Page 96 of All the Beautiful Things
“Who’s here?”
“Angie and Josiah. They came to see you’re okay.”
“They’re here?” Her brows flew up her forehead and she jumped out of bed. “I need to see them. Is he okay?”
She hurried around the corner of the bed, rushing to see her friends. I stopped her as she went to run around me, hands curving over her shoulders.
“What?”
“You should probably get dressed first.”
Her head fell and she shuffled on her feet. “Right,” she whispered. “Probably.”
When she looked back at me, her eyes had softened and a cute, embarrassed blush made even the tip of her nose a hot pink.
I kissed it and turned her toward my dresser. The clothes she’d put on last night were thrown every which way all over my floor so I grabbed her a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, my Iowa one I knew she liked so much.
“Take your time doing whatever you need. I invited them to stay for breakfast.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s no problem.” I took her mouth then, kissed her like I wanted to do every time I saw her, and when she hummed into my mouth and heat spooled down my spine, I pulled back.
“Later,” I promised. “We’ll finish that later.”
Angie and Josiah were still in the kitchen when I returned, both of them helping themselves to making coffee from the Keurig.
“Hope you don’t mind,” Josiah said, “but since I was woken up at the butt crack of dawn, I needed some.”
“Not a problem.” I made a cup for me and then readied one for Lilly. “What happened to the other guy?”
“He’s still in.”
“Even though you swung first?”
“Yeah, well, they questioned us, ran our names and Manny had a warrant out anyway so he’s toast.”
“Are you shitting me?” Anger pulsed down my spine, followed quickly by a relief Manny wouldn’t be able to come anywhere near Lilly again. Not for some time at least.
“No,” Angie said. Her hand went to the back of her brother’s head, slapping him. He jolted forward and for the first time, didn’t fire back a retort. “And since I had been telling my brother that I knew he was trouble, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone. I’m personally hoping the guy goes away for at least as long as Lilly was in.”
I wished the same. “What was the warrant for?”
Josiah glared at his sister, but erased that look when he came back to me. “Few drug deals he made went bad. Cops have been looking for him for a while. I didn’t know that.”
“You do drugs?”
“No. I mean, some weed yeah, but I didn’t deal it or sell it.”
Who didn’t do weed every once in a while, if not more often these days? Seemed like everyone did, so I couldn’t fault him for that.
“You done with him then?”
“Shit yeah. I don’t need to be around him if he gets out. Besides, after last night I doubt he’ll ever want to be around me again either, and if I do see him, he’ll end up with something worse than a broken nose and a chipped tooth.”
“I’m glad you were there last night,” I told him. And I meant it. I would take Josiah’s side on this too. If I ever saw Manny, he wouldn’t be walking. A broken nose would be the least of his injuries. “What’s his last name?”
“Why?” Angie asked.
