“You sent me to get cat food. Anything else that happened wasn’t about you at all. I don’t know about your normal grocery store trips, but mine don’t generally end that way. It was some random, crappy thing you couldn’t have anticipated.”

“I’m going down there.”

She stepped into his path, a hand on his chest. “It’s handled. It’s over.” She told them about his dad and all the stuff he’d said to Shelley.

Damien gave her a look and she stepped closer to Ezra, touching his arm. Tension radiated from his muscles. A sort of barely leashed violence that sent a thrill through her even as she knew he was really angry.

“Please calm down.”

“No one should be treated that way, much less you.”

She took his hand, still bound in a fist, and kissed his fingers. Damien stepped back and found something to do.

“This isn’t all right.”

She snorted. “No kidding.” She pressed another kiss to his other fist. “But you can’t punch every single racist you see.”

“Why the hell not?”

She smiled. He’d relaxed just a tiny bit.

“Because you’d have really sore fists. Because that’s what they want. Mainly because jail is dumb and they’re not worth it. There’ll be more. There’s always more. You’ll just see it now because you’re with me. You’re a white man with a black woman. It gets attention.” She raised a shoulder.

“I’m a man dating a gorgeous black woman. It’s probably jealousy.”

She shook her head. “Ezra, you need to always remember something. Bigots are ignorant. It’s why they’re bigots. You start threatening their reality and some of them lose their shit. You just can’t go around punching racists because some of them want the excuse to do you harm. That is my reality. If I don’t operate with that reality at the forefront of my mind the consequences can be pretty dire.”

He freed one of his hands to shove it through his hair. “Okay. All right. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that while I knew racism was a problem, I didn’t really get what you have to live with every day.”

“And you still don’t. You can’t.” She kissed him again. “But you’ll see it from a new angle now and I want you to be prepared.”

He frowned and she wanted to laugh all the sudden. He was so perplexed when he couldn’t control every aspect of something. There was something so sweet about that even though it was annoying, too.

“Well, did my dad get to hit him at least?”

“He reached out and grabbed the guy’s collar and shirt.” She showed Ezra what she meant. “And then just sort of picked him up and chucked him back a few feet. It was pretty awesome. He was kind of my hero right then.”

He hugged her. “Good. You need heroes.”

She squeezed him, burrowing into him as much as she could. He rumbled then and it made her smile. As he’d intended most likely.

“Hey, boys and girls! Exciting night, huh?” Paddy and Natalie approached. “Dad just called but we were already on our way over here after Natalie got your voice mail, Tuesday.”

Natalie knew Tuesday would hate it if she tried to hug her or make a big deal out of the situation. It did suck, but making a big deal out of it would just draw more attention and make it worse.

Michael Hurley had done what was right and she would not forget it. But she didn’t want to dwell on it.

“We just rolled up from the great coyote hunt.” Damien came over. “We should all have dinner.”

“Yeah, Mary is at my house with some food. That’s why we’re here.” Paddy looked his brother over carefully.

“I’m a mess. Give me five minutes to tidy up and get some lipstick on and we’ll walk over.”

Natalie linked her arm through Tuesday’s. “I’ll come with you because I know you’re hoarding that tube of red I gave you for your birthday.”

“That’s not hoarding, Natalie. You give someone a gift it’s theirs to use how they wish. But I have it in my bag and you can use some because you’re adorable.”

She looked over to Ezra. “We can make the pizza another day. I’ll be back in a few.”

He stalked over and Natalie scampered away with a squeak when Ezra hauled Tuesday to him and laid a searing-hot kiss on her.

There was so much in that kiss it was all she could do to hold on to his biceps as he devastated her with his mouth. Left her totally bare and broken open. He looked into the heart of all that and he kissed her like there was nothing else in the world he could do. He kissed her like he needed her to survive. Like her taste was the best in all the world.

“I’ll be waiting.” He set her back and she blinked up at him as she gulped.

“O-okay.”

Natalie was at her side again, linking arms. “Lean on me because I bet you got some rubber knees right about now.”

Tuesday laughed as they headed inside. Loopy showed up, shadowing her through the house, protecting and defending.

“My bag is in Ezra’s room. Hang on.”

Natalie paused at the end of the hall leading to Ezra’s room, gaping at the ornate glory of those double doors.

“I know. Wait until you see the rest.”

“It smells really good in here. My god, what does he use?” Natalie puttered around Ezra’s room, looking around as Tuesday found the lipstick and pulled out her little spray bottle of the oil she used to make her hair happy after a hard day.