And I really, really didn’t want to hang around the vet while Bobby collected Lucille. I’d seen how he could natter once the mood struck him, and Lucille was one of his favorite subjects. I wanted to get home sometime today.
“I guess,” I said, making sure to roll my eyes so Lee wouldn’t think I was happy about it or anything.
Bobby scooped up the bakery box and said, “I’ll get your bike back as soon as I can, but it might take a few days. You gonna manage until then?”
I shrugged. “I’ve got legs.”
It was maybe a twenty-minute walk from the bakery to home and I’d walked a lot farther than that before. Hell, when Cash and I had left home, we’d walked fordays. This was nothing.
Once Bobby had gone, Lee asked, “Are you really okay with me taking you home?”
He was learning.
“I’m okay with it as long as I get to take the leftover quiches,” I said. Cash fucking loved those.
Lee divided up the rest of the stuff into two boxes, putting three quiches in mine, and then we got in his truck and I directed him back to my place. We sat in silence as we drove, and whenLee’s truck bumped over the little bridge over the creek that separated the nicer half of Goose Run from the part that I lived in, I looked at him to make sure he wasn’t gonna be a dick about this.
“What?” he asked me.
“Nothing,” I said. “Take a right up here.”
The driveway was empty when we got to my place, so everyone was still at work. Or at community college in Danny’s case, since he was all about becoming a paramedic these days. One of the googly eyes had fallen off the mailbox and was glinting in the sun. The house looked pretty sad and run-down, especially compared to Avery’s next door since his had been painted before he’d bought it, which had happened sometime this century. Pretty sure the last time our place had seen a lick of paint was during the Nixon administration.
Lee turned the engine off. “So, I guess we shouldn’t fool around at work anymore,” he said. “If Bobby’s liable to just barge in like that.” He sounded about as bummed about it as I felt.
“Yeah, I guess not.” I glowered at the thought. It sucked. Ilikedgetting dicked down on the regular. But it wasn’t like there was anywhere else we could go and hook up.
I scowled out the windshield at the driveway.
The empty driveway.
The empty driveway that meant an empty house.
“Uh,” I said.
Lee raised one eyebrow. “What?”
“There’s nobody home.” When he didn’t get it, I added, “The house is empty. If you wanted to fuck.”
“Jesus, Chase.” Lee let out one of those laughs that said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
I opened the door of the truck and said, “You coming inside or what?”
“I mean, we just?—”
“Oh, well, if you can’t get it up again, I guess that’s too bad.”
“Asshole,” he said and unclipped his seat belt.
He followed me up the driveway and onto the porch. I dug my key out of my pocket and opened the door. Lee followed me inside, carrying my box of leftovers.
It felt weird to have him there, like he didn’t belong. He belonged in the bakery—and in my ass—but not in my home. Not in the place where my stuff was lying around and he could justlookat it. It gave me an itchy feeling at the back of my skull thinking about it, so I quickened my pace as I led him through to the kitchen.
“So,” I said, “this is my place.” I gestured vaguely at the walls. “Now get your dick out. I want to suck it.”
“Here?” Lee set the box on the counter and gave the kitchen a dubious look.
“Why not? I already told you there’s nobody home.” I raised my eyebrows. “Besides, aren’t kitchens kind of our thing?”
