He shook his head.“Before my time.”
“He was a good guy.”
“Didn’t know him, babe, but heard about him, and everythingI heard says you tell it true.”
“I miss him right now.”
“Darlin’,” High whispered.
“He’d be doing the liquor run.”
I knew High had read my mood when he murmured, “C’m’ere.”
I didn’t want to go there.I didn’t want to accept what theywere offering.I didn’t want to have it and know for certain how extraordinaryit really was only to fear having it torn away.
But I went there.
High’s arms opened before I got there and they closed tightaround me the instant I made it there.
Yes.
Just as I feared.
It was extraordinary.
Except for the tears I’d shed into the lining of Snap’s cut,I had not cried once since Bounty did their number on me.
And except for the tears I’d shared with Mom in the weeksthat passed after we lost Dad, I had not cried for him either.
So when they tore loose while High held me to his warmth andstrength in a courtyard of the pretty little house the man I’d inadvertentlyfallen in love with had given to me, theytore loose.
I sobbed in his arms, holding on to his leather with fingersclenched deep, and I did it for a long time.
Eventually, High shifted in a way I knew he was going topass me off and I allowed myself to be passed off, thinking I’d be moving intomy mother’s arms.
More of the scent of leather, but mingled now with the freshmarine notes of soap assailed me as Snapper’s arms wrapped around me.
“What?”he asked under his breath.
“Her pa,” High answered.“She misses him.”
“Right,” Snap muttered.
I then heard a door close and knew Snapper and I were alone.
I just kept crying.
After a while, Snap asked, “You want me to take you upstairsso we can lay down?”
He’d said “we.”
Man.
“Th-th-they bought me Sephora,” Ispluttered.
“They bought you what?”he asked.
“S-s-sephora.”
