“I get hangry.” He takes a huge bite.
“So I see.” I suck some jelly off the corner of his mouth.
“Quit that. You know what will happen.”
“I do?” I play stupid.
“Yes. I’ll end up licking peanut butter off your pussy.”
My eyes flash. “Is there something wrong with that?” I feed him another bite. He chews and swallows before he answers.
“No. But I want to bury my face between your legs at the spring.”
“We can always just bring the peanut butter with us.” I pick off a piece of bread from my sandwich and suck it from my fingers.
“I like the way you think.” He kisses me ardently. “Stevie.” Baz suddenly clears his throat. “While we’re out, maybe you should do something with your hotel room.”
“My hotel room?”
“Yeah.” The subject seems to make him uncomfortable. “You’re wasting money not staying there. I thought maybe you could check out and, I dunno know, just stay here.” He looks down and circles his finger around the edge of his plate.
“You want me to stay with you?”
He shrugs one shoulder. “You’ve been here for three days. I didn’t want to bring it up because I didn’t want to give you a reason to leave. But I don’t think we can avoid talking about the inevitable.”
My lips curl into a smile on their own accord as I decide right then and there I need to tell Baz everything. Who I am and why I’m here. I’ll explain strategically, and hopefully he won’t freak out. I’ll figure out who wants him dead and why. And then instead of killing him, I’ll kill them.
“Okay,” I agree. My chest lights up from my decision. “I’ll stay.” I lift his chin so he looks up at me. “But we have a lot to talk about.”
Baz nods. “We do.” There’s something swimming in his eyes that says he wants to confide in me, too.
We finish eating then shower and dress.
I’ve never felt happier or more scared. This conversation with Baz is going to be painful. I fiddle with my gold ring as I run through twenty different scenarios in my mind. How to begin, how to explain. How to rebound when the conversation takes a turn for the worse.
My phone rings in my backpack, startling me out of my thoughts.
“Shit.” I drop the bag on the kitchen table and pull out the phone. G flashes on the screen. I debate answering it, but I know Regina is the one person who can give me the answers I need.
I inhale a breath and swipe right. “Hello.”
“Where the fuck are you?” Regina chomps through the phone.
I turn to see if Baz has come out of the bedroom. I hear him whistling “I Am the Highway”completely out of sight, so I slip out the front door. He’ll be able to hear her loud mouth a mile away.
“I’m still in Colorado.”
“What the fuck is taking so long? You should have been back days ago.”
I pace the small front porch, chewing a nail.
“There were some complications,” I vaguely explain.
“What kind of complications?” Her tone is venomous.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.” Yeah, right. I am in so over my head I am looking up into nothing but black water.
“Is it done, at least?”
