Page 128 of The Moment We Know

“She’s not scaring the shit out of him—”

“Of course she is. You don’t think she only scares the shit out of me, do you?”

Paige pressed her lips together to keep her amusement from escaping, but failed. “I do, actually.”

He stopped. “How are you finding this funny?”

“Because it is. She’s barely five feet tall, and she’s seventy. And you just admitted that she scares the shit out of you.”

He narrowed his eyes at her for a long moment before turning toward the living room again, where low laughter could now be heard. It did nothing to alleviate the crazy he was feeling. “Excuse me while I go rescue Jacob.”

“David, wait,” she said.

Her urgent plea had him stopping and looking back at her once more. While he watched, she went over to the entryway table and retrieved an object from the inside pocket of her purse. She then returned to his side, took his hand, and pressed the object against his palm, before closing his fingers around it. “Here. You’ll need this.”

He uncurled his fingers and blinked at the small black rock, before meeting her gaze.

“For protection,” she told him with a straight face, before patting his cheek.

David knew she’d given him what was obviously one of her crystals to bust his balls. However, that didn’t stop him from shoving it in the front pocket of his cargo pants, because he needed all the help he could get as he was pulled into the living room.

The first thing he saw was Mrs. Harte sitting on one end of the love seat, and Jacob standing at the other end, seemingly unharmed. He was petting Sputnik again, who had folded himself into what Paige always called the ‘loaf of bread’ position—head down, with arms and legs tucked under the body, making him resemble … a loaf of bread.

“Hello, David,” Mrs. Harte greeted him warmly. “It’s nice to see you again.”

He highly doubted that, even if she sounded almost sincere. With a sigh, he thought back to the last time he’d seen her (wearing the exact same rose-colored track suit, oddly enough), which had been the night of the handcuffs, when he’d been begging her for a favor.

Not his finest moment.

“It’s nice to see you, too, Mrs. Harte,” he replied, doing what he hoped was a good job of pretending.

“I was just getting to know Jacob a little bit. What a nice young man, with such good manners,” she said, before nodding toward his crewcut. “And a proper haircut, too.”

David slipped his hand into his pocket and clutched the crystal, praying for it to start working, even though he didn’t think there was a big enough crystal in the world to protect him from Paige’s neighbor.

“David actually cuts Jacob’s hair,” Paige told Mrs. Harte.

“Really?” Mrs. Harte’s eyebrows lifted, making the wrinkle lines in her forehead double.

“Yes, I do.” David knew Paige had just been trying to be helpful, but wished she hadn’t said anything, and he braced for a snarky comment about cutting his own hair once in a while, only to be shocked when it never materialized.

“Well, let me say that you do a very good job,” Mrs. Harte said, instead.

For a moment, David was confused. The barracuda had either just let the opportunity of a lifetime pass her by … or the crystal in his pocket was actually working. “Oh. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Paige squeezed his arm, just as a buzzer went off in the kitchen. “That’s the bacon,” she announced. “I’m going to go pull it from the oven, then finish getting everything ready—”

“Would you like some help, dear?” Mrs. Harte asked.

“No, I think I’m good. There’s not much left to do, actually, so why don’t the three of you just hang out in here and relax for a few minutes, and get to know one another a little better while I’m gone?”

With another squeeze to David’s arm, Paige then darted out of the living room, leaving David in a semi-awkward stand-off with Mrs. Harte, while Jacob remained focused on Sputnik.

David, who could think of nothing he’d rather do less than get to know Mrs. Harte better, also couldn’t think of a way to get out of it, without being incredibly rude. There was just no way to escape, and since he was hesitant to leave Jacob behind (who didn’t look like he would willingly be separated from his new feline friend, anyway), David was stuck. Accepting his fate, and hoping it really would be only ‘a few minutes’ he had to get through, David sighed and reluctantly made his way to the chair in the corner and sat down.

“I’m glad to see you worked through that … misunderstanding … you had with Paige,” Mrs. Harte said with a benign smile.

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