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That didn’t mean she
hadn’t fucking scared him shitless.
Kink just wasn’t the place for a gorgeous woman to wander off alone. He didn’t doubt she could take care of herself but why should she have to? That was his job. He loved her and dammit, he would protect her.
He dragged a hand over his face. If he didn’t get a hold of himself, he wouldn’t be able to discuss things rationally. Tonight, of all nights, that was vital.
No more screwing around. No more halfway. He loved her, dammit, and they would both have to deal with whatever that meant.
He turned off the engine and got out of his car, so consumed with his thoughts that he didn’t even realize he’d arrived at Marcia’s door until he lifted his hand to knock. The moment his knuckles met the wood he heard a loud feminine laugh. He scowled just as the door swung in and Marcia leaned out, a bottle of Mudslide mix in one hand. “You’re—oh, hey.” Her eyes went wide. “Hey,” she said again, more softly.
“Hi. Interrupting something?”
“No. Just me and the kid.” She stepped back and gestured to where Adam sat cross-legged on the floor. “We’re playing drinking games. Except all I had was this liquored up mix,” she waved the bottle, “and neither of us really know any. Games, I mean. So we’re pretty much just drinking.”
A stronger man might’ve held out against her. He wasn’t strong. Never had been when it came to Marcia Daly.
Tony’s lips twitched. “Can I join you?”
“Sure.” She peered around him into the hallway. “Cale?”
“Home.”
“Alone?”
“Last I checked.”
“Hey, Tony,” Adam said, saluting him with his tumbler. “How’ve you been?”
“All right.” Tired. On the edge. Really want to be alone with your sister. But he didn’t say any of that. Instead he strode forward and slapped hands with Adam as they usually did. “So do I get a glass or what?”
A couple of hours later, Marsh and Adam were still exchanging dating war stories. Apparently Adam’s date with Leigh had gone from extremely promising to his being reasonably sure she would change her number to avoid his calls.
Not that Adam seemed all that broken up about it. The guy hadn’t stopped laughing all night. Marcia had started out similarly cheery but she’d grown quieter as the hours progressed. Now she stared pensively at the bottom of her empty glass while Adam recounted, again, how he’d won football trophies in every year of high school and the huge amount of perseverance that had required.
A story Tony had already heard, oh, sixteen times before.
“Listen, man, I think we need to call it a night.” Tony wrapped an arm around Marcia’s shoulders and tugged her against him in what he hoped would be an obvious gesture. Subtlety and Adam never made the best bedfellows.
“I hear you. I’m fucking exhausted too.” Adam scratched his chin and rose, as steady as a ballerina. He’d barely touched his mudslide mix. “Hope I’ll see you for dinner at Spence’s in a couple days.”
“Sure thing.” Tony glanced at Marcia, remembering they were fighting. Sort of. “Hopefully I’ll be there,” he added.
Adam dropped a kiss on top of his sister’s head. “You guys have a good night.”
“You too,” Marcia echoed as he shut the door behind him.
Tony stared straight ahead, suddenly without a clue what to say. It felt as if they’d been coming to this moment, the put up or shut up bridge in their relationship, since that first day in the storeroom. Now he had no idea how to begin.
“I’m sorry I left,” she said, her voice more pinched than he’d ever heard it before.
She also didn’t apologize much. Or ever. “I was worried.”
Her curtain of hair fell down to block her face while she ran a candy-pink fingernail around the rim of her glass. “I called.” Before he could speak, she sighed. “I know. I should’ve hung around. You pissed me off.”
“I kinda figured.” He reached out and covered her hand on the glass. “You honestly don’t think I want anyone but you, do you?”
Though her lower lip trembled, she didn’t reply.
