“Something happens to you, what are those boys gonna do?” she pointed to Roam and Sniff.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” I assured her.

“Something happens to you, what’s your uncle gonna do?” she carried on, a dog with a bone as usual.

“May, nothing’s gonna happen to me,” I repeated.

She walked to me, got in my space and looked up at me.

Quietly, she said, “Something happens to you, what am I gonna do?”

It was then I saw the tears she was trying not to shed shimmering in her eyes.

She was scared. Scared for me. Scared that something would happen to me that decades of using her Mama’s Gonna Make It Better Voice would never heal.

I put my arms around her and held her close. She did the same to me.

I’d never hugged May and in the back of my head it registered that she gave good hugs.

I looked around and saw Indy, Jet, Roam, Sniff and Clarice at one end of the row, all staring at me. Even Roam, Sniff and Clarice, hardened street kids, couldn’t hide their worried expressions.

Duke, Tex, Zip and Heavy were in the middle of the row still looking like my favorite uncles, all pissed off and wanting a role in my protection.

Daisy was standing with them. She was hard to read but I suspected she was patiently waiting for me to make the right decision and that was huge.

May and Vance were at my end of the row.

Home, Auntie Reba whispered in my ear.

My eyes locked on Vance’s.

Then I closed them slowly and when I opened them again, he was still looking at me but he had that look in his eyes again and now that I knew what that look meant, a happy shiver slid up my spine.

Shit.

I’d just made a decision.

Even when this was all over, I wasn’t going back on the street. Too many people cared about what happened to me and they would get hurt if I got hurt.

With one look at me Daisy knew I’d come to my decision. She smiled and gave me an approving wink. Then she came forward and pulled May away from me.

“Let’s get you your roast beef sandwich,” she said, guiding May away.

Everyone followed.

“I’m first up,” Duke said, pointing at me before he left.

I rolled my eyes (just for show) and when I was done with my eye roll, Vance was there.

His arm went around my neck and he pulled me to him. “Thinkin’ something big just happened there,” he said, looking down at me.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“Wanna share?”

I shook my head but I said it anyway. “I’m giving up the street.”

Vance’s body went tense. “For good?” he asked.

“For good,” I answered.

It was his turn to close his eyes but as with everything Vance, he did it better than me. In closer proximity, he dropped his forehead to mine, opened his eyes again to look into mine and breathed out on a quiet sigh, “Good.”

“You think Lee would let me go out with the boys every now and again, keep my skills sharp?” I tried.

He lifted his forehead from mine and shook his head. “I’m thinkin’ Lee might think you’re a distraction.”

I was afraid of that.

Then I asked the all important question.

I stared deep into his eyes and whispered, “Do you think Park would understand?”

His arm went from around me and his hands came to either side of my face. “Yeah.”

I nodded.

Then I let my body relax into his, his arms went around my waist and I tucked the side of my face into his throat.

“What’s this about knittin’ sweaters for me?” Vance asked.

Shit.

* * * * *

My bed moved when Vance got in it.

Normally I figured I would have slept through this and I had no idea why I didn’t. It could have been the covers moving as Vance slid between them, Vance’s heat hitting me or him pulling my back into his front and his body making contact with mine from shoulders to heels.

He settled into me silently, I settled into him the same way.

After awhile he said quietly against the back of my neck, “How’d it go?”

I knew he meant my evening. “Weird,” I whispered back.

Duke had been in the parking lot leaning against his bike when I finished at the Shelter that afternoon. He followed me to the hobby shop and was by my side as I made my knitting selections and even when I wandered into the sticker and card-making sections just in case knitting didn’t take.

I thought this was something which would annoy him but he seemed to have all the patience in the world for hobby shop shopping.

“You’re good at this,” I told Duke in the checkout line.

“What?” he asked.

“Shopping.”

“Dolores paints,” Duke replied then went on, “and does macramé and a bit of cake decorating and dried-flower arranging.”

Sounded like Duke was no stranger to hobby shops.

I handed over my credit card and turned fully to him. “Why are you doing this?”

“What?” he asked again.

“Protecting me. You barely know me.”

He regarded me for a second.

Then he said, “Got a feeling you’re gonna be a fixture in Indy’s life. Whoever is a fixture in Indy’s life is a fixture in mine. Don’t got no family outside Dolores and her folks. What family I got walks through the doors of that store on a regular basis. I’m guessin’ by the way Vance looks at you and Indy and her gang have taken to you, you’re gonna be walkin’ through those doors on a regular basis. I’m gonna do my bit to make sure you continue walkin’ through those doors. Where I come from, you take care of your family.”

At his words I’d had to put my hand to the counter to hold myself steady.

For some bizarre reason, maybe because he’d shared so I felt I should do the same, I told him. “I don’t have much family.”

“You do now,” he replied.

I had the strange but strong desire to hug him. I didn’t, instead I turned to the clerk and took my credit card back.

Duke followed me home and did a walkthrough of my house even though I told him there were cameras everywhere. He stayed for a beer and long enough for me to knit and pearl my way through a line of wool, all the while Duke reading the directions to me.

Finally he said, “Gotta go or Dolores’ll be pissed I let the dinner go cold.”

I walked him to the door.

“You go anywhere you call me or one of the boys. Hear me?” he ordered.

I wanted to be a head crackin’ mamma jamma but I couldn’t, not after what he said at the hobby shop and not after what happened at Fortnum’s that afternoon.