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Then she dismissed the thought. The city wouldn’t take him away from her. She wouldn’t let them.
“I’m going to call social services and ask for help. I should have done that earlier, but I thought I could pull us out of this hole quicker. When my friend offered to let us stay on her couch, I figured that would be enough. And then…”
“The bad man got out of jail,” Tony filled in.
“Wow. Jasper really gave you the whole sordid tale, didn’t he?”
“He did.”
Jess ran her fingers through her hair, aware she had a serious case of bed head. “I’ll make the call and hopefully they can help us immediately. If not, I figured out which shelters are safe enough. We’ll stay in one of those.”
Tony shook his head. “Stay here tonight.”
She laughed incredulously. “Hell no.”
“Why not?” Rhys asked, surprising her. She hadn’t expected him to be on Team Tony regarding this. Given the fact he was in his doctor’s coat, it was clear he was working. She couldn’t imagine he’d want his waitress from the diner and her son under foot.
“Because…” There were too many possible responses to that question. “Because we’ve imposed enough.”
Tony crossed his arms. “No, you haven’t.”
“You guys don’t even know me that well. For all you know, I’m a thief here to rob you.”
Rhys and Tony both laughed, as if she’d told a hilarious joke.
“We’ll take our chances,” Rhys replied.
Tony reached out and placed a comforting hand on her forearm, and her body tightened with an overpowering desire that felt almost foreign. It had been years since she’d felt serious lust, but there was no denying she was rolling in it right now.
“If you won’t stay here for you, stay for Jasper. The kid is worn out from your ill-advised night in the car. Besides, Aunt Berta’s making a pan of lasagna big enough to feed half the city. We need your help eating it, or it’ll take us well into next week to finish the leftovers.”
Rhys added his own fuel to the fire roaring inside her when he reached out to touch her hand. “The guest room is big enough for both of you and it has its own bathroom. You can lock the bedroom door if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Rhys could have saved his breath. Jess might not know them well, but she was a good judge of character, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt these men wouldn’t hurt her or her son.
“I’m not worried about that. I know you’re good men.”
“Good men. Bad men. You and Jasper seem to have two very simple, distinct categories,” Tony mused.
Jess sighed. “Yeah. I guess we do. It seemed like the easiest way to explain some things…”
“Things?” Rhys prompted.
“Some things Jasper’s seen and heard lately.”
“Things about your ass?” Tony’s question was laced with a fury that caught her off guard.
“My friend’s brother-in-law made some…comments,” she said, hating that Jasper was clearly still upset about them. Enough so that he’d mentioned it to Tony and Rhys.
Tony crossed his arms. “Were theyjustcomments? Do I need to pay this guy a visit?”
Jess was secretly thrilled by the idea that Tony Moretti seemed more than determined to fight for her honor. She shook her head. “They were just comments, and I’m definitely keeping a wide berth between me and Jasper and that asshole.”
“Exactly how long have you been homeless, Jess?” Rhys asked quietly.
She flinched inadvertently at the wordhomelesseven though that was definitely what she was. It was a hard thing for that damned pride of hers to accept.
“Since January first. Jasper and I bummed places to stay with friends at first because I thought—hoped—I could find us a place to rent. But I should have known that was never going to work out for the long term. I couldn’t keep asking friends to put us up, especially when they didn’t have the room to begin with. So we stayed at a shelter night before last. It wasn’t a great experience. I wound up sitting in a plastic chair all night. Jasper dozed on my lap while a strung-out woman kept screaming obscenities, so I asked around at work yesterday and got the name and address of a couple shelters that would be safer. I intended for us to stay at one of those last night. It’s just that…yesterday, Jasper’s babysitter quit on me, and she demanded that I pay her what I owed early. It cleaned me out financially and made us too late to get a bed anywhere, so we…well…you know what we did.”
