Ashley chuckled, holding theelevator door for me as it opened on the fifth floor, then stepping ahead tolead the way.
He knocked on an unassumingdoor identical to the others in the hall, a smile still playing around hislips.
“Coming,” a voice calledfrom inside. Seconds later, the door opened to reveal a woman in a brightyellow sundress with bold flowers on it, but a smile that made it look dull incomparison.
She seemed like one ofAshley’speople.
“Come in, come in,” sheenthused, opening the door wide.
And giving me a not-subtleonce-over as I went past.
“Idolove what you’ve brought me,”she said, still smiling. “You got a name, honey?”
“This is Logan,” Ashleyjumped in. “And you can’t keep him.”
Rosa shrugged. “Can I borrow himfor the afternoon?”
The back of my neck burnedagain, and I didn’t have a hand free to scratch it.
It was nice that Ashley’s friends likedme.
“You can borrow him to helpwith this stuff,” he said, lifting the bags up. “But it’s his job to make sureno one kills me before I can get home.”
“Have I mentioned I’m gonnamiss you? We’reallgonna miss you,” she said. “You could hideout here.”
“I’m not bringing that crapdown on your head,” Ashley said. “You have enough problems.”
“Got solutions, too,” Rosanodded to the door.
I looked back and saw an oldbaseball bat propped up against the wall there.
Right.
If anyone would know aboutbeing harassed…
“I appreciate the offer,”Ashley said. “But… this is kind of why I’ve been keeping things civil with myfamily. I knew this could never last.”
I wanted to say somethingabout that, but I wasn’t surewhat. That his family shouldhave supported him no matter what, maybe. Theyshouldhave, but I knewbetter than to think that was how the real world worked.
What I really wanted to saywas that this shouldn’t have been happening to him, that he hadn’t doneanything wrong, that he didn’t deserve this.
But thatalsowasn’t how the realworld worked. Bad things happened to good people all the time.
“You need coffee,” Rosasaid. “Youbothneed coffee.Come sit and I’llshow you the pictures from last week’s alterations class.”
“Coffee would be muchappreciated, ma’am,” I said, relieved at the thought of a caffeine hit. I’dread a study once—well, Doc had sent me a study and I’d read the part where heexplained, in detail, what it said—about caffeine and painkillers. Apparentlyit doubled the strength of over-the-counter meds.
Glad as I was that we weretaking the car today, my leg wasn’t in the greatest shape.
“So polite,” Rosa said,beaming at me. “I like him, he’s house-trained. You can keep him.”
Ashley snorted, but flashedme a smile as Rosa turned her back, and a swarm of butterflies took off in mystomach. His approval was a nice thing to have.
I could see why so manypeople liked him so much.
“I wish,” he said, followingher inside. “It’s nice to feel safe. Logan’s doing a great job. Everyone shouldhave one.”
Was I doing a great job?
