Yup.
Acting like a creeper.
The worst kind.
The kind that had a lock-picking kit.
“You were freaking me out, not replying to texts, not answering the door, having just met your mom and being at that church. So I picked the locks.”
She stood unmoving for a beat.
Two.
Then she started laughing.
Okay, well that was good.
In the middle of laughing, she started sobbing.
Right, that was not good.
“Aug,” she keened, lifting a hand his way.
He considered that an invitation, didn’t mess around going to her and she fell into his arms.
“How awesome is it that my boyfriend can pick locks?” she asked, still crying into his chest.
“If you’re glad I’m here, why didn’t you reply to my texts asking if you’re okay?”
“I texted you when I got home and came right up here to try and find some peace. I left my phone in the office.”
“Babe,” he called.
She turned watery eyes up to him.
“I get your rule. I dig your rule. I’m gonna follow your rule. But, you know, you go somewhere I don’t think is real safe to have an emotional conversation with your mother who’s gravely ill, you text me and say it didn’t go great, you hang tight for a return text. Or, higher probability, me showing like I did just now, but I wouldn’t have to pick the locks. Yeah?”
“I’m sorry,” she sniffled.
“Nothing to be sorry about. We’re learning each other. It’s a learning moment.”
She started laughing through her tears.
He asked, “You wanna stand in the hall and cry this out, or go downstairs?”
She didn’t want either.
She told him this by taking him into her kickass bedroom.
It was not the time.
But it hit his brain that he could not wait to fuck her in here.
She climbed in bed, tugged him in with her, and as he settled in with her, he noted that he loved it that there was not a lot of clutter in her room, just like with his.
But everything was soft. The chunky knit throw across the bottom of the bed. The snowy-white snatch of fake fur thrown over the chair in the corner. The bubble-knit throw pillows.
He angled himself so his boots weren’t on her covers and she snuggled in.
He didn’t push.
She didn’t take her time.
But when she spoke, she didn’t give him what he’d come there for.
She said, “Hawk’s gonna hate me if you make a habit of blowing off work for me.”
“You obviously need to get to know Hawk a whole lot better.”
She snuffled and then sighed.
And then she gave him what he came for.
“I essentially said good-bye to Mom today. They don’t want me or Juno around while this is happening. We’ve been a duty they didn’t relish since I left home ten years ago. They let me go, apparently, then. And today, it was made plain I need to get with that program.”
Auggie didn’t trust himself to say anything.
She kept going.
“I’m trying to see this as good. They didn’t get anything from me. I wasn’t sure they were healthy for Juno. But it’s going to take me some time to get there. My mother would prefer to die without her daughter around. I have siblings I’ll never meet. Whatever is happening with that church is happening and they might end up in deep shit sooner or later. But I have no control over that. So…”
Her letting that hang was a verbal shrug.
“What about the prayer circle?” he asked.
“What?” she asked back.
“I thought you were supposed to be involved in a prayer circle.”
Her body tensed.
Then she lifted up from cuddling into his chest.
She caught his eyes.
On her left side, her mascara was swiped across her temple. On her right, which had been against his chest, it was smudged all around the corner of her eye.
She was still gorgeous.
“Saffron nor Mom mentioned the prayer circle.”
No mention now. But two weeks ago, they’re pushing Pepper to find her long-lost brother to complete this all-important circle.
That was so fishy, he could smell it in the room.
He didn’t say anything.
“Maybe they’ve re-thought and decided I’ll taint the circle,” she suggested.
“Maybe,” he murmured.
But he didn’t think so.
He thought, in between then and now they could have seen her and her friends there, the men also there, several of them definitely showed up at services and Pepper had made a scene.
He also thought people doing slimy shit that was also potentially felonious didn’t like people around who thought they were slimy and could potentially be felonious.
Definitely not snooping around, and the women weren’t covert about their operations.
But yeah.
Maybe.
More likely, not.
“She doesn’t want to say good-bye to Juno, Aug.”
He focused on her.
“How whacked is that?” she whispered, her voice clogged and gutting him.
He reached.
And then he found something.
“She could be hiding behind all the church stuff, honey. You didn’t have a good reaction when you saw her. She could be protecting Juno from that same thing.”