“Just leave her there,” he told himself. She was probably asleep anyway.
His phone vibrated, and he picked it up immediately. “Stillwater.”
“I’m ready to go home, Santi. You better be on your way.” She was the devil. She had to be with her ability to sense when he was thinking about her.
“What if I’m not?” he said as he cranked the engine.
She’d already hung up the phone. Which was fine, he assured himself. He didn’t have the energy to argue with Lauren right now.
When he pulled up to Aunt Lina’s house, the front door opened immediately and Lauren walked out, hair wrapped up in a floral satin scarf, face void of makeup, and wearing a mint green silk pajama set. It was the fluffy orange cat slippers that made him roll his eyes.
Where the fuck did she get pajamas, he wondered, forcing himself to face the windshield as she opened the passenger door and climbed in beside him.
“Lock up!” she called to Aunt Lina. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“We’ll talk in the morning, mijo,” Aunt Lina called out, waving to Santi. He honked twice in rapid succession and pulled off. As he drove, he spared Lauren a glance only to find her looking at him expectantly.
“You could’ve just stayed the night,” he stated.
“Your cutthroat of an aunt was going to charge me double the nightly fee. I will not be extorted.”
He snorted, amused for the first time in hours.
“Sounds like she’s taking your business advice to heart.”
“No, she’s just being”—she made air quotes—“protective of her peace.”
He took a long deep breath. Her scent and wide-awake energy went a long way in sharpening his own alertness.
“What does she need to protect her peace from?” he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
Lauren faced forward and clasped her hands in her lap, primly, demurely.
“I like to think of myself as an advocate.” He groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.
“I’m telling you right now, Lauren Gael Green?—”
“How did you know my middle name?”
“If you have done anything to make my job unnecessarily fucking harder I’m going to?—”
“Listen Santi, listen,” she said, lifting and lowering her hand as if to calm him down.
“It’s too late at night for arguing, we need to be in a calm place if we’re going to sleep peacefully tonight.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“All I’m saying is that a little levity will help…and don’t curse at me.”
He remained silent.
“We can’t undo the past, despite how we sometimes might want to. Lord knows I would if I could,” she muttered. “But I can’t. Not that I would change what happened at Flemming Realty?—”
He briefly closed his eyes and rubbed the throbbing that was expanding throughout his left temple.
“I was literally minding my own business. Sitting at Lina’s kitchen counter, culling through the information I was going to present at the council meeting.”
“You’re not going to the council meeting.”
