But I guessed we’d cross that bridge when we got there. Think I was lucky enough to convince her to come here tonight for a sleepover, which was how she’d explained this little trip to Juni.
After what’d happened with Darius this afternoon, she was the one who’d started to have second thoughts. She’d tried to give me a thousand reasons why it was a bad idea.
I’d only had to give her one to change her mind: I have you.
I’d followed Salem to their house this evening to get their things. I had been wary of having another altercation with Darius, but he’d been nowhere to be found, so I assumed he was somewhere blowing off steam.
Mimi—that sweet thing—she’d been more than keen on the idea, even after Salem had flitted around, worried about leaving her alone.
“The heart knows when it’s time,” Mimi had whispered to her.
Emotion panged at the thought of it.
A void filling in the middle of my chest.
These walls no longer felt so lonely with Salem and Juni there.
I had to believe it was true.
That my heart was whispering it, too.
Juni was hot on my heels as I moved toward the bedrooms on the far-right side of the loft. I tossed open the guest bedroom door. “Here we go.”
Juni blazed around me. “What? You mean I even gets my own room? I loves it here.” She jumped onto the enormous bed, bouncing on her knees on the mattress. “I think I wants to stay for all the forevers. I thinks it’s a good idea because my best friend Gage only lives a little bit away and he can come here and play. Is that okay, Motorcycle Man?”
Warm laughter tumbled free as I edged in. “Well, since Gage is my nephew, and he likes to come over here and hang out with me every once in a while, that sounds like a pretty dang good plan to me.”
There I went, racing toward a destination I never thought I’d go.
“Jud.” My name was a plea coming from Salem where she’d edged up behind us. A warning filled her tone. Reservations she didn’t quite know where to place.
Be careful.
Don’t make promises we can’t keep.
I’m in no position to fall in love.
Turning around, I set my hand on her gorgeous face. “I have you, Salem.”
Thunderbolt eyes speared me.
Deep.
Intense.
Penetrating.
I brushed the pad of my thumb along her jaw, then I forced an easy smile. “Come on, let’s get you two fed.”
“Yes! I’m starvin’ like a martian, all the way up in the planets.”
I grinned back at Juni. “Seems like you’ve been spending too much time with Gage in the Cage.”
“No such thing, Motorcycle Man.” She hopped to her butt then slid off the side of the bed. “He’s my favorite friend, and we’re gettin’ married, and if you get married, you gotta spend always together.”
Right.
I cut an eye at Salem.
Joy washed through her expression.
Hope and belief.
Fuck.
I wanted to put that look on her face every day of her life.
“We’re gonna have to keep an eye on those two,” I said with a tease, angling down to drop a kiss to the side of Salem’s cheek as I passed.
“That’s your jobs, doncha know? You’re the adults.” Juni tossed it out, so pragmatic as she blazed back out to the kitchen.
A laugh tore free.
“I’ll be sure to remind you of that when you’re about fourteen.” I shouted it behind her as I turned in the direction of the master bedroom.
At my assertion, the breath hitched in Salem’s throat.
I turned to look at her from over my shoulder.
Salem had frozen outside Juni’s door.
She stood in my apartment like she’d become a part of the makeup.
A fixture on the floors.
A stroke of the paintings.
Permanent.
So goddamn pretty she knocked the air right outta my lungs.
A fantasy wrapped in a black, decadent bow.
“Could look at you all day.” The praise rumbled free.
Warily, Salem glanced around, fidgeting and letting her nerves get the best of her.
I let go of a casual laugh to put her at ease.
“Come on, Wildcat. I see you getting ready to strike.” I strode the rest of the way into my room, set her things on the floor. Her presence was nothing but a stir that hedged me from behind.
Chaos and light.
When she still didn’t say anything, I turned around and took her by the face.
Kissed her deep.
A bolt of need punched through my body.
I pulled back to stare down at that stunning face. “Do you trust me?”
She chewed at her bottom lip before she admitted, “I’m scared of how much I do.”
“You think I’m not scared, too, Salem? That all of this isn’t fuckin’ with my mind? But that’s the thing about trust—it’s always a little scary to give. To rely on someone when we’ve only been relying on ourselves. And fuck yeah, baby, you are a fighter, a survivor. Fierce and determined. So goddamn beautiful you make my knees shake. But it doesn’t matter how strong we are, every one of us needs someone who is willing to fight for us, too.”
She reached out and scratched her nails through my beard, those eyes on me when she whispered, “What I’m really scared of is losing you.”
“Then stay.”
I said it like it was simple.
Like nothing else mattered.
“Are you two done kissin’ or what?” Juni’s little voice filtered from the kitchen and into my room.
On a chuckle, I took Salem’s hand and threaded our fingers together.
She looked at the knitting of our beings, feeling it, too.
The merging.
The meeting.
The way it was supposed to be.
I led her out the double doors and into the big main room. Juni had already made herself at home, digging through the pantry. “You ain’t gots much, Motorcycle Man.”
She said it with a disappointed sigh.
“How about we order pizza for tonight and we’ll get some more groceries in here tomorrow?”
“Don’t teases me.” Juni stared at me with her mother’s eyes.
My chest stretched tight.
Fuck.
I was done for.
I pulled out my phone. “No teasin’ to it.”
“Hallelujahs,” she sang.
“What’s everyone’s favorite?”
“Cheese!” Juni popped up at the countertop where I was resting on my elbows so I could scroll to my favorite pizza place.
I touched her nose. She giggled.
The hole Kennedy and Kye had left inside me felt fuzzy. An old haunting that I’d never quite shake. A blur that had begun to form into something else.
I slanted a questioning gaze at Salem. “How about you, darlin’？”
“Cheese is great, as long as we order a salad on the side.” She looked at her daughter when she said that.
Juni shrugged, so grown-up. “I gots no problems with the vegetables. Sheesh, Mommy, do you even know me?”
So much sass.
My head shook in amusement, and I punched in the number, set on taking care of these two the best that I could.
Only the blaring that suddenly screamed through the loft froze my fingers on the screen. The alarm was so loud, it was disorienting.
Deafening.