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“Me too, please,” I said.
He smiled, his dimples popping. “I’ll get them. The theater room downstairs has a pull-out couch. Fresh sheets and pillows are in the closet down there. And there’s a half bath, too.”
“Thanks, Duke,” I said.
“Yeah, thanks,” Waverly said. She nibbled on her lip. “I really didn’t mean to make anyone worry. I just…”
Duke wrapped an inked forearm around Waverly’s shoulder and roughly pulled her to him. “We get it. We were teenagers once too.”
“Once, eons ago,” she teased. “Now you’re old. Like,oldold.”
He ruffled her hair and let her go.
“I’m the same age as your sister,” he pointed out.
“Yeah and twenty-four is old,” she sing-songed.
“I’ll meet you down there,” I said to her. Waverly nodded and then headed in the direction of the stairs that would lead down into the theater room.
When Duke and I were alone I turned to him and said, “Thanks.”
He pulled me into his arms and held me longer than was necessary. He only released me when we heard the screen door slam again. Savage appeared in the hallway, looking a lot calmer than he had moments ago. The smell of weed wafted from him.
“A blunt?” I demanded. “Seriously?”
“What can I say? That little squirt brings out the worst in me. It’s how I cope,” he said nonchalantly.
“She’s sorry, Savage. Can’t that be enough?”
“No. No, that can’t be enough,” he said, his eyes turning violent. “She’s like my own kid sister and I was sick to death worried about her. She’s not just your family, Willa.”
I went to him and wrapped my arms around him and pressed my face to his chest.
“So, you’re an ass because you care?” Duke asked dryly from behind us.
“Pretty much, yeah,” Savage said, dragging me closer and burying his face against my blonde hair.
“You’re not called Savage for nothing,” I pointed out. I pulled away and shot him a smile. “You’re always there when I need you. The both of you.”
“We got you,” Savage said. “Waverly, too.”
“I know.” I squeezed his hand and then went downstairs to the theater room. Waverly had already opened the couch and was sliding the pillows into their cases.
“I would’ve helped,” I said.
“I know. But I wanted to get it done.” She tossed a pillow onto the mattress and sat on the edge of the bed. She started undoing the laces of her heavy boots. “Is Savage still pissed?”
“Sometimes his concern comes off as anger.”
She sighed. “Yeah. I didn’t think that you’d—and they’d—well, I didn’t think about how this all could’ve played out. I really thought we were going to go to this party and Jessica and I would be able to sneak back to the RV, and no one would be the wiser.”
“Mom’s gone,” I said quietly. “It’s you and me now. We can’t—I can’t—no secrets, Waverly. No lying. Okay? We have to be a team.”
“Team.” She kicked off her boots and looked at me, nodding. “Where are we going to live?”
“Don’t know yet,” I said. “We’ll figure it out. We always figure it out, don’t we?”
She gave a tentative smile. “We do.”
