Hutch turned to her.“Do you really think there’s alien technology at Area 51?”
Mabel looked shocked.“Don’t you?”
Hutch started chuckling, bent to kiss her and found her lips tasted of ice cream, cinnamon and apples.
Not the best kiss he had from Mabel, but it was a good one.
He didn’t move far away when he was done, and said, “No, baby, I don’t.”
“Do you have insider knowledge from your time in the military?”
He grinned.“Sad to say, Area 51 was not a high priority at any of our briefings.”
She pretended to pout.
He sat back and tipped his head to the remaining pie.“You eat that, we can get the pets, load up and go, so you can get home and unbutton your jeans.”
She laughed.“How’d you know?”
“I didn’t always eat clean.”
Her hazel eyes sparkled and she turned back to her pie.
So, tonight wasn’t the night.
She was full of good food, in a good mood, enjoyed meeting someone and getting to know them, he wasn’t going to crash her vibe.
He knew it was an excuse.
He knew he was searching for a reprieve.
But if you were lucky, tomorrow inevitably came.
And when it did, Hutch would do it then.
THIRTY-THREE
Our Wedding
Mabel
I’d been right.
Abigail had come down with the flu.
In fact, a lot of people were coming down with it, and this was why Hutch was right then at the rescue and sanctuary, filling in for staff and volunteers who couldn’t make it in.
And it was why it was only me at the shop which had been, the only way to put it, Kimmyfied.
That morning, she’d made two trips, hauling two big boxes over, and even if it was my own damned shop, she wouldn’t let me have any say in where she set stuff out.
Then again, she’d been doing this shop business a lot longer than I had, and as such, what she decided was perfect.I also took note of how she did it, because you never knew when you’d learn something, so you always had to be open to learning it.
We’d then haggled about the money when I sold stuff, and I’d agreed to a commission just because it went on so long.Only then had she taken off, I’d put out the little cards to cross-market her place, and that was the big event for the day since the shop was mostly dead.
Until Jill walked through the door in the afternoon with her messenger bag.
Tonks yodeled hello and loped in her direction.
