Page 96 of Bourbon & Blood

I smiled. “And me,” I said with a bit of false brightness.

He grinned and looked shy, his ears turning that bright red again as he said, “Yeah, well, I like my skin attached Ms. ‘Lina, so I wouldn’t say that too loud.”

“Say what too loud?” La Croix asked, winking at me from behind Louie who straightened up and blanched a little.

“Nothin’, boss!” he said quickly, and I stifled my giggles behind my hand. La Croix put a hand on the back of Louie’s head and roughhoused with him a little bit. Louie was finally like, “Gah! Quit it!” but he was smiling again.

“Less talk, more work, boy!” La Croix said and tossed me one of my pillows. I took up one of the pillowcases from the dresser, while Louie went back to putting on and smoothing the top sheet.

The blankets and bedspread were still missing in action, but I think that’s because they were wrapped around a couple of fragile things that were taking up their own box somewhere.

About twenty minutes later, my bedroom was as put together as I could make it for the moment, and I was sighing in a bit of contentment. One room down, only the rest of the apartment to go.

I stepped out and found things much neater out here – the dishwasher running, the bathroom nearly complete, and the boys standing in a huddle in the living room, which was mostly arranged, the area rug down and the couch situated.

“What’s going on?” I asked and La Croix, Saint, Louie, and Hex sprang apart, looking a little conspiratorial.

“Nothin’, cher,” Hex declared.

“Why don’t you go finish your bathroom so you can have a shower tonight?” La Croix suggested gently and I could tell they’d been discussing something serious and that it wasn’t something I needed to be present for.

I nodded, and went into the bathroom, finding a box of cleaning products and sorting which I wanted in here under the sink versus what I wanted under the kitchen sink. I fished folded towels out of another box and put them on the built-in shelves in here, all with the door shut in the cramped space while the boys talked outside.

Did I like it? No. It felt like they didn’t trust me, and I think that was, more than anything, what bothered me so much about it. But I understood it, which had to be good enough for me. At least right now.

La Croix stuck his head in a minute later and said, “Boys and I gotta go across the street and have church.”

“Church?” I echoed.

“It’s what we call it when we have a club meetin’,” he answered.

“Ah.”

“You gon’ be okay on your own up here for a while?” he asked, and I nodded.

“I think so,” I said. “It’s not like I don’t have plenty to do.”

He smiled at me and slipped into the room far enough to kiss me.

“You need me, you call me,” he whispered against my lips.

I nodded.

“Okay,” I murmured. “I’m going to need a ride into work,” I said, and he shook his head.

“You got the rest of the week off,” he said.

“Oh, do I now?” I asked, and he smiled.

“You do,” he said. “Ol’ Clyde and I are about to have a talk about respectin’ my lady.”

I smiled and asked, “Okay, but on that one can you at leasttryto keep it to just talking?” He eyed me a little suspiciously, his face stone and I laughed a little. “He’s really not always like that. He’s all bark and no bite, really…”

“Well, I’m all bite, and probably not enough bark,” he said, and I kissed him a quick one.

“Well, maybe this is a perfect time to work on that bork of yours,” I said and I tweaked his nose. He jerked back and tried to scowl, but his smile ruined it.

“You make me happy,” he said a second later, and he scraped his bottom lip between his teeth, giving me a meaningful but still cryptic look.

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