Joshua shook his head in disgust. “I’m sure those cops will be overjoyed to follow the guidelines.”
“Probably not. But they’ll follow them anyway.” He nuzzled against Joshua’s hair. “Listen. These are smart guys. It won’t take them long to realize that positive community outreach looks good on their record and makes their superiors happy, especially when it involves veterans. They’ll get on board.”
Joshua slid his fingertips across Colin’s forehead. “Thanks to you.”
“Thanks tous.”
Joshua nodded. “What we did here was important, even if itwassmall potatoes.”
“Itwasimportant. But it’snotmore important than your health, Joshua. Nothing is. Nothing ever will be. And I will put a stop to anything thattriesto be. Believe that, my darling boy. Believe it with your whole heart. Trust me. It’ll be a real time-saver.”
Joshua tried not to smile but failed.
“You know nothing can challenge me and win,” Colin said, lifting Joshua closer in his arms.
“Sofuckingsmug,” Joshua murmured against Colin’s chest.
“Damn right.” His brow furrowed as he gazed down at Joshua, whose eyelids had drooped. “So I don’t want to hear any more about you running around to city police precincts trying to sell this idea. If I find out you did, I’m gonna be pissed! You’redone. You’re on a four-day work week, with no exceptions. Bad enough you’re going to the goddamn courthouse. God knows how much harm it did already.”
“Whatdid already?”
“Wearing yourself out on thisVoices for Veteransbusiness.”
“All I did was create a brochure, Colin. I didn’t run a marathon,” Joshua murmured, then nestled closer against Colin, burrowing against his body as if seeking warmth or comfort.
“Uh-huh. That’snotall you did, Joshua. You also ran all over Charlottesville trying to sell your ideas to local law enforcement.” He sighed, and his arms grew tighter around Joshua’s body. “Jesus Christ, between you and Nate, that makes exactly half of us among the walking wounded.”
“Ireland will fix that,” Joshua sighed in a sleepy voice.
“Ireland…” Colin murmured. After a few minutes, he looked down at Joshua and saw that he had dozed off in his arms. He drew a nearby afghan over him and nestled him closer. “Ireland will healallof us.”
* * *
When Colin arrivedhome the following night, David’s car was in the driveway. He entered through the back door and found him seated at the kitchen table with Joshua. “Hey, you two! What’s going on?”
“Your wonderful husband is fixing your dinner, but I am here for a different reason.”
“And what might that be?” Colin asked, bending to kiss the top of Joshua’s head.
“Because I wanted to be here when you told Josh the news.”
Colin shot him a wry glance and sighed. “Should have known that you’d…” He sighed again and fell into a chair beside his husband.
“What?” Joshua exclaimed, looking from one of them to the other. “If it’s news, please tell me it’sgoodnews. And that it’s not going to interfere with Ireland.”
“It won’t,” Colin told him. He glanced again at David, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“Who shot their mouth off toyou?” Colin asked him.
“Chris Bridges,” David said. “He bolted into my office today, spewing fireworks out of his eyes.”
“OK!” Joshua said, his voice beginning to rise. “Ifsomeonedoesn’t tell me what thefuckis going on, I’m going to—”
“Norm grabbed me in the hall today and told me to come to Esther’s office,” Colin said. “I told him I couldn’t because I was on my way to court, at which point he toldme: ‘No, you’re not. I just got you a continuance’.”
“Really!”Joshua said, clearly surprised.
“Yeah. It ticked me off at first. But I followed him into Esther’s office, and Alan Serrano was sitting there.”
