“How can you be so sure?”
“I guess I’m not,” Jesse admitted, a flicker of doubt glinting in his dark eyes.“But I know she doesn’t want to be.You saw her face, her eyes, before Mo came in.”
“Yeah, I did,” Knox murmured, remembering.Everything he’d ever wanted had been in those soft blue eyes.But then… “Mo scared her.”
“She did,” Jesse agreed, and a touch of the anger Knox felt shimmered in Jesse’s voice.“Fuck, I never would’ve expected that from Mo.”
“I think she was scared, too, for Chloe.”Knox rolled his head on the seat to look at his husband.“She’s not wrong that people will be shitty about this.”
Jesse grimaced.“I know.I just didn’t think Mo would be one of them.”
“Me neither.”They sat quietly for a moment, then Knox’s lips twitched.“Carrie was something, wasn’t she?”
“Oh, man.”Jesse let out a soft laugh.“She was like a hurricane in a chef’s coat.”
“With the mouth of a sailor,” Knox agreed.“By the time she was done, Mo looked like a puppy who’d left a puddle on the floor.”
“At least we know we have one family member in our corner.”
“That’s something, I guess,” Knox murmured.He looked up at the house, looming dark in the falling snow.“You hungry?”
“Yeah, but I’m not cooking.”
“Pizza,” Knox decided and turned off the ignition.
They trudged up the walk through the freshly fallen snow and let themselves into the house.They shed coats and boots, and Knox switched on lights as he walked through, wanting to banish the gloom.
“The usual?”Jesse asked, pulling out his phone.
“Yeah.”Moving to the stairs, Knox started up.“I want a shower first, though.Order it for an hour from now.”
“It’ll be at least that with the snow,” Jesse said, following him up the stairs.“And you had a shower earlier.”
“Yes, but that was for grooming.”Topping the stairs, Knox reached for the hem of his sweater.“This is for brooding.”
“Want company?”Jesse asked.
“The more the broodier,” Knox quipped, dragging his sweater over his head, then stopped dead.
Jesse slammed into his back, knocking him forward.“What the fuck, Knox?”
“She’s here,” Knox whispered, pointing, and Jesse looked at the bed.In the center, curled into a ball under the duvet, was Chloe, fast asleep.
“Shit.”Eyes wide, Jesse stared.“What’s she doing here?”
“I don’t know.Sawyer said he was taking her home.”
Beside him, Jesse fumbled for his phone.“I don’t have anything more from him.”
“He must have brought her here,” Knox said.
“Did she want to come here?”
“She must have,” Knox said, his heart lifting at the thought.“She probably wouldn’t be asleep in our bed otherwise.”
“I’m not asleep,” she mumbled, not moving.“Iwas, but you guys whisper really loud.”
“Shit,” Jesse muttered, and Knox winced.
