Page 24 of Sweet Revenge

I knew that because Kat put the therapist in touch with me after Maggie called her the first time. She figured someone needed to know when she was coming and thought it should be me.

“How often?” Bear asked.

“About three times a week.” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. “She’s scheduled again for tomorrow.”

“You talk to her?”

I nodded. “Tried. She told me nicely that what her and Maggie talk about is confidential. I told her it should be, but being the situation, we needed to know if there’s anything we need to be on top of. She agreed to let me know if there was.”

Ritz narrowed his eyes. “Can we trust her?”

“Kat trusts her and knows how we operate. I think she recommended her because of that.”

“I agree.” Bear nodded. “I dug around some; she’s seems good. Maggie likes her, and it’s obviously helping, considering she sat her ass down here and ate with us.”

“No shit.” Ritz snorted. “Shocked the shit out of me when I looked up and there she stood. All these months she’s been here and never even looked at me, let alone spoke to me. Couldn’t fucking believe she was standing in my kitchen and talking to me.”

“What’d she say?” I asked, curiously.

His eyes snapped to mine. “She was nervous, but then said she was hungry and was going to get herself a sandwich. My guess, she assumed no one would be here.”

“She still took a chance,” I pointed out. “Something she wouldn’t have done a couple of weeks ago.”

“Can’t believe she’s been on her own for so long.”

“Means she never graduated high school. Probably never learned to drive.” Bear grunted. “She has a lot of lost time to make up for.”

Ritz smirked. “Could fix both of those things easily enough.”

I nodded and felt a smile tugging at my lips. “True.”

“The fence around this place would keep her hidden if she was learning to drive,” Bear said. “Couldn’t go get her permit yet, but you could be teaching her on the grounds.”

“And I’m sure she could start working on her GED if she wanted to.” Ritz added.

“I think one thing at a time is probably a good idea.”

“I agree, brother.” Bear nodded.

I stood and threw my paper plate in the trash, already planning to talk to her, but Bear’s voice stopped me. “We’re ahead of schedule in the garage. No need to come back today.”

I shook my head but couldn’t stop the grin when I saw both Ritz and Bear smiling outright. “I hear you.”

I moved toward the door, stopping again when Ritz’s voice rang out. “Wanna piece of advice?”

I lifted my eyebrow. “From you?”

“Yeah, fucker, why not me?” Ritz tried to look offended, but he failed.

“Remind me of the last relationship you had.”

“Relationship?” He whistled. “Didn’t know we were already talking relationship.”

I put my hands on my hips and dropped my head. I was pretty private, always had been, but these were my brothers. They deserved to know what I was thinking. “I’ll take as much as she’ll give me.”

“You gonna be okay if it’s not everything?” Bear asked hesitantly.

I felt the grin slowly spread across my lips. “Her being here is everything.”

---