot like my Mom. But your behind will never be out. And you can take from that that I’m falling for you too. But you know that since you know I already did it thirteen years ago. I’m just glad to know now I picked really, fraking well.”

  His heart pounding in his chest which got tight, his hands moved swiftly, framing her face, holding it steady and his voice was thick when he whispered, “Do not say that shit unless you mean it.”

  Her hands moved to frame his face too and she whispered back, “I wouldn’t. You know it. I held out for a hero and I don’t give a frak if you don’t think you’re one. I know you are and even if you weren’t one to the whole town, you’re one to me and you can take that to the fraking bank.”

  Fuck.

  Cute.

  Sweet.

  His.

  That constriction in his chest relaxed and when he asked, “Take it to the bank?” his voice was suddenly light and her eyes narrowed.

  “Don’t tease me when I’m being serious and we’re talking deep.”

  “Sorry, baby, you just said I could take something to the bank. No one says shit like that except cops in 70’s cop shows. You talk like that I have to give you shit. Got no other choice.”

  She started glaring and then she started bossing.

  “Get off me. I’m leaking and I don’t like to sleep in a wet spot.”

  “When do you ever have to sleep in a wet spot?” he shot back.

  “Well… never,” she answered. “But I don’t want to start.”

  Cute.

  Sweet.

  His.

  Christ.

  He dipped his mouth and touched hers.

  When he lifted away, he whispered, “All right, clean up.”

  She shifted under him, muttering, “Fine.”

  But as she moved, his arm circled her waist, detaining her, and her eyes came back to his.

  “I know what you think,” he started to warn gently. “I know why you think it but you made a decision just now so when you get it all from me, darlin’, and you decide to run, you gotta know I’m not letting go.”

  “Fine by me,” she replied immediately, lifted up, brushed her bubblegum lips against his then rolled out from under him.

  Her short, chocolate brown satin nightie glided down to settle over her ass as she got out of bed and moved toward the bathroom. Chace watched it then watched it move under the fabric until she disappeared.

  Then he rolled to his back, her toy rolled into him so he tagged it and replaced it in her nightstand. After, he again settled on his back but this time he lifted his hands and covered his face, pressing the pads of his fingers into his forehead and digging deep.

  He did this hoping with everything he was that Faye didn’t lie.

  He did this hoping what she read in him was true. Not that he was who she thought he was because he knew he wasn’t.

  But that she could take the dark he had inside him without breaking free to run to the light, leaving him behind in black.

  He dropped his hands when he sensed her coming back and watched her walk across the room and turn out the light before she climbed in bed.

  The instant the covers were over her, he reached to her and pulled her into his arms, face to face.

  She hooked a leg over his hip and pressed deep.

  “Faye?” he called.

  “Yeah,” she answered quietly.

  “No way in hell no matter how pissed you get I’m sleepin’ on the couch.”

  “We’ll see,” she replied, still quiet.

  “We won’t. We work it out before we sleep or you suck it up. You do not sleep without me.” He paused then finished, “Ever.”

  “Whatever,” she muttered, pressing closer.

  This meant she was done with the conversation.

  It also meant she was giving in.

  Then again, she always did when it was important.

  He pulled her even closer knowing one thing.

  He wasn’t falling anymore for Faye Goodknight.

  He wasn’t halfway there.

  He was gone.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Potatoes

  I locked up the library and moved to the steps, on my way home.

  It was Wednesday. It had been a week and a day since they released Malachi from the hospital.

  As seemed to be the case since Chace came into my life, this time had not been uneventful. Not even a little bit. It had been eventful and busy.

  But surprisingly, Malachi settled in with Mom and Dad relatively well. He had some issues with Dad and the first night I left, he got agitated, very much so, so I didn’t want to leave. But Chace and Dad took me aside and told me something I knew logically but didn’t like all that much. This being that I was doing him no favors hovering when he had to get used to his surroundings. So I left with Chace. And I didn’t like that either.

  Chace took me home, poured me wine and he stretched out on my couch and watched some game. As he did this, his lips were tipped up because I was pacing and fretting, something he thought was funny, something I did not. Then I called my parents an hour after we walked through my door only to have Dad tell me Mom was reading Malachi The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and all was fine.

  It took two days for Malachi to settle with Dad.

  It would be the weekend before he let Chace in.

  This was on Saturday when Mom and Dad were at Liza and Boyd’s for Jarot’s official ninth birthday party. It was decided it was too soon to introduce Malachi to Jarot and Robbie, much less a bunch of other kids, so Mom and Dad, Chace and I were taking turns looking after Malachi and going to Jarot’s party.

  I had another volunteer look after the library for me in the afternoon and Chace and I were taking the first shift. They were leaving the party early and we were going later.

  By this time, the bruising around Malachi’s face was gone, he was getting around on his leg very well and the bandages were off his hands because Dad decreed, “They need air.” That didn’t mean Mom didn’t gunk them up with Neosporin three times a day. They were healing really well and within a couple of days he had no problems holding the Kindle Dad bought him even with one arm in a sling.

  He loved it. Mom downloaded a shed load of books on it and he was always in a chair or on the couch, eyes glued to it but his fingers hitting buttons, testing it out, seeing what it could do. He messed it up a couple of times so Mom and I had to sort it but he learned from what he did and by the weekend, he knew more of how it worked than I did my Nook.

  Chace had noticed his fascination with this so on Saturday, while I was at work in the morning, he’d gone and bought Malachi a portable Nintendo and a few games.

  Although Malachi no longer got visibly anxious around Chace, he still held back from him. So when we got to Mom and Dad’s, I gave him the game but told him Chace bought it. Then, not knowing much about it, I fumbled my way around showing him how to use it.

  Obviously, and fortunately, I fumbled too much. This meant Malachi got impatient and gently pulled it out of my hands and carefully wandered to Chace, handing it to him.

  I tried not to cry as, without a word or making a big deal of it, Chace crouched beside him and explained how to load the game cartridge and use the Nintendo while Malachi stood close, head bent, eyes riveted to it. Then Chace handed it to him and, get this! He leaned into Chace as his thumbs tentatively moved over the game.

  It… was… awesome!

  As I deep breathed, Chace let him do this, watching him test out the game then he slowly straightened, guided Malachi to a chair and sat him in it, Malachi’s head bent to the game the entire time.

 
It only came up when Chace started moving away. Malachi made a noise in his throat, slammed his elbow in the arm of the chair so Chace went back, asking quietly, “What is it, buddy?”

  He bumped the arm of the chair with his elbow twice, his eyes on Chace and they didn’t leave until Chace sat his booty on the arm of the chair and stayed close while Malachi’s head bent back to the game. Sometimes, he’d lift it up and point at things so Chace would show him what to do. But he didn’t let Chace leave him until he had it down and was absorbed in it. And more, with great patience, since sitting there watching a kid play a video game probably badly couldn’t have been barrels of fun, Chace didn’t leave him and acted like he could sit there for forever.

  This was awesome too, a heart melting awesome that I didn’t know what to do with so I just felt it and let’s just say it felt great.

  Half an hour later, Malachi came into where Chace and I were sitting at the kitchen table. He still had the Nintendo but also the other game and he handed both to Chace.

  Then he again leaned into Chace as Chace ejected the game, set up the new one and showed him as he told him what to do.

  And he stayed leaned into Chace, his thumbs on the game, his head bent to it as Chace and I resumed talking, me with a huge, fraking grin on my face, Chace often shaking his head at me in that way he did when he thought I was doing something cute, his lips tipped up.

  Eventually I had to come down from my high when Mom and Dad got home and we had to go to Liza and Boyd’s.

  But a half an hour later, my high came back with a whomp when Chace and I walked through Liza and Boyd’s door and Jarot and Robbie raced to him. Both grabbed a hand, hauled him in but it was Jarot who shouted to his gaggle of friends, “This is my new Uncle Chace and he’s a cop!”

  Thus commenced Chace showing his badge around. This bled into Chace somehow getting conned into giving kids piggyback rides. And this somehow devolved into Chace being wrestled to the floor with a slew of nine year olds, near nine year olds and Robbie’s three six year old friends’ flailing arms and legs being mostly all I could see.

  “Okay,” Liza whispered in my ear, she’d sidled up to me and at the glance I spared her after tearing my eyes away from Chace under a pile of kids she went on, “I get him. He’s hot. He’s the kinda hot a woman would forgive a lot of asshole, he’s that kinda hot. But he’s that kinda hot without the asshole part which is a plain miracle. So you giving it up to him, baby sister, I get it.” My eyes went back to her and she was grinning at me like a lunatic as she finished with emphasis, “Totally.”

  I looked back toward Chace who had managed to untangle himself from the pile of kids and was standing. But he had Robbie dangling down his back with his arms around Chace’s neck, giggling his behind off and Jarot under his arm, shouting through his own giggles, “I’m gonna be a cop like Uncle Chace and arrest a bunch of bad people!”

  My belly melted, my heart flipped and I whispered, “I hope we have all boys.”

  “Oh no,” Liza whispered back. “Man like that, you’ve got to give him a princess.”

  This thought made my belly melt more, my heart flipped then flopped and my eyes went to my sister.

  “A princess,” I breathed.

  “Another one,” she said gently then lifted her fingers to twitch my hair. “He’s already got one.”

  God, seriously, I fraking loved my big sister.

  I grinned.

  She grinned back.

  I would learn that night that Chace spending an hour allowing himself to be the grown man personal toy to my nephews didn’t affect his stamina.

  It was a great lesson to learn.

  I walked toward Main Street, my mind moving back to Malachi who had yet to speak his first word.

  The child psychologist who saw him in the hospital said that this was not unusual and we shouldn’t be overly concerned. She said it was clear he had endured multiple traumas and had intense trust issues. Providing him stability and nurture, making him feel safe, gently forcing him to express himself in a way he was comfortable with and communicating to him verbally with great regularity would eventually break down whatever issues he had and he would again speak. She warned that he should not yet be asked about what led him to his hiding hole or who or what he was hiding from. He needed to be shown he was safe and he could trust those around him. When he was, and with her in attendance, questions could be asked.

  But this also meant she wished to see him regularly and Mom took him to the hospital for a twice weekly schedule of appointments. There had been no breakthroughs and Chace kept reminding me that whatever had been going down with him had been happening for a while so we couldn’t expect him to snap into normal little boy behavior in a few days or even a few weeks. Chace told me I needed to give it time and be patient.

  I didn’t like this either but I had no choice. It couldn’t be said that Malachi wasn’t adjusting. He was now close to me, Mom, Dad and Chace. He didn’t talk but he did smile, touch and find his ways to say things he needed to say.

  So I was giving it time and trying patience.

  The psychologist also noted that his socialization skills were not advanced and she pointed out the obvious that now was not a good time to enroll Malachi in school. Therefore, Mom looked up home schooling on the internet and went to the school to talk to some teachers. She also sat with Malachi and discovered what we knew. His reading was off the charts and he knew his numbers, had some basic math skills, in other words, he knew how to add small numbers. But other than that, not much.

  This meant she’d begun to initiate him to some lessons without letting on she was such as asking him how many tater tots he had then after he ate two, asking him how many he ate and how many he had left. She also sorted some art stuff for him, giving him paints, colored pencils and paper and setting him up with them at the kitchen table when she cooked. She would begin a full-fledged home schooling program once she, Dad and the psychologist felt he was ready to be assessed by a teacher so they knew where to start.

  The only surprising and alarming thing with Malachi was that Mom and Dad shared that it seemed he’d never seen a television set. As he had company and that company was reading to him at the hospital, we hadn’t had the occasion to turn on the set in his room when he was there.

  When Dad turned their set on, they said Malachi freaked.

  The same, they reported, with phones and radios.

  This knowledge made Chace’s jaw get tight in a way I knew he wouldn’t explain. I also knew he was doing his thing with his brethren, including his brothers in arms and Deck, all trying to find out why Malachi was as Malachi was and what happened to him. I’d learned the night we found Malachi that Chace didn’t intend to share this with me and I also understood he didn’t because he was protecting me. So much was going on with Malachi, with life, with us, I decided to let him have this play.

  For a while.

  Soon, he’d learn I wasn’t a fragile doe he had to protect. Or at least I hoped it was soon.

  In other words, Malachi was good. He was in a bed every night with a full belly, as many books as he could get his hands on, a video game he played constantly and no more fear of TVs, phones or radios. He had people he trusted. His smiles came often and we’d all even heard him laugh. The doctor reported his hands and leg were going to be fine with no loss of mobility and I had to believe with the way he adjusted to his new circumstances, everything would with him eventually.

  He also had tons of clothes and shoes and Mom and Dad, Chace and me had a big envelope full of checks and cash.

  This was because I told Sunny and Shambles about Malachi, not to mention the cops who went to that shed, they all started talking and word about Malachi flew through the town of Carnal.

  There was a reason I loved my town and that reason became apparent when word got out about our boy.

  Everyone I knew, Lexie and Ty, Lauren and Tate, Bubba and Krystal, Twyla, Sunny and Shambles, Wood and Maggie and a bunch of people I
didn’t know came to the library or the Station and brought Chace or me clothes, shoes, belts, hats, socks, underwear, pajamas, coats, baseball mitts, Nintendo game cartridges, books, you name it… and money. Money for his hospital bills, money to help Mom and Dad and not a little bit of it. Within a few days, we had over five thousand dollars. That day, Mrs. Bagley gave me a check that took us well over ten.

  Carnal took care of its own and wherever Malachi hailed from, he was claimed as one of theirs. They heard about him and they did what they could. Some gestures were small. Others, grand.

  All beautiful.

  I was thinking this as I walked up the stairs to my apartment, knowing Chace was there. Tonight was the first night since Malachi was released from the hospital that we weren’t eventually heading to Mom and Dad’s to check in. This was Chace’s decree. Our night. Alone time. Just a night, just Chace and me.

  The Sunday after Jarot’s party, we’d taken the next step in our relationship. He’d given me the key to his house and a garage door opener. I’d given him the key to mine. We spent time at work, at Mom and Dad’s with Malachi, doing our everyday things like Chace going to Chantelle to swim, me going to the gym, so the day could end in either one of our beds. But the day always ended with us together in whichever one it turned out to be.

  Although Chace had not yet shared his dark secrets, I knew even more now with how he was with Malachi, my nephews, the easiness he had with my parents, the way he was with me, that whatever they were wouldn’t faze me.

  I was in love. Not with an idea. Not with a dream. With a good man who had demons but treated my parents with respect, young boys he barely knew with kindness and generosity and me like I was the most precious thing on earth.

  Knowing he was at my house making twice baked potatoes to go with steaks he’d broil, I didn’t bother with the key. I turned the knob and walked into my apartment, grinning to myself, looking forward to a just us evening and not having that first fraking clue I was walking into a very different Chace.

  I closed the door, saw him standing by my computer, hands to his hips, looking hot.