Tuesday shook her head. “I did, and she said all the stuff you did. You’re as bad as she is.”

“Maybe. But my kind of bad comes with orgasms.”

Her smiled bloomed. “True. You do come in handy that way. Though I think I need more research. It’s really the only way to be sure.”

“You keep saying I’m trouble but it’s really you. I’m going to be thinking about the way you felt on my tongue all night long.”

“You’re going to pay for that.”

“I sure as hell hope so.”

“We should go. Everyone is leaving now.” Her voice had gone breathy and he liked that. A lot.

“Be sure to eat your vegetables today. You’ll need your strength later,” Ezra told her as he led her out of the waiting room in his family’s wake.

Natalie turned, trying to catch Tuesday’s eye, but she caught Ezra’s instead. He shook his head, waving her off. “I have it. She’ll ride with me.”

Natalie’s brow rose but before she could say anything else, Paddy caught her around the waist and steered her out.

Hurleys against the world. Fuckyeah.

* * *

TUESDAY HAD TO suck in a surreptitious breath to calm herself after Ezra got her all hot and bothered.

Again.

He and Nat thought she hadn’t seen their little exchange. She had, but because it was also in line with her own plans, she wasn’t going to argue. And he did come out and say he liked to be in charge. Tuesday needed to see how that worked and if she liked it or not.

The sex part definitely passed muster. What they’d been able to finish anyway.

He paused at an SUV and she gave him a look. “No sports car today? Did I let you see my boobs too early?”

He laughed and she felt a little more in control.

“I had Damien and Paddy with me. Paddy’s boots were a mess. And then we got into a shoving match.” He opened the door of his SUV for her. She hopped up.

Honestly. “You got into a physical fight with your brother. Because he had dirty shoes?”

Ezra grunted as they all made their way out of the parking lot.

“You’ve met my brother. Don’t you want to punch him sometimes?”

She snorted. “I want to punch all sorts of people. Pretty much all day long every day. I have five siblings—it’s not like I don’t know what it’s like to want to hit a brother or sister in the face. But I refrain. They do. Usually. Though my two oldest brothers got into a fistfight at Thanksgiving dinner three years ago. So dumb. My dad let them at one another in the backyard while the rest of us ate dinner. My mom didn’t speak to my brothers and my dad for weeks.”

“Six kids. I have to meet your mother.”

Diana Easton would love Ezra Hurley to the stars and back. Tuesday’s mother would simply latch on and Ezra would never know what hit him.

“To be fair, there’re two sets of twins in there.”

“Jesus. Your parents really like each other then, huh?”

She nodded. “I never knew other people’s parents weren’t constantly hugging and kissing and laughing until I got old enough to have sleepovers. My parents are straight up in love. They can fight—don’t get me wrong. But yes, Greg and Diana are mates in the deepest sense of the word.”

They’d given her an example of what a working relationship was. She and Eric hadn’t been perfect, but they had been united. Tuesday sometimes felt that loss like a phantom limb.

A phantom relationship.

Something would happen and Tuesday instinctually found herself turning to Eric. The bones of her relationship with him still remained, though the rest of it had faded over time.

But the instant she remembered—that moment in time when reality came back like a punch to the throat—that hurt to her bones.

For a long time there was so much grief she couldn’t see past it. Couldn’t imagine a time when it didn’t make her ache every moment. But it hurt less that day than it had a year before. And it would hurt less next week. And so on.

Ezra cleared his throat. “So tell me about them. Your family.”

“Diana—that’s my mom—she’s an engineer. She works for the state of Washington and claims she’ll be retiring in a few years. I don’t believe her because she’s a person who is constantly in motion. I don’t know that she can stop working. My dad owns a roofing company. He and my uncle started it when they first moved out to the West Coast after my mom finished school. Anyway, he fell off a roof about nine years ago and broke his back so he had to slow down some. I say some because he still gets out on roofs when he feels a need.”

“Sounds like your dad and mine would get along well.”

“Does your dad like baseball?”

“Yes, he’s a die-hard Red Sox fan. It’s like religion to him.”

“Red Sox? Okay then, they’ll get along just fine. My dad converted the garage into what they call a man cave now, but it’s actually a sort of grungy place with his television and his recliner. He eats bags of peanuts and watches all four hundred sports channels. And she pretends she doesn’t know how much beer he drinks.”

“Your dad sounds kind of awesome.”

She laughed. “He is.” Her parents were awesome. Full of love and support no matter what her choices had been or where they’d taken her.

“Where are the rest of your siblings? I know you have a sister in San Diego.”