“Cross my heart, I only have making you coffee on my to-do list right now.”

As he ground and measured out coffee, he watched her set her world in order. She had a little ritual to start every day, and as she finished each step, she brightened, as if bringing that order lightened her heart.

But she was still cranky until that first cup of coffee so he wasn’t surprised when she left to use the machine in the break room, which was already done brewing.

After she’d finished half that cup, the scent of the fresh pot filled her office and she looked up at him with a smile. “You are really nice to me. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. You’re very nice to me so it’s only fair. How come you didn’t get coffee at home? I’m sorry I got home later again last night. But we finished and the guy will come to take delivery this afternoon.”

She made a note in her calendar quickly. “Excellent. I was in a rush this morning. I woke up late and then I took pills over to my mom’s.”

“You said you’d only go when I came with you from now on.” He frowned her way.

“You’ve been working eighteen-hour days. I’m not going to get in the way of the scraps of sleep you were getting to have you escort me over there. It’s still the same.”

Meaning her mother didn’t speak to her. Once the police had come over, Carmella’s mother had refused to speak to her. Duke felt like maybe Carmella should let her mother manage her own shit then, but Carmella wouldn’t go for that.

She had, however, stopped taking over meals. When Duke found out Carmella also paid for those groceries for her mother as well as paying the mortgage and utilities, he’d been so angry. Her mother had income from a settlement after being injured several years before while working as a waitress and Carmella’s grandparents had left her money that was paid monthly. And yet, Carmella had to scrimp.

She’d hated feeding Steven and her mother was being horrible and so there’d been a compromise where she took over pills and some basics like bread and milk, but nothing more.

Duke figured the minute her mother started speaking to her again, she’d start making her meals once more. But even this small step away from Virgie was one Duke applauded.

“Well, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”

She hugged him and it made him so happy he kissed her right there in her office just to see that prim look she always did when he took liberties. It was such a hot little game between them. He’d never actually kiss her at work if she truly didn’t want him to. But she’d also never initiated that sort of affection at work either.

“I’ll allow your forward ways just this once,” she said as she poured herself a fresh cup. “So good. Thank you. You’re always there when I need you. I have stuff to do and so do you.” She flapped a hand to signal she was done letting him push about her mother.

He’d been so caught up in finishing this job that he hadn’t been around much. After spending so much time with her before, he’d gotten used to her, spoiled by that.

“I haven’t seen enough of you for days and days. How about we go on a real date? Din Tai Fung for dinner?”

Her eyes lit with pleasure. “Yes, please. That sounds awesome. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just go home and sleep for fifteen hours and go out to dinner tomorrow night?”

“I’ll be done by five, so we’ll go home and change and drive over. We can pick up cupcakes at Trophy while we’re in Bellevue if you like. And then we’ll come home. We have some major reuniting to do. There’s plenty of time to sleep after that.”

Mick came through, rolling up the bay doors on the north side of the building, interrupting his train of thought and reminding him he had a meeting in a few minutes.

“Asa, Mick, and I will be in a meeting for a bit,” he told her. “I’ll see you later on. Maybe we can do lunch if this finishes up in time.”

Mick saw Duke and tipped his chin. “Be right with you. I just need to check something with Duane.”

He detoured through Carmella’s office again, refilled his coffee mug, stole a kiss, got an adorable glare, and headed to Asa’s office, where Mick joined them both.

“What’s up?” Mick asked.

“Last year when you left the army for good and came home, you said you wanted in at Twisted Steel as a partner,” Duke said. “We brought you on as the shop manager not only because you’re good at it, but because we wanted to see if you really meant all the stuff you’d said about wanting to buy in.”

“You wanted me to prove myself after I left the way I left the last time.” Mick nodded. “I get it.”

“We had to get the business appraised when we decided on all the renovation.” Asa handed Mick a piece of paper. “The real question is how much you want in. The top number is what a full third is worth. We have information available about what our profit share is like as partners, what our overhead is. You know a lot of it having run the ship all this time. But we’ve got more detail if you want to look it over.”

“This is great news. I’ve been saving money for this.” Mick’s smile made Duke even more glad he and Asa had decided to finally bring their friend in.

“Have an attorney look over all the paperwork. Don’t make a decision until you do that. There’s all this tax stuff I didn’t have any idea about and it was a total pain. Make sure you understand everything. If you have questions, we can hook you up with our attorney.”