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“She’s good. Really good. Slade is finishing up the tour Greg started yesterday.”
“You didn’t want to go with them?”
“I wanted to give them a little time alone together.”
She frowns.
“Don’t read too much into it. Everything is fine.”
I like Astrid. I do. But Slade needs her more than me right now. He thinks I haven’t noticed him struggling lately, but I know that man better than he knows himself.
“I’m not reading into anything. I was just asking a question.”
“Salem,” I sigh. “Look, I don’t know what’s happening, it’s too soon to tell. We have a lot of things to work out. We weren’t exactly welcoming when she got here.”
“Funny, that look on your face when I walked in says you’ve been a whole lot more welcoming since then.”
“What are you two talking about?” Oz’s voice pulls our attention to the door.
“Your woman has no boundaries.”
“Oh, I know. How do you think I managed to get her to agree to—”
Salem is across the room with her hand over his mouth before he can finish his sentence. I have no idea what he was going to say, but the red tinging Salem’s cheeks makes me curious.
“Finish that sentence, Oz Cartwright, and you’ll regret it.”
He tugs her hand free from his mouth and wraps his arms around her with a laugh. He dips her low and kisses her as if we’re standing on the set of a movie or something. Usually this would be my cue to leave, but watching them together stirs something inside me now that Astrid is here. Before, I was happy for my brothers, but it was with the knowledge that they were the lucky ones. Shit like that doesn’t happen to everyone.
Now I’m left wondering if that’s all a bunch of bullshit. What if it does happen to everyone? What if it’s just that some of us aren’t as open to the idea as others? The right person could have been standing in front of you all along, but if you have your eyes closed, you’ll never know.
I go back to flipping through the mail in my hand, separating the ones for me and Slade from the others, which I place on the table before moving to the coffee pot to pour myself a large mug.
Oz and Salem finally manage to pull themselves away from each other.
“Is it me, or is it fucking quiet this morning?” Oz asks, grabbing a mug.
“Shhh! Don’t jinx it,” Salem hisses, her eyes wide as she stares at Oz before she turns and starts dragging bowls and utensils out of the cupboards. And I can’t help but chuckle at the look on Oz’s face.
“What are you making?” I ask because that seems like the most important question right now. And I’ll need to know when to come back so I can get myself something before the rest of the vultures descend and steal it all.
“Cookies, brownies, and a cheddar and sun-dried tomato bread.”
“I love it when you talk dirty to me,” I groan, earning a laugh from Salem and a punch in the arm from Oz, which has my coffee spilling over my hand.
“Asshole,” I curse, sliding the mug and letters onto the counter while I clean myself up.
“Hey,” Creed greets as he walks in and heads to the coffee maker.
I haven’t seen much of Creed since Astrid showed up, but the man looks dead on his feet.
“You, okay?”
He yawns and nods. “Nothing a vacation in the Bahamas wouldn’t fix. We completed the protection detail yesterday for Judge Jones’s ex-wife and kid. And then the construction crew woke me up at the ass crack of dawn.”
“How’d it go with Jones?” Oz asks him.
Creed leans back against the counter and takes a drink of his coffee. “Hawk is debriefing Zig right now, so I’ll just give you the highlights. Getting the case extradited was the right move. The judge presiding over the divorce was not a happy bunny with what was presented to her, and she sure as shit isn’t part of the old boys’ club Jones controls. She granted the wife everything she asked for, including full custody of the kid.”
