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It was a mother and son smiling as they sat at a picnic bench. Underneath it was a caption about how gingivitis can destroy your life.
“Wow. Morbid,” she muttered under her breath.
She felt her body relax further against the chair, continued to listen to Lucy get excited over the littlest things, and heard Malachi coming back from the rear of the office.
He set his bag down. “Back door is secured, as are the windows. I did find some bags of pretzels in the break room, no doubt stale as fuck, but hey, it’s good.” He tossed the handful of bags on the reception desk. “He still gone?” Malachi asked, referring to Tree Man.
She nodded. “He said he’d be back with food, although I’m doubtful.”
“Well, let’s hope he finds something, because if not I’m gonna have to go out because we are seriously low on everything.” Malachi faced her and leaned against the desk, crossing his arms over his chest and looking like the intimidating alpha she knew he was.
She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment. Sasha could’ve gone to sleep like this, just letting the soft sounds of Lucy’s giggles in the next room relax her and the presence of Malachi make her feel safe.
“I call dibs on this room, Sasha.”
She heard Lucy come running closer and opened her eyes, looking over at her. She stood, the door propped open with the chair. “Any room you want, sweetie.”
Lucy grinned. “I always hated the dentist before, but now it’s kind of fun,” she said in a chipper voice. “It even has the chair reclined all the way back so it’s like a bed.”
Sasha smiled and nodded. She was happy to see Lucy excited about something so small as the dentist chair. “Do you want me to help you set up?”
Lucy shook her head. “No way. I’m going to make it all cool in there all by myself.” Lucy got even more excited as she clearly thought of something else. “Malachi, come and check it out. It even has a window that overlooks a little pond.”
Lucy was hauling ass back to the room before Malachi could even respond. He was chuckling softly as he looked over at Sasha.
“It’s good to hear her happy.”
Sasha nodded. “It really is.” They stared at each other for long moments, and Sasha felt the heat start to build between them. She thought about them together, all the things she wanted to do, all the things they could’ve done. But she was glad they’d waited. She knew when they were finally together it would be explosive.
And she wanted that time to be tonight. She wanted that desperately.
She wanted it to be special, wanted everything perfect even when they were in a less than perfect new world.
He cleared his throat and lifted his hand to scratch his cheek. He was so rugged and masculine, so unhinged looking. She knew if she’d seen him on the side of the street before all of this had happened, she would have been afraid, thinking all kinds of awful thoughts about him.
No doubt he would’ve been dangerous, a bad man. But now… now everything had changed.
He headed toward where Lucy was, and once he was in the room with her, Sasha could hear Lucy’s excited voice as she described everything to him. Sasha even heard her telling him about a time she’d gone to the dentist, and how they had cleaned her teeth with bubblegum flavored toothpaste.
Sasha felt herself smile, and for just a moment got lost in the memory.
But then she heard someone approaching from the outside. She straightened, about to call Malachi but he was already there, obviously picking up the sound as if he were a predator listening for the slightest noise. He had his gun raised and pointed toward the door, and although Sasha assumed it was probably Tree Man coming back, she had her knife in her hand, ready as well.
“It’s just me,” Tree Man said in this childlike voice. “Just me with the goods and the sweets and the treats.” The words came out melodic. “And all the things that come before and after that.”
Sasha relaxed and looked at Malachi. He lowered his gun and she saw him exhale.
Malachi unlocked the door and pulled it open. Tree Man had a dirty looking pillowcase slung over his shoulder, and once the door was shut and locked behind him, he set it on the ground. The sounds of cans clanking together could be heard.
Malachi went over and started looking at the cans. Most of them didn’t have labels on them, but it didn’t matter. Hell, if it came down to it and they had to share the cans of dog food with Lucy’s dog, that would just be the route they had to take.
