“Always,” Rosie whispered, breathless, and she rode Shay’s hand hard until she cried out her release and collapsed onto Shay.
Shay stroked slow circles on Rosie’s back while she panted into Shay’s neck until her breathing steadily evened out. Rosie lifted her head and smiled. And while there was a definite post-orgasmic Zen quality to her expression, Shay saw something more, saw Rosie in a way she hadn’t registered before now. It was as though she was completely relaxed and one hundred percent her authentic self. No masks, no filters. Just pure Rosie. Although maybe they were just the things Shay was feeling. Somehow, through all their intensely pleasurable sex and deep conversations, and despite Shay’s determination not to let things get complicated, Rosie had stripped away her defenses and left her with an unguarded heart.
But it didn’t matter what her heart was feeling, or what nonsense it was trying to fill her head with. She’d made up her rules two decades ago, and they’d been working great, keeping her personal life simple and giving her the outlet she needed when she needed it. She had Gabe, RB, and Woody for everything else. Hell, she could even rely on Solo if she was desperate, though she was chest-deep in her own problems right now. Shay didn’t need, and didn’t have time for, a time-sucking, emotion-filled, complicated relationship. Rosie was just a friend withextremely fantasticbenefits.
So why did thinking of Rosie as just a friend leave her feeling so hollow?
CHAPTER 19
Rosie setthe urn in the footwell and clamped her feet around it. Nope, that wasn’t going to work for the next hour. She could already imagine Shay braking sharply for some haphazard driver, and her mom’s ashes exploding all over her feet before they were even out of the city. She could feel Shay staring at her from the driver’s seat, and Rosie glanced over. “What?”
Shay grinned. “There’s a Home Depot nearby; we could stop and get some duct tape.”
She raised her eyebrow and gave Shay her best wicked little smile. “Do we have time to roleplay? Our flight is in four hours.”
“That’s not where my mind was at,” Shay said, her grin growing wider, “but it is now.”
Rosie rolled her eyes and got out of the car. She popped the trunk and wedged the urn into a neat side pocket, then she shoved their cases and purses around it. She looked through the back windshield at Shay’s silhouette and couldn’t stifle a guilty giggle at the thought of being “kidnapped” by her. Rosie hadn’t expected the somber trip to Mexico to pick up her mom’s remains to turn into the sex-fest that it had, but she was far from sorry. It had made the whole thing bearable, and it hadn’t been the death knell on their situationship like she’d thought it was going to be either. As for that pesky love thing, she’d harbor that quietly and talk to Lori when they got back.
“All good?” Shay asked.
She slid back into the passenger seat. “It’ll be fine as long as you don’t drive like you’re in aFast and Furiousmovie.”
Shay looked incredulous and started the engine. “In thispiece of modern junk? It’s so slow, it’s got a calendar instead of a speedometer.”
Rosie shook her head and laughed. “Missing your car much?”
“More than I should.”
She had no response for that. Rosie liked her new Mercedes 400E, and she enjoyed driving it, but she couldn’t imaginemissinga pile of metal.
Shay pulled out of the hotel parking lot and into traffic on the Avenida de los Insurgentes, and they fell back into easy conversation by the time they were driving past Parque Morelos. The journey to the San Ysidro border crossing was stupidly busy, and Rosie began to wonder if she should’ve booked a later flight. “Do you think they’ll check the urn for drugs? We don’t need any more delays,” she said when they got to the checkpoint and, unlike on the way in when the light remained green and they drove straight into Mexico, it turned red for them to stop. Shay glanced her way, and Rosie couldn’t interpret her expression.
“You’re white, and you look like a nice, respectable woman. You don’t need to worry.”
“Does that mean that you do?”
Shay nodded. “Relax. I know how to handle myself around cops.”
Rosie bit the inside of her lip. “I’ll kick their ass if they mess with you,” she said with a brave edge that she didn’t particularly feel. But she’d find it if Shay was threatened.
Shay turned in her seat and looked at Rosie seriously. “You do nothing, Rosie. This isn’t a game. Keep your hands visible, and don’t give them any sass, you understand me?”
“I understand,” she said quietly and placed her hands on her thighs. An icy chill ran up her spine even though the wind blew the eighty-degree heat in through her open window. She’d always felt safe when the police were nearby, but Shay’s unease evaporated that security like water in the Mojave Basin.
The American border patrol officer seemed nice enough.He inspected the car thoroughly, but Rosie expected that in the current climate of post-Trump America and the ongoing struggle with immigrants. She explained the nature of their trip, and he asked her to pop the trunk but to stay in the vehicle.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said to herself as much as to Shay, who was gripping the steering wheel so hard, Rosie thought she might tear it off the dash.
Shay huffed. “You don’t know that,” she said quietly.
When the officer appeared beside her window like he’d materialized from thin air, Rosie jumped. He held her mom’s urn in his hands at such an angle that she was worried the top might fall off, and her mom’s final resting place would be all over the ground in… Were they technically still in Mexico? Or were they on American soil? She imagined her mom might be inclined to haunt her if the officer didn’t have steady hands.
“Are these your mother’s remains?” he asked.
Rosie felt the white heat of Shay’s glare without needing look at her.No sass. If she’d been in the car with Lori, she wouldn’t have been able to hold back a smart-ass comment. But the tension radiating off Shay quashed that desire. “Yes.”
He thrust the urn through the window. “Open it, please.”
