She nodded, then nibbled her bottom lip. “I asked him if he could stay longer yesterday.”
The tiny smile grew into a smirk. “I know. I heard.”
“He said he’d think about it.”
“He did.”
“I hope he stays. Not just for you, but for him as well.”
“You do?”
“Mm.” With her focus on what was left on her plate, she slipped her hand from mine, then pushed her plate away from her. “I get the feeling that he needs to be here.”
I tilted my head to the side. “What makes you think that?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged and went back to nibbling her bottom lip again. “It’s just this gut feeling I get, you know?” She patted her stomach and frowned. “You always say to trust your gut.”
“I do,” I murmured, wondering yet again what sort of intuition was driving her thoughts. “You’d be okay with that? Him staying?”
Her face lit up as she nodded.
“Even if it means the occasional sleepover like we had last night?”
Her grin got impossibly wider even as her nodding got a little out of hand, and I started to worry about the likelihood of her giving herself whiplash. “I like him and so does Puppy Bucky.” She leaned forward to cup her hand around my ear. “I like him more than Brett.”
I smirked as I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her to me. “Yeah, Rosey. I know.”
She leaned back a little but not enough to get out of my hold. Her hands rested on my shoulder again as she looked at me with wide, concerned eyes. “I’m worried about Pappy Jacky.”
My brows furrowed as I hugged her to me. “I know, sweetheart. I am too.”
The way I felt about Jackson was complicated. True, he’d left both Rose and me, but I’d spent too many years with him to not care when it was obvious something really nasty was going on between him and Brett. I still resented him for leaving, and I probably always would, but that didn’t mean I wanted to see him physically or emotionally hurt.
Rose pulled away from me and turned around to pick up her plate. “I’m not worried about you, though.” She wandered over to the sink and rinsed her plate. “Not while Patriarchal Marshall is around, anyway.”
There she went again. “Rose—”
“Oh, look at the time. I should get ready for the shelter. You’re still okay to drop me off, right?”
I felt my lips thin as I pressed them together at her obvious change of subject, but then looked at the time on the microwave and realized that she had a point.
How the hell had the time gotten away from us so quickly?
I hummed my agreement as I started gathering the rest of the plates on the table to take to the island to rinse and pop in the dishwasher for later. “If Marshall is still in the shower, you can use mine, okay?”
“Okay!” She waved her hand over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner and down the corridor toward her room.
Smiling, I shook my head at her exuberance and started the washing up, wondering if I’d ever been that energetic in my youth. Maybe? My twin brother, Henry, had always been the quieter one of us, constantly reading or tinkering with something he’d pulled apart to see if he could put it back together again, while I’d been the active one. It had come in handy when the bullies began targeting him, but I didn’t think that translated to being as energetic as Rose was at times.
That reminded me… I needed to call him. We hadn’t had our weekly catch-up yet.
Lost in my thoughts with my sudsy hands on autopilot in the kitchen sink, I startled when I felt arms wrap around my waist. I let out a high-pitched yelp of surprise that only resulted in Marshall laughing behind me, his arms tightening around me as his body shook against mine.
“Weren’t expecting that, I’m guessing?” he murmured in a low enough register that my dick responded, plumping more than it should at this time of the morning.
“God no. I thought you were still in the shower.” But now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen Rose come back through to head to my bathroom. I should have known he’d be out by now.
He hummed and pressed his lips to the back of my neck. “I missed you in there.”
