She brightened at that.

“Oh my God, you might be right. She was…she…” She shook her head, drew in a sharp breath through her nose.

“You don’t have to finish,” he told her.

She looked to his chest, where she was pinching and releasing his tee.

“So…yeah. Yeah,” she said that twice and lifted her gaze to his. “Good take, honey. Because, honestly, if the world was perfect, Juno would never see her grandma like that. She was…up close…she was…” She swallowed. “Worse.”

Fuck.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured.

She went back to concentrating on pinching and releasing his tee.

He gave her time.

Then he asked, “You gonna be good, just Juno and you tonight? Going to work? All of that?”

She nodded.

She probably wouldn’t, but she’d push through anyway.

“You gonna talk to Juno?” he asked.

“I think maybe, I don’t know…it might be good you’re around when I do that. You’re a distraction. You’re healthy and vital. And no offense, honey, but you’re a shiny new toy.”

He grinned. “No offense taken.”

“Not that she sees you that way,” she said hurriedly.

“I know what you mean. She likes me. I’m exciting. It’s hopeful to her. And it’s a balance. Bad with your mom and I get to be good.”

“Yeah, that,” she said, her lips turned up ruefully.

He tucked her hair behind her ear. “So tonight and tomorrow, you get through. I’m a text or phone call away if you need it, and I want you checking in anyway. Thursday, we’ll do an early dinner and go build sets. And this weekend, we can do something all together and you can have a talk with her then.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“I hate this for you.”

Her lips turned down. “It was awful, Aug.”

He pulled her back in his arms and held her close.

“That feels better,” she said into his neck.

“Good,” he muttered roughly.

“Do you have to go back to work?”

“I can, if you’re okay for me to go. I can make a call if you’re not.”

She shook her head against him and said, “No. I’m okay now. Or better.” She lifted her head. “Go.”

He moved in and kissed her.

When he moved back, she moved in and kissed him.

When she finished hers, she didn’t shift far away before she invited, “You can pick my locks anytime, Auggie. Though it’d be a lot easier if I just gave you a key.”

And to that, he didn’t do it loud, or long.

But he laughed.

Yeah.

She might not be okay.

But he’d done his job.

She was better.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Something Better

Pepper

I was sitting in Auggie’s car, with Auggie, at 3:45 on Thanksgiving Day, reminding myself about how proud I was that I could bring peace and calm to Auggie’s life.

I was reminding myself of this, because for the last two-plus weeks, I’d accomplished that.

For him.

For me.

For Juno.

And I was reminding myself of this, because I was in danger of obliterating that in ways that I might never be able to get it back.

* * *

Allow me to share…

To begin.

It was not fun dodging Juno’s questions about her grandmother. Telling her things that were the truth: Grandma was not well, she was very weak, she didn’t look much like herself anymore as the illness was running its course.

All of this, but not going there.

As in, Juno was not invited to spend time with her grandma to make memories, even painful ones, before she died.

But as she and I were prone to do, we got through that.

And I’d used an evasive maneuver to help that along, this being enlisting her support to make Thanksgiving an awesome day for Auggie.

“He’s not close with his parents,” I told her. “They’ve never been very…” I struggled for a word, and found it, “traditional. But he’s all about family so I think he’d like us to do it up with him.”

Just like my girl, she got excited immediately.

“You mean, like, a tablecloth on the island and fancy glasses and stuff?”

I nodded. “Just like that. And lots of food. We’ll go out and buy another stool so we can all sit together.”

“And we need to buy cloth napkins,” she planned. “And those things that hold napkins that look like big rings.”

I swept an arm to the island. “We can design a whole thing. Do it up big. The works.”

“Oh my gosh! This’ll be fun!”

She was not wrong.

We’d planned and gone shopping and it had been fun.

In fact, except for one part of it, the rest of that week was fun.

Including meeting Auggie for dinner before we all went and helped with the sets. Me going straight to work from there because Auggie could take Juno home to Flossy. That meant we had an extra bit of time together as a three, and Auggie and Juno had the same, just those two.

Then hitting the bad part, on Saturday, when Auggie came over because I was going to give Flossy an unusual Saturday off because Aug was going to hang with Juno that night while I was at work.

Tags: Kristen Ashley Dream Team Romance
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