Page 288 of Bad Wolf (Wild Men 4)

“God, Kay! Stop it.” I’m laughing, my face aflame. “Hey, you don’t have to do that, you know. Leave, I mean. Where would you go, anyway?”

“Well, my sister has been begging me forever to go visit, see my little niece and nephew. I’m catching a Greyhound in about an hour.” She rises. “In fact, I’d better hurry.”

Oh God… “You’re the sweetest,” I whisper and grab her in a quick hug. Never thought I’d love my weird roommate so much.

“No problem,” she replies, not meeting my eyes, smiling. “Just so you know: if Jesse Lee wants to move in with us, no problem here. As long as you don’t mind me ogling him once in a while… I promise I won’t touch.”

“Get outta here.” I swat at her ass, still laughing, and she sashays out of the kitchen.

I drink my coffee, get up to see what I can find in the fridge to whip up some breakfast before Jesse is up, and check my cell.

There’s a text from Ev. I read it once, twice, and I sit back down, stunned.

And pleased. Wow, how cool is that?

Jesse has lost so much. I wanted to return something to h

im, and it seems I might just be able to do so.

“Embers… What are you doing?”

I glance at Jesse over my shoulder. He’s been sprawled on the sofa, dozing and twitching in his sleep. The heavy painkillers the doc at the hospital prescribed are making him woozy, and he has sleepwalked his way through visits by his roommates, the Damage Boyz and the Inked Brotherhood, nodding and grunting like a zombie.

He barely seemed to understand what happened when Micah visited and apologized for being an ass. For not believing him. God, I hope Jesse will remember this afterward.

At least the swelling in his face is going down, and he can now see out of both eyes. Through which he’s currently staring at me, confusion written all over his handsome face.

“I’m just, um, cleaning.” I wave the dust cloth in the air by way of demonstration, trying not to cough at the dust cloud billowing from it.

“You’re dressed…” He sits up, wincing, his arm automatically wrapping around his bruised ribs. “Like you’re expecting someone. Is that why you’ve gone medieval on the apartment’s ass?”

“Are you implying I don’t normally clean?” If I wasn’t so stressed about this, I’d pretend to be upset.

“I don’t give a fuck about that, kitten, and you know it.” He gets up with a grunt, takes the dust cloth from my hand and lets it drop on the table. His hand drifts up to my face. “You—”

I’ll never know what he was about to say, because the doorbell rings and I jump away from him, running my hands over my white top and batik skirt. Am I dressed okay? Is it too hippy? Is it too old-fashioned?

God, I feel like I’m about to meet his parents and need their approval—which is probably as close as I’ll ever get to that.

“Who can that be?” Jesse mutters, his gaze flicking from me to the door, going narrow and suspicious.

“I’ll get it.” I hurry to open and then stand back, staring at the tiny blond woman standing right outside.

“Hi. You must be Amber?”

I nod as I take her in. Dark eyes and brows, cheeks like peaches, a boyish body. Hard to imagine this is the girl who once took care of my Jesse.

He’s suddenly there, by my side, his eyes big like saucers in his pale face. “Who is this?” he whispers, his voice hushed. “What in the fucking fuck?”

Somehow I think he already knows, but can’t accept it yet.

“Jesse?” She takes a step toward him, a tremor going through her small frame. “I thought it couldn’t be true. Oh my God, it is you, look at you. You’ve grown so much. They told me you ran away and nobody knew if you were alive or dead or… It’s me. It’s Helen, Jesse.”

A small, anguished sound leaves his throat. His body jerks forward, his hands lift…

Then he grabs Helen and wraps his arms around her. “You’re alive,” he whispers over and over, his chin resting on top of her head. “You’re okay. I thought I’d never see you again.”

Seeing them clinging to each other like that, I back away, feeling like an intruder on something very personal.

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