“I’l try to do better,” I said.

“Try real hard.”

Eek.

Time for a new subject.

“Eddie?”

“Yeah?”

His arms tightened and I came closer. I slid my hands around his middle and put my head on his shoulder.

“Yesterday, nothing happened. No one shot at me and I didn’t wrestle with anyone and my stun gun stayed in my purse the whole day. Except for seeing Shirleen tel Darius to whack Vince, yesterday was a good day.” Eddie’s body grew stil when I talked about Shirleen and Darius.

“Don’t worry, I told Hank about it. He made some cal s,” I assured him.

“Lee told me last night. That why you left me a message?”

I nodded against his shoulder.

His body relaxed.

“I think we should celebrate,” I decided, lifting my head to look at him, “Not about Darius whacking Vince but for a day with no hair-raising experiences. I’l make you dinner tonight.”

He ran a hand through the side of my hair and then rested it against my neck.

“Dinner would be good,” he said in a soft voice.

My bel y did a curl.

“Maybe Mom and Lottie wil come over. And Tex.”

“I thought your sister was moving to Denver?” he asked.

“She is.”

“They can come over another night.”

My bel y curl graduated to a doo-da spasm.

“Okay,” I agreed.

He touched his lips to mine.

“Why are you leaving so early?” I asked when he was done.

“Got shit to do.”

“My shit?”

“Your shit.”

Wonderful.

I real y was a pain in the ass.

I tucked my head into his throat.

“I’m sorry,” I said against his skin, “I hate this.”

“Mi amor, it’l be over soon.”

“I hope so, who would have thought it but I want my boring, old, normal life back.”

His body shook with soft laughter.

“Chiquita, I’m not sure you’re capable of boring and normal.”

I wished he was right.

“Just you wait,” I mumbled.

He didn’t say anything but I could tel , even in his silence, he didn’t believe me.

“I’ve set the alarm so you can get up later, Bobby’l be

“I’ve set the alarm so you can get up later, Bobby’l be here at 7:30 to take you to Fortnum’s.”

Bobby was another of Lee’s men and I was guessing Bobby pul ed Jet Duty that morning.

I sighed.

“Al right.”

He kissed me, the touch-on-the-lips, touch-the-tips-of-the-tongue kiss. It was one of my favorites.

Who was I kidding? They were al my favorites.

“Be good,” he said against my mouth.

I sighed again.

“I’l try.”

He was laughing when he put me back into bed.

It was only when he was gone that I realized I stil had fear lodged in my throat. It wasn’t fear of men with guns and knives and rape on their mind, it was a whole other kind of fear that, cal me crazy, was far worse.

* * * * *

The alarm went off and I hit the snooze, thanking God for one smal favor, that the snooze button was always the biggest one. The alarm went off again, and again I hit the snooze.

This happened two more times.

At 7:15, I stared bleary-eyed at the clock, let out a little scream and jumped from the bed.

I was in my underwear and one of Eddie’s flannel shirts, hair wet from a fast shower and in a complete tizzy, when there came a pounding at the door.

It was Bobby.

Bobby was built like a tree and he looked like a member of the Tex Family, except younger and before the crazy kicked in. Just before.

He did a body scan and his eyebrows went up.

“I’m running late, can you wait?” I said to him.

He shrugged, sat down on the couch, grabbed a remote and found a bal game.

“How can there be a bal game on at 7:30?” I said, exasperated, staring at the screen.

“English footbal , it’s later there. Man U vs. Arsenal, a friendly.”

It was like he was speaking in code but I wasn’t real y listening, I was staring at the screen.

These guys didn’t wear pads and helmets that hid their faces, these guys didn’t wear sil y pants with gathers at the ankles.

These guys wore shorts and shirts, no hats or helmets and you could see, straight out, they were hot.

I sat down on the arm of the couch and watched.

Some official looking guy threw a yel ow flag.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

Bobby explained someone did something bad but I wasn’t listening, al the players were pissed off and getting in each other’s faces.

I pushed Bobby over and sat down ful y on the couch.

Twenty minutes later, Bobby looked at me. “Don’t you need to get to work?” he asked.

Shit!

“Shit!” I said, jumped up and ran to the coffeepot. I made Bobby a coffee, made one for me and did the getting ready business.

It was nippy and not the normal, bright, sunshiny Colorado day. I put on a fitted heathered gray t-shirt, a wool, aubergine, ribbon cardigan, jeans and my high-heeled black boots. Hair back in a ponytail, minimum makeup, spritz of fancy perfume and ready to rol .

We swung into Fortnum’s way late.

No one noticed.

Mom was on the couch, Lottie next to her and I gave them both a kiss and went behind the espresso counter to help Duke and Tex with the line of customers.

“I see you’re stil alive,” Duke said, obviously stil feeling crotchety about my recent troubles and deciding to blame it on me.

I felt the best course of action was not to answer.

It proved not to be the best course of action.

Duke stared at me a beat, then turned to the CD player, yanked out Tex’s Steppenwolf and put in Charlie Daniels.

Normal y, this was indication of a throw down. Once a CD was on, it was on and the only reason you were al owed to turn it off was if it wasn’t some of Duke’s country or some of Al y, Indy and Tex’s rock ‘n’ rol .

I held my breath waiting for Tex to react.

Tex wasn’t biting.

This was weird, Tex always bit.

Both Duke and I stared at him.

“Are you okay?” I asked Tex.

He turned to me, “Gonna ask your mother to dinner and I want your blessing.”

My mouth dropped open.

Duke made a sound like someone punched him in the gut.

“Wel ?” Tex asked me.

I struggled to find my voice.

“Um… you two are consenting adults, you don’t need my blessing.”