“So, Megan made the omelets?”
Colleen laughed. “We create together. I’m just not sure what I have in the kitchen. I haven’t been shopping in a while.”
“Delivery!” he said. “Little effort. I guess I will have to put pants back on to go downstairs.”
“Well, one of us should.”
He started searching around the bed.
“What are you doing?” Colleen asked him.
“My phone is in my pants.”
“Ah, mine is downstairs. Dropped my bag when I came in.”
“Aha! Success.”
He dug his phone out of his pants. They sat together and looked at the offerings that could be delivered.
They chose a barbecue place. Mark could order a couple plain burgers for Red.
“You don’t have dog food?” Colleen asked.
“I don’t carry it with me,” he told her.
She grinned. “So, you’re staying?”
“If you don’t mind.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m...”
She paused, remembering how Megan had said she’d thought she was being watched and how she had felt uneasy herself.
But it had been nothing.
“No. I’m glad you’re staying.”
He smiled. For a minute they sat, looking at one another. She loved the blue of his eyes and his hair against the bronze of his flesh. She loved the shape of his face.
And, she thought dryly, the shape of the rest of him.
“You can protect me,” he told her lightly.
“Ha ha.”
She was surprised by how serious he grew.
“Don’t kid yourself. I know you’d be fine under any circumstances. We all need each other.”
She nodded. “It’s good to have you—and Ragnar and Red.”
The barbecue place was near; the food arrived quickly.
They had their late-night dinner in bed.
Colleen remained surprised Jensen and Red got along as well as they did. Jensen had always accepted dogs—he’d known his “cousin” wolfhound and shepherd since he’d been a kitten. But he seemed to have a special acceptance for Red.
Maybe Red was just that special.
They slept that night, late and entwined.
And it seemed an amazing oasis in the harsh sands of the lives they were living.