Page 115 of My Best Bet

“Right,” I whispered.

He held my jaw and kissed me slowly, lovingly, and then his arms were around my back and under my knees, picking me up.

I broke the kiss and pulled back. “Wait, Colt, your shoulder.”

“Don’t care,” he said tightly as he stalked to the door.

“Where are we going?” I didn’t care all that much because our talk left me feeling drained and I didn’t want to fight him on anything. I just wanted to be with him.

“Leaving,” he grunted.

“But…” My eyes darted over my apartment. “I need my clothes.”

He didn’t break his stride. “I’ll get you new ones.”

“Colt,” I laughed against his chest. “You can’t just buy me new clothes, go back.”

“No can do,” he said with a lopsided grin. “I’m too cold in here and I can’t be away from you right now, not when I just got you back. Also,” his eyebrows went up, “I was telling the truth about Piper and Kappy being together back at my house. Hopefully JP is running interference.”

I grimaced. “You’re right. Maybe we should hurry. I want to thank Kappy before he leaves.”

He arched a curious eyebrow.

“He kept you there,” I explained. “The black eye was maybe uncalled for though.” I smoothed a thumb under his eye with a laugh.

He grinned. “I bet he’d love to hear that.”

36.Colt - New Normal

It’d been a week since I walked Mer out of her cold-as-shit apartment, and I hoped she’d never go back.

I loved falling asleep with her every night and waking up with her every morning.

We did eventually go back to pick up some of her clothes, but true to my word, we also went on a shopping spree.

Early Saturday morning, Mer and Lu sipped on Starbucks– iced coffee for Mer, hot chocolate for Lu– while walking through the mall and gabbing about everything from school to skating. I couldn’t believe how Lucy was opening up to her. When she started giggling while telling a story about a boy named Joey in her class, my mouth dropped open.

“Woah, woah, wait, who’s Joey?”

Mer and Lucy made eye contact before glancing back and laughing at me, but I wasn’t laughing. I was panicking.

“I’m serious, do I need to have a chat with this kid?”

Mer scrunched her nose. “Maybe we should get him some Auntie Anne’s to distract him, what do you think?”

“Yeah,” Lucy said conspiratorially. “That should work.”

I shook my head at the two of them, but Auntie Anne’s pretzels did sound good.

I was just glad to be a part of the day, even if it meant trailing after my girls and holding their bags.

At one point, Lucy was gushing over a pair of boots that were on sale and Mer said we had to get them because they were “literally a steal.”

“Yeah, Dad! Please! Asteal!Literally a steal!” Lucy begged with her hands clasped together.

Glancing at the price tag, I arched an eyebrow. “I think we have different definitions of a steal.”

“But they’re fifty percent off,” Mer pointed out. “So that means we’d be saving fifty bucks, so that means we can go to the bookstore after and we’d probably still have leftover. We’re basically making money.”

---