Page 216 of Smooth Sailing

And he was an amazing man.

Perfect.

He was mine.

He was coming to me.

He was moving in with me.

We were figuring this out with no long-distance crap pulling us apart.

We were doing this.

Both of us.

All in.

And even though, when Hugger left me in bed to deal with the condom, I literally couldn’t move (I certainly couldn’t do the happy jumps and cartwheels I felt like doing), I was ecstatic about it.

Abso-freaking-lutely.

23

CAREFREE

Hugger

Hugger moved out of the shadows at the side of Di’s grandma’s house when he heard the front door open and the two women saying goodbye.

It was Tuesday after their epic weekend of shit stuff and great stuff, and Di felt the need to check in on her grandmother. Hugger took her, but he thought it best they have some alone time, therefore he kept watch outside while they had a glass of wine.

He met the women on the stoop.

“Oh, now you’re here, you should come in for a quick drink, Harlan,” Shannon invited.

She didn’t know he wasn’t there for a pickup, he’d been there the whole time, because she didn’t know he wasn’t just Di’s boyfriend, but also her bodyguard.

“’Preciate it, Shannon, but it’s getting late, and I need to get my woman home so she can relax. She’s got work tomorrow,” Hugger replied.

“Such a good boy,” Shannon muttered, and Hugger nearly smiled.

He hadn’t been called a boy in a very long time.

He didn’t smile because he wasn’t a big fan of the expression on either woman’s face.

Di went in for a hug from her gram, Hugger gave the woman his hand, and Shannon took it but did not shake it. She patted it, and never having a grandma himself, so never feeling anything like what came through her touch, he couldn’t deny those pats felt sweet.

When the woman let him go, he slung his arm around Di’s shoulders, felt hers snake along his waist, and they walked to his bike.

It was nine thirty, eighty degrees outside, deep in September, and there’d been no weather at all since he’d been down there that would keep him off the back of his bike.

Maybe Phoenix wasn’t going to be so bad, even in the shitty months.

He stopped her at his bike and turned her to his front.

He was going to speak, but she got there before him. “I see what Dutch meant about the dark.”

“Come again?”

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