She was the soft place to land when I jumped out of a plane without a parachute.
Raven was the calm to my chaos.
Without her there, I couldn’t imagine what life was going to be like.
But I was going to find out, wasn’t I?
“I’m happy for you then too,” I told her, meaning it with everything I had.
“I was thinking—” she started, pressing her lips together, unsure if she should continue.
“About?”
“About what you are going to do now.”
“I’m going to do what I always do. Hop in the skoolie. Make some men pay for the shit they thought they could get away with. And then get paid for that.”
“I know. It’s a passion of yours. But… I don’t like the idea of you doing it alone, you know? For safety reasons.”
That had crossed my mind as well. I might have been wild and a bit reckless, but I wasn’t stupid. I understood just how risky the job we—and now I—did was. Pissing off men could lead to all sorts of sticky situations. And I wasn’t too fond of the idea of ending up in a shallow grave in the woods somewhere, getting dug up and eaten by scavengers.
I wasn’t sure how I would continue to do my job—and do it safely—but I was about to figure that out.
“You know me, Raven. Nothing can hurt me,” I reminded her.
“Sting first, ask questions later, right, Wasp?” Roman’s voice asked, coming in through the kitchen in his gray suit, looking stupidly handsome and happy. I could see what Raven saw in him. He walked up behind Raven, placing his hands on her shoulders, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head. And she damn near melted. Hell, my ice-cold heart thawed a bit.
“That’s right,” I agreed, nodding.
To that, he gave me what I could only call a brotherly smile. One that was amused, concerned, and exasperated all at once. I knew that smile. Because I had two brothers of my own. Reeve and Cyrus, who worried about me more than they needed to.
“I forgot my gym bag,” he told us. “I’ll be out of your hair in two minutes,” he added, rushing off toward the stairs.
“Stop looking at his ass.”
“Look, if a man is going to steal away my best friend in the world, I just want to make sure he has all the goods, okay? Trust me, it’s not like that. He’s asexual to me. You know we’ve never had the same taste in men anyway.”
“That’s true. One of the tenants of our friendship.”
“Exactly. No bitchy in-fighting because you like them tall, dark, and handsome.”
“And you like them silent and good in bed.”
“Those are the only good kinds of men,” I insisted, getting another laugh out of her.
“Seriously, though, Wasp. Maybe it’s time to retire. I’m sure you could find a new passion in life.”
It was the easier solution.
The problem was, I wasn’t as confident as Raven was that I could find something else to do with my life that I would find halfway as exciting, as fulfilling, as what I did now. Just the idea of staying in one place made my throat feel a little tight. The idea of having to go to a nine-to-five where I had to wear flat shoes all day? That sounded downright torturous.
“I’m not done yet,” I told her, shrugging. “I will know when I’m done. And, let’s face it, there is a time stamp on this career anyway. No man is going to fall for a wrinkly, droopy-boobed version of me. So I am going to keep going while I’m in my prime. Socking some money away. Maybe investing some of it, so I can have a nest egg. And then retire when I get too droopy-butted to reel them in anymore.”
“I thought your boobs were going to droop.”
“Oh, they will. Everything is going to droop, Raven. We need to learn to accept that now. We will appreciate our bodies more if we do. Anyway, yeah. I know I can’t do this forever. But I have a little bit left in me. But I promise that I will find ways to make sure I keep myself safe on jobs. Okay? Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m always going to worry about you. Even if I know you can take care of yourself.”
“Psh. Give it a year or two. You’ll have a baby on your hip and one on the way. You’ll forget all about worrying about me.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“I like the idea of you having a couple of little Ravens running around. Then I get to drop in, be the cool, crazy aunt. Corrupt them in an untold number of ways, then take off again to let you deal with the aftermath.”
“I trust you are one-hundred percent capable of being that evil,” she agreed. “But we haven’t really… discussed that yet.”