Page 185 of The Woman Left Behind

Harry grabbed both my hands. “He’s fine, Lillian. And he didn’t shoot Willie, just his tire.”

“Oh my God, what a moron,” I whispered, stunned, embarrassed and pissed, equal measures of all of those, but those measures were overflowing.

“This is the thing,” Harry said after shaking my hands. “He is a moron. He’s fucked right now. So fucked, he’s not going to be unfucked for a very long time. Dad is thrilled. Said it proved he was right to stay there when I fought him on it. He’s been crowing about that since I showed in the middle of the night.”

My lips parted in shock.

Harry kept speaking.

“And we were going to demolish those stables anyway. Now, the insurance can pay us to haul what remains away, and we’ll have extra to build what we wanted to put there. Although my premiums are probably going to go up after all this shit, we still made out good with that.”

I blinked.

“So, Willie kind of did us a favor,” he finished.

“He did you a favor,” I repeated after him.

“More than one. He showed his ass, now I’ve got it in a cell, and we don’t have to worry about his shit anymore.”

There was that.

The Nespresso was finishing its blurting, so Harry said, “I gotta get a move on. You okay to skip Aromacobana today?”

I nodded.

He grinned at me, and I saw it then.

Harry was right as rain and pleased as punch.

Seeing this, I started giggling.

Harry started laughing.

“I cannot wait to tell Ronnie about this,” I said, still laughing. “Can I tell her?”

“Crime will be on the official blotter. It won’t be a secret.”

“What a dope.” And I was still laughing.

Harry kept grinning at me then he came in for an actual kiss on the lips. It didn’t linger (regrettably) because he had stuff to do (understandably).

He pulled away, went to get his coffee and took it into the bathroom with him.

I grabbed my own coffee and took a sip.

Smokey showed and rested his jaw on my thigh.

I stroked his head and told him, “Daddy got a big win last night.”

Smokey’s mouth opened so he could pant, but it made him look like he was grinning.

“I know, it’s awesome,” I shared.

Smokey licked the inside of my forearm.

“Totally,” I agreed.

He kept me company while I drank coffee and only left me to follow Harry to the door after he came into the room ready to roll and gave me another kiss.

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