“Are you mad I didn’t tell you?”
If Simone was anything, she was honest. “Yes.”
And that was that.
“Do you think she would have liked me?” The question came out of nowhere, and Jamison snuggled closer. “I know my mom would have loved me, but would she have liked me?”
“Oh, honey.” Simone’s laugh started low and then rose to full volume. “Your mama would’ve not only have liked you, but she would have been in awe of everything you do.”
“Really?”
“I love it when you do or say something others find outrageous. It gives me a little jolt of nostalgia and makes me feel like she’s with us again.”
“I always thought I was more like my dad.”
“There’s a little of him in there, too.” Simone bopped her on the nose. “But you are your own woman, Jamison. A beautiful, wild creature no one will ever tame, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“I’ll second that,” said a voice from the doorway. A voice she would know anywhere. “I’ve always liked wild women.”
Jamison sailed across the room and straight into Liam’s arms. Between kissing him and asking questions, she vaguely registered Simone closing the door as she left.
“You didn’t call!”
Guiding them to the bed, Liam fell on top of her in an exhausted heap. A sweaty, stinky, exhausted heap.
“Oh my God, William,” she wheezed. “You stink.”
“Rowan smells worse.” He nibbled her neck. “We chased this one guy through a farm on the Alabama border, and when Rowan lunged for him, he and the guy fell into a pig pen. I thought they were going to die.”
“From falling into a pig pen?”
“Duh. A group of pigs can eat you in under five minutes.”
She shouldn’t laugh, but he was high off his fatigue, and knowing him, he probably hadn’t eaten or slept since he left Haven House.
“I have so much to tell you.” Deftly pinning her hands above her head with one hand, he wedged himself between her thighs. “But first, I need victory sex.”
“No, first you need a shower.” Bucking her hips, she rolled him off. “Shower. Talk. Sex. In that order.”
He pouted, but trudged into the bathroom, pulling her with him. “Get me naked. I’m too tired.”
Happy to oblige, she stripped his clothes off and started the shower. “Talk while you get clean.”
“Thirty-nine total.” Testing the water with his fingers, he gave her a lopsided grin. “Twelve of which were Fairweather employees.”
“You’re kidding.”
“With a handful of them working under Rowan in his department.” He got in, groaning when the warm water hit his skin. “Man, was he pissed.”
“Is that why he tackled a guy in pig shit?”
“Did I say guy? It was actually a kid, and the best part.”
“Why is tackling a kid the best part?”
“To clarify, the kid is seventeen and was trying to protect his mother.”
“I’m even more confused.”