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"Mason told you?" The idea seemed foreign to her, but she smiled slightly and glanced over at him only to startle. "Oh! Reese is here. I should go." She began to step around me, only to pause and bite her bottom lip. "Thanks," she said, awkwardly. Her hand flailed a moment before adding, "for the dance, and you know . . . everything else you helped me with tonight. I really . . . I appreciate it."
A moment of indecision crossed her face before she lunged at me and gave me a quick hug, lasting only long enough for my nostrils to collect her lilac smell, and for Skylar to kick me one last time.
She didn't look as if she wanted to leave as she pulled away. I sure as hell didn't want her to go. It felt as if Madam LeFrey was ripping me out of my visions all over again. But Ten was already motioning to me from across the room that he needed help serving. Plus it was getting late, and Eva needed to get out of this place.
"See you around, Tinker Bell," I told her a little more solemnly than I meant to.
With a nod, she moved past me and made her way to Reese.
Though I returned to work and took an order from another table full of ladies, I kept my attention on her as she and her cousin bid a farewell to Lowe and left. A strange, crazy depression filled me after she was gone. She had her life and I had mine, and the two didn't seem to be headed in the same direction at all. But it would've been nice if I'd had a reason, one stupid insignificant reason, to see her again. Just one more time.
I wondered if I could get Lowe to tell me when she had the baby. Maybe I'd go visit her and . . . shit, having any more contact with her after this would probably just be needlessly torturing myself. I should stay away.
But after the bar closed and I was helping Lowe clean up, he found a way to suck me back in.
"Thanks for helping me keep an eye on Eva tonight. Reese would've killed me if anything bad had happened to her."
I nodded as if it were no big deal, even though my heart slipped in an extra thump when he mentioned her name. "It's cool. I would've kept an eye on any pregnant woman who wandered in."
Mason moved closer to me as he wiped down the bar with a cloth. "Well, thanks all the same. Hey, uh, Gamble, or Ten, or someone mentioned you work at a garage during the day, like an auto repair shop?"
"Yep." I stacked the last of the clean glasses under the counter before glancing at him. "Murphy's Repair down on Bullview Road. Why?"
"Really? That's great. I mean, Reese bought this . . . we'll call it a car for now. It's a real piece of work. I don't trust it to last a month."
"Sure, I'll take a look at it," I said before he could even get around to asking. I knew I probably sounded too eager. But for a chance to visit Lowe's place, where Eva was currently staying, I was all for it.
He lifted his eyebrows in surprise, but then a gleam entered his gray eyes as he smiled knowingly. "So, you don't mind coming over some time?"
I shook my head. "Not at all. My next night off is Saturday."
Lowe nodded. "I'm off Saturday, too."
I slid my hands into my pockets and rested my back against the bar, trying to play it cool. "Sounds like I'll be swinging by then."
"Sounds like it."
And that's when Ten chose to appear and slap the top of the bar. "Hey, if you two ladies are done flirting with each other over there, I'd like to clock out sometime tonight and get the fuck home so I can mourn over a bowl of ice cream because no one wanted to buy my luscious body tonight."
"I'm ready to go whenever you guys are," Mason said, glancing over the bar as if to double-check his work. "Just finished cleaning my section."
"Me too." It was late and I should've been beat, but I knew I wasn't going to sleep a wink tonight. Or tomorrow night.
In two more days, I'd get to see her again.
These were going to be the longest two days of my life.
"Hey, where's Hamilton?" Mason jerked me from my anxious daydreams with his question until I too was looking around for the fourth member of our crew.
Ten hitched his chin toward the exit. "He drove Cora home since her ride left her a few hours back."
"He did?" Lifting my eyebrows, I turned toward Mason. We shared a similar look, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was thinking.
Ten, of course, had to verbalize all our thoughts. "Yep, our baby boy's turning into a man tonight." He sniffed, wiped at a mock tear, and set his fist over his chest. "It's just so heart-wrenching. I'm gonna need a whole gallon of ice cream, I think."
"Damn, put your ovaries away, son." I laughed and shook my head. "Maybe nothing's going to—"
"Oh, yes, it is," Ten cut me off, sending me a telling glance. "He just drove home Cora the Whora. That boy is totally getting his cherry popped, if he hasn't already."
