Kara rolls her eyes with a shrug. Fine, but you owe me pizza, and a ride, and something else. I dunno what yet.”
His grin must be blinding and contagious for how quickly she looks away, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. “Will my undying gratitude work?”
“I suppose that’s sufficient. Why did you get this, anyway? Chick magnet?”
“Busted.”
He doesn’t tell her that part of the reason he blew so much money on this thing is because he hoped it could be something the two of them would do together. Something to keep them close, even when life seemed to be tearing them in different directions.
* * *
“You picked it up so fast. Shoulda told you then that you nailed it instead of giving you such a hard time,” she smirks.
“I like it when you give me a hard time.”
“You still owe me that pizza for teaching you.”
“Noted.”
She lets out a soft hum, her eyes fluttering closed, and the fist she wrapped in his shirt loosening. “That was the same year you bailed me outta jail. I worried you wouldn’t come.”
Oh, that’s not a fun path to venture down. He should have known her mind would conjure up something faintly traumatic. If she wants to revisit it, then he’ll follow her. “Why did you think that?”
“Because everyone leaves eventually, Wade.”
“Not me.”
“You were so mad…”
* * *
Kara probably hears his footsteps, heavy and quick, before she sees him round the corner of her cell block for the night. She doesn’t even get off the shitty cot to greet him because she knows he’ll have a growl of disapproval in his throat.
“Are you okay?” Is the first thing Wade says, gesturing at the jail bars separating them, then to her split lip still dripping blood onto the concrete.
“You should see the other guy.”
“I heard he’s missing a front tooth and the bar says you owe them a cocktail glass.”
“He grabbed my ass,” Kara says to the ceiling. “Then he told me exactly what he planned to do to it in graphic detail whispered smugly in my ear. A cocktail glass to the face is getting off easy.”
“He hit you after you hit him?”
She nods.
“I shoulda gone with you,” he grumbles, already blaming himself for what happened as if she isn’t an adult making her own choices.
She sits up with a shrug. “You can’t protect me from everything. I can handle a jerk like that.”
“I know you can but now you’re in the pokey and that ain’t no place for a lady.”
“Since when am I a lady? Besides, maybe I like it fine in here. Maybe it’s cozy.”
“Oh okay, I’ll just tell ‘em to give me my bail money back and let you spend the night.”
Her eyes widen. She gets up to rush toward the bars, grabbing them with both hands. “You bailed me out?”
“Of course I did. They’re coming in a minute to release you. Can’t let my girl sleep on vomit-stained sheets. What would people think?” he teases with a fond grin.
