She held his eyes and didn’t respond. Then she lifted up on her toes and touched her mouth to his.

She moved back barely an inch to whisper, “I’ll kiss you before I leave your bed, sweetheart. Promise.”

“Thanks, baby,” he whispered back.

Her arm and hand gave him a squeeze, she lifted up to touch her mouth to his again then she pulled away and moved to the faucet.

Layne watched her start to wash her face, his eyes moving around the basin, seeing all her stuff scattered there. All of her stuff around his sink. She didn’t claim the other one, she used his.

Or you hold it so close, it can’t ever go away but, if it does, you got as many precious memories as you can bag. Devin had said.

You hold it so close…

You hold it so close…

Rocky rinsed her face, Layne still watching, knowing, using his sink instead of claiming her own, it was one of the ways Rocky was holding him close, being at his sink, around his shit, just his toothbrush, his razor, but she was holding him close, even with little shit like that.

Holding him close.

He let that settle and, doing it, he let the after effects of the troubling dream slide away. He moved in behind her and kissed the skin at the nape of her neck.

Then he went to the toilet.

* * * * *

He opened the door to the Suburban just as his phone rang. He jumped down and held the door for Blondie to trundle out behind him as he pulled the phone out of his pocket, looked at the display, flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Hey sweetcheeks,” he greeted.

It was third period time; she had it free so she could make calls. Even so, he was mildly surprised to get one since this was the first time she’d called since that day he’d visited her at the school to tell her what he found out about Gaines.

“Hey baby,” she whispered back in a breathy voice.

Hearing it, Layne decided that the next favor he was going to ask of her was that she call him on her free period every day.

But he’d do it later. Now, he wanted to know why she was calling.

He slammed the door to his truck and, with Blondie beside him, he walked up the sidewalk toward Mimi’s.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Just wanted to tell you that the girls are having a Bachelor Auction Powwow tomorrow afternoon at my apartment. Is that cool with you?”

“Yeah, you comin’ over after?”

“No, I thought I’d make you dinner at my place and you can stay the night with me.”

He smiled into the phone as he opened the door to Mimi’s and walked in, leaving Blondie outside. “Works for me.”

“Anything special you want?” she asked.

“Surprise me,” he answered.

“I can do that,” she replied.

“Just a sec, sweetcheeks,” Layne said into the phone then ordered from one of Mimi’s employees, a kid with three piercings in her bottom lip, two in her nose, one in her eyebrow and she had pink hair.

Layne didn’t understand piercing nor did he find it attractive and it went without saying that pink hair was not his gig but this kid had made him coffee before and she was even better at it than Meems, which was saying something. She also had a great smile and she learned his name early and used it whenever she had occasion to do so, making him feel a member of the Mimi’s Coffee House Family. This was a nice touch and the way she did it was real, not ingratiating. Therefore, he found he liked her hair and didn’t mind the piercings because under all that shit was a genuine person, not one who wanted attention but just one who got off on that shit.

To each their own.

He went back to Rocky after got his, “What’ll it be this time, Tanner?” he’d placed his order and as he pulled out his wallet to pay.

“You get to work on time?” he asked Raquel.

“Ten minutes late but no one noticed since Adrian was in and cleaning out his office with Principal Klausen and Nick Fullerton in attendance so everyone was jabbering about that.”

“You see him?” Layne asked.

“No, Sharon told me about it then I went to my room. I’m thinking avoiding Adrian Cosgrove is a good strategy.”

There she was, his good girl.

“You’d be right,” he told her.

“Did you set a meeting with one of the boys?”

He had, with Colt. Merry still wasn’t returning his calls even though the subject of his messages had changed. Dave now also wasn’t picking up, even on the home phone which didn’t have caller ID and this meant he was making it his mission to avoid Layne. So it was Colt and it was also a study in patience not to hunt the Merrick men down and get in their faces.

“Colt, he’s comin’ to my office in half an hour,” Layne answered.

“Good,” Rocky replied.

Layne had paid and was standing at the other end of the counter waiting for his coffee when he heard Blondie bark three times and his head turned to the door to see Ryker come in. And it was a Ryker with a serious look on his face and this look was aimed with pinpoint precision at Layne.

Layne held Ryker’s eyes as Ryker stalked through the coffee shop toward him.

“Baby, gotta go,” Layne said into the phone. “Ryker’s here.”

“Oh, okay,” she replied. “Are we still going to the game tonight?”

“Yeah,” Layne answered. “I’ll pick you up. Get a snack, sweetcheeks, we’re havin’ pizza and beer at your place after.”

“Oh, okay,” she repeated, this time softer, breathy again. She remembered weeks ago, she liked what they shared weeks ago, she wanted it back and she wanted it to have a different ending, just like him.

“We gotta talk,” Ryker growled, he’d made it to Layne, he was impatient and Layne nodded.

“Be at your place at seven,” Layne said to Rocky.

“All right, sweetheart, see you then,” Rocky replied.

“Later, baby.”

“Later.”

He flipped his phone shut, shoved it into his pocket and asked Ryker, “You want a coffee?”

“We gotta talk,” Ryker repeated.

Layne studied him until his coffee was up; he grabbed it and led the way out of Mimi’s. Blondie barked at Ryker again but followed close to Layne the short distance to his office, not taking her eyes off Ryker and not leaving her man. She didn’t know what to make of Ryker and she wasn’t sure what she was reading from Layne, but she did know what she was reading from Ryker, so she was being vigilant.