Only then did he say, low and firm, “You’re not a reject, Mabel.”
“I know, honey,” she said softly.“I’m just glad you know too, because people who put me in that place because of shit I had no control over, but obviously, I’ve moved beyond it, annoy the hell out of me.”
Jesus.
What made this woman?
“So now, after sex and soul baring, we need to sleep,” she stated.
“That’d be good,” he replied.
She got out of bed, hit the bathroom to brush her teeth, and Tonks followed her (so did Moxie).
And he got out of bed, pulled on his jeans, and did a walkthrough of the house with Hannibal at his heels, making sure locks were locked, and the barn door panels that were mounted to shut her windows off from the outside were closed.
He hit the loft to see her in bed in little shorts and the Stony Bluff Sanctuary tee, before he hit the bathroom to brush his own teeth.
He took off his jeans before he got into bed.
He turned out his light.
She turned out hers.
They turned to each other.
They tangled.
Hannibal settled in on the rug by his side.
Tonks jumped up and crashed on their feet.
Moxie joined her.
And two people in a defined situationship, which was not even loosely a situationship (and how they lay proved it), settled down for the night with their fur family, and they all fell asleep.
TWENTY-TWO
I’d Do Just About Anything
Mabel
“And then, I kid you not, Hutch said, ‘Enemy.Attack,’ he unclipped her leash, and that dog shot across his yard and grabbed that dummy’s leg in its jaws and shook for all she was worth.I was terrified at the same time fighting the urge to start cheering.It was insane,” I told Abigail the next Thursday.
I was in the shop.
Although we’d been teasing it for a few weeks, we were now going full-on Autumn and Halloween décor.
One of Gemma’s candle scents (called “Autumn Leaves,” and I had no idea how she got that smell in a jar, but she did) was lit in various places around the space, making it all smell amazing.
We were dotting some of the vintage or refurbished fall and Halloween décor I’d acquired in my meanderings around the shop, as well as restocking Gemma’s candles, which were, unsurprisingly, flying out the door.Melissa’s scarves, cardies and sweaters were going too (and I’d scored a hooded cardie in the lightest gray, softest woolever).
Not to mention, all the chicks we talked to from the Misted Pines Art Center had come in to grab a vendor contract, signed on the dotted line, so we had quilts and baskets to display.And Hutch had come in on Tuesday to rig a couple surge protectors on the walls so we could display the glass nightlights.
And I was telling Abigail about going over to Hutch’s yesterday so I could help provide distraction during his training with one of his clients.
During that time, he’d demonstrated what Artemis could do in order to show me what he could teach Tonks because she had “heel” mostly down, so we were moving closer to protective training, and he wanted to know how far I wanted him to go.
“Then he just called, ‘release,’ and, Abigail, that pooch let go of that dummy,”—I snapped my fingers—“likethat.She sat down and looked at Hutch, calm as you can be, except panting.I thought his client’s eyes were going to pop out of his head.I knew mine almost did.”
