My body stilled under his.

“What?”

“It’s for Keira’s dog and food.”

“The dog only costs two hundred dollars.”

“Then you can buy a lot of food.”

“Joe, you can’t do that.”

“You don’t buy her the dog, I talk to her tomorrow, find out where the dog is, I buy it and the food.”

“You can’t do that.”

His thumb did another swipe and I bit my lip.

“She wants a dog,” he stated.

“But –”

“Baby, she lost her Dad, she should get a f**kin’ dog.”

I swallowed and my body relaxed under his.

“I know,” I whispered and I did know, I’d known since the minute she brought it up.

“So take the money, buy her the f**kin’ dog.”

I put my hand to his scarred cheek and ran my thumb along his cheekbone.

“I’ll pay you back,” I promised.

“That’s for Keira, there’s no payback for Keira. You need somethin’ from me, we’ll discuss payback.”

“Joe –”

His mouth came to mine. “Done talkin’ now.”

“Joe –”

“Might be gone two weeks, we need to f**k.”

“Joe, please.”

“What?”

I dropped my head and slid my nose along his jaw until my mouth was at his ear and I whispered, “Thanks for the dog.”

With my mouth at his ear, his mouth was at mine when he whispered back, “Shut up, buddy.”

Then his finger met his thumb and he pinched my nipple and my mind went blank again.

Chapter Nine

Visitor

I lay on my back on my bed staring at the ceiling and hearing the TV in the other room. Kate, Dane and Keira were watching a movie that, from what I could tell, had a lot of explosions.

My cell phone was on my stomach, my hand curled around it and I had two choices. Either I needed to make the call to end things with Joe or I wanted to make the call just to talk to Joe.

I closed my eyes.

Things couldn’t get weirder or more messed up.

It was now Thursday.

On Saturday, during the day, I’d had to have the talk with the girls, telling them I was going out on a date. I couldn’t just trip out the door with an unknown man and call, “See you later!” as much as I wanted to. I had to do what I could to make this transition from Mom and Dad, to Mom no Dad, to Mom dating as smooth as possible even though that was impossible.

I still had to try.

So I stood at the kitchen counter while they both sat on stools at the bar opposite me and I told them I met a man named Lieutenant Mike Haines and we were going out on a date.

I expected they’d both be pissed. They loved their Dad and I couldn’t imagine that, the time having come when I was moving on with life, dragging them with me, they’d be thrilled to bits.

What I didn’t expect was Kate to say, “That’s great, Mawdy.”

But I kinda expected Keira to snap, “What about Joe?”

Which was what she did.

I closed my eyes but opened them when Kate asked Keira, “What about Joe?”

“Joe’s a hottie,” Keira replied to Kate.

“Yeah, he’s a hottie, so? Mom likes the clean cut guys,” Kate returned and this was true, Tim was a clean cut guy and Tim had been the only guy who I’d liked. Then again, it was kinda untrue, Joe was anything but clean cut.

“Joe bought us dinner, told Mom she looked great in her Lucky’s and gave us electric eyes,” Keira retorted and when Kate opened her mouth to speak, Keira finished, “and he likes her cupcakes.”

“Maybe this Mike guy’ll like her cupcakes too,” Kate suggested.

At this point, I was feeling weird about my girls talking about the men in my life liking my cupcakes so I waded in. “Girls –”

Keira looked at me and declared, “I like you with Joe.”

Kate leaned into Keira and declared, “She’s not with Joe.”

Keira’s head twisted around to Kate and she returned, “She could be. He likes her, I can tell.”

“All right,” I cut in, “enough. This is a date, just a date, with Mike. Joe, Keira baby,” I looked at my youngest, “let’s just let that lie for now.”

“He likes you,” Keira stated stubbornly.

“I like him too,” I agreed and it was the truth, surprisingly. “He’s been good to us but I’m kinda takin’ this one day at a time and I need you girls to let me do that.” I leaned both forearms on the counter and finished, my voice quieter. “I’ll do my best to make good choices, for you and for me, but I also need you to trust me to do that. Can you trust me to do that?”

“Yeah, Mawdy,” Kate said instantly but she would say that instantly. She trusted me, like she trusted her Dad, she trusted us both implicitly.

Keira glared at me. “I like Joe.”

“Can you give it up with Joe?” Kate cried and Keira transferred her glare to her sister and then she said something that hit me like a punch in the gut.

“He needs Mom and us more than we need him. He needs a family. He’s over there, all by himself, he has nobody. We have each other.” She looked at me and stated, “He needs somebody. I can tell.”

“Baby,” I whispered, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes.

She threw up a hand as she hopped off her stool. “Go off with your Mike guy, I’m cool with that,” she looked at me but her body was turned away, “but I still like Joe.”

Then she walked down the hall to her room and I heard her close her door.

I looked at Kate who was staring after her sister, her face thoughtful.

“Katy honey?” I called and she turned to me. “Are you really cool with me goin’ out with Mike? I mean, you girls and your Dad –”

Kate cut me off. “Can’t say I don’t wish you were goin’ on a date night with Dad to Rico’s and we were in our old house and Grams and Gramps were just down the street but…” she shook her head and looked away but I saw the tears glistening in her eyes before she finished, “whatever.”

“Katy.”

She slid off her stool not looking at me and muttered, “Gotta get ready for work.”

“Kate –”

She stopped and turned to me. “Can Dane come over while you’re out with Mike?”

“Sure, baby.”

I mean, what else could I say?