Page 187 of Tenderfoot

I was a grown woman. I paid my bills. I could look after myself and had been doing so for some time.

“No, Lolita.” Javi yet again read my mind. “Like you had my back today. We look after each other.”

Oh.

Well, that I could do.

I smiled at him.

He shook his head even while dipping in to kiss me.

When he pulled away, he said, “Gotta admit, in the beginning, after meeting you, then losing Jamal and Joaquim, I kept clear because I was holding a lot of guilt and grief about how they went out, and I didn’t want to lay that on you.”

I went back to smoothing his thick, soft hair, but I used both hands this time. “I hope you’ve learned you can lay anything on me.”

“Yeah,” he said softly, and that might have been the prettiest syllable I’d ever heard uttered.

“And what happened to your soldiers isn’t your fault,” I stressed.

“I know that logically. But that isn’t always how your mind works.”

I got that, so I nodded.

“Your dad was an arrogant ass,” Javi announced.

I stared.

“He wasn’t a fan of his daughter’s boyfriend demanding to see him.”

Well, there was that.

Javi kept going.

“He was all about bluster, and that bluster hid his guilt. He knows his wife and son treat you like dirt. He just doesn’t have big enough balls to put a stop to it.”

I had suspected this for quite some time.

“If that’s true, it kinda makes it worse,” I said forlornly, because Javi saying what I suspected made it seem real. And the realness of it hurt. “It wasn’t, you know, just neglect. It was deliberate neglect.”

“Agreed,” Javi grunted.

“Is he gonna stay away?” I asked.

“Is he still calling?”

“I haven’t had a call in a while.” Definitely not yesterday or today.

“Then…maybe.”

Or, maybe not.

One thing I knew, if he did, I had Javi, I had my girls, I had the Hottie Squad, Tito and Tex.

I’d be okay.

“If he shows, and you need me, no matter what I’m doing, call me. I’ll find my way to you,” Javi declared.

I’ll find my way to you.

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