“Oh,” I mumbled.
“So that dream isn’t fun, but it isn’t surprising I had it,” he concluded.
“Right,” I replied.
“And as for your high-school boyfriend, I’m aware you probably think I overreacted.”
“Well—”
“You’d be wrong.”
I squinted irritably at him.
“I’m not gonna go barreling into this man’s place of business and deliver a beatdown. I’ve asked Brody to look into him. We’ll see what comes of that. But if one of those women who Trevor videoed without their knowledge, just one, had gone to the cops or someone like NI&S and reported what Trevor was doing, a stop would have been put to it. Maybe this high school ex of yours learned his lesson about thinking with his dick when he was sixteen. Maybe not. I’m just saying, if he hasn’t by now, I’m gonna make sure he will because someone has to do it. He dicked with my woman. That means that someone is gonna be me.”
“And I’m not going to be able to talk you out of it,” I deduced.
“No. Though I will ask why you’d try.”
“Because it might be a waste of resources and time.”
“And if he’s dicking with some other woman?”
Hmm.
Something to consider.
“Willow.” He gave me a gentle shake. “I’ll rephrase my question. Is the damage he did surfacing to do more damage because I’m on about this? Because if that’s what you’re not saying, we got other things to talk about.”
Ah.
“No, Gabe, mostly it’s just, until I had Robbie in my life, and he didn’t come around until I was eighteen, I never had a man who looked out for me. I don’t have a lot of practice with that. So I guess you’re just going to have to be patient with me while I get used to it.”
He didn’t say anything to that.
He suddenly had other things on his mind.
“Are you tired after practically no sleep last night?” he asked.
I was exhausted.
But I saw the look in his eyes.
So I lied, “No.”
“Wanna fuck?”
“Yes.”
“Fantastic,” he muttered.
Then he was out of the couch.
I was out of the couch.
Apparently, our thing was going to be him carting me to bed over his shoulder.
I didn’t make a peep.
