Why was Daniel being so damn perfect? I shook my head, trying to remind myself of the disappointing knowledge that he was likely straight and married, then sighed with a mixture of relief at getting the help I needed in a town I’d never visited before. “Okay.”
We got up, and with his arm still around my shoulders, he walked me back into the gas station.
Chapter Three
Daniel
Whattheactualfuckwas I thinking, offering tolook after him?
Oh, that’s right. I wasn’t.
Now that Marshall didn’t look like a half-drowned cat anymore, it was all too easy for me to get swept up in the color of his deep sapphire eyes that shimmered with emotion every time he went quiet. The mop of short black hair was a riot of wavy curls that my fingers ached to sweep away from his eyes and tuck behind his ears.
And his ruby Cupid’s bow lips were plush enough for me to want to draw them into my mouth and suck on just so I could see how much plumper I could make them….
I willed my dick to stand down as I led him back into the store, reminding myself that he wasfartoo young for me. Not to mention that he’d just been through a highly stressful experience, only to discover his Jeep had been trashed in the storm.
Even if the easy way he leaned into me whenever I said anything remotely reassuring to him made me want to pin him underneath me so I could pound into his tight, little—
Nope. Don’t go there. There was no use in tormenting myself with something that would never happen.
Once we re-entered the store, we had a quick chat with Gabe to request his assistance in contacting Kajir. Gabe seemed to be the only one in town who could wrangle Kajir without wanting to end up murdering him by the end of the usually short conversation. Kajir was a hulking giant of a man who had a healthy reputation for being foulmouthed and ill-tempered to everyone outside of his immediate family. And yet Gabe was able to sweet-talk him into almost anything. No one could figure out how he did it.
Thankfully, Gabe agreed to help us out. He pulled his phone out to call Kajir before he pointed us toward the tarps for sale in the store that we could use to cover Marshall’s Jeep over the tree that had impaled it.
Rose and Bucky came outside to help us secure the tarp, although Bucky ended up nosing around Marshall’s car and the tree debris that was scattered all over the place more than actually doing anything remotely helpful. Considering he was a dog, I guessed it wasn’t all that surprising.
Given how tiny she was, Rose was much more helpful. She was able to make her way past most of the branches and reach through the back window of the old Jeep Cherokee to pull Marshall’s duffel from the rear of the vehicle. She couldn’t get to what was in the rest of the car, but seeing as we hadn’t even been sure we’d be able to get the duffel, I took it as a win.
“Is there a motel or something I can stay at?” Marshall asked, his arms wrapped around his bag like it was his last lifeline tethering him to sanity.
Hell, maybe it was.
“No!” Rose half shouted as she was working her way slowly back through the branches before her wide eyes locked onto mine, pleading silently with me. “I mean, yes, there’s a motel in Rockdale,” she continued quickly, her eyes darting between me and Marshall before she focused on him with a faint look of disgust on her face. “But you don’t want to staythere.”
Holding a branch down so she could get clear, I raised an eyebrow at her, my lips quirking at the way she was acting.
“I don’t?” Marshall asked, his brows furrowing in bewilderment. He held his duffel even tighter to his chest.
“Yeah, Rose,” I said teasingly. “He doesn’t?” I smirked at her to let her know that I knewexactlywhat she was doing. She was going to offer one of our spare rooms to him. Not that I minded. If she hadn’t jumped in so fast, I would have suggested the same thing myself. Delilah, the owner of the motel, was lovely, but she was one of the worst gossips I’d ever come across. She’d spend his entire stay talking his ear off about the tornado, grasping on to any tiny morsel that she could excitedly pass on to her cronies in town later.
Nope. It was better if he came home with Rose and me. Even if itdidmean that I was tempting fate.Too young, too young, too young.Hell, he was probably closer in age to Rose than he was to me.Far, far too young.
Ducking under the last branch, she rolled her eyes at me. “Nope. You’re going to stay at our house. Obviously.”
“I am?” Marshall asked, blinking his confused doe eyes in my direction.
Grinning, I shrugged. “We have a couple of spare bedrooms always set up for visiting family members and a decent storm shelter. You’ll be safe with us.” I looked out at the still-lingering dark clouds, and all the cheer I’d been feeling drained away until I was left chilled. “As long as our house is still standing, that is.”
Strangely, this was the first time since the tornado sideswiped us that I’d given any thought to where else it would have gone. I hadn’t seen which direction it had come from or where it had been headed, so it was entirely possible that it could have made its way to our place.
But there was no use worrying about it yet. Not until we knew there was somethingtoworry about.
“And we’ll play Twister!” Rose said excitedly, dancing a little jig on her way to my truck before calling Bucky to her. “And have popcorn! And watch movies while we wait for the warnings to stop! Come on!”
“Play Twister?” Marshall asked me while we both watched her guide Bucky into the cab before hopping up into the seats herself. “Doesn’t that seem a little…?”
“On the nose?” I said, chuckling to myself before I shrugged. “It seemed like a fun way to get her mind off her first tornado warning after my ex and I adopted her. Became a habit.” I turned my attention away from Rose to find Marshall watching me with an intrigued look on his face. “There’s only so many ways you can keep a kid occupied when they’re locked up in a small room for a few hours.”
