Page 29

Thirteen
Conner
I meant to do this before I picked her up. I’d been on my way here when I suddenly found myself in the library parking lot. Ten minutes after that, I had my tongue buried in Henley’s pussy. Fifteen minutes after that, I had her taste in my mouth and her panties wrapped around my cock. Food took a very sudden and violent plunge off my list of priorities.
Everything did.
But I promised Tess.
“Eat food,” she shouted at me over the din of whatever hair band she was listening to as I buzzed past her. If she noticed that I changed clothes, she didn’t say. “You know I’ll call and check so just make it easy on yourself and do what I’m telling you.”
Yeah, she will. And if Nora tells her I didn’t come in, she’ll park herself on my doorstep until I get home and force me to take her for pancakes at some ungodly hour.
It’s just easier to do what she says.
As usual the place is packed. I push my way into the crowd, blading through clumps of college kids and knots of uppity white-collar types. The college kids recognize me. Whisper and point while the soft yuppies glare at me because most of them are regulars and know I get preferential treatment. They also know complaining about it will get them tossed out on their asses. And that’s if they’re lucky.
“Was wondering when you were gonna show that pretty face of yours,” Nora calls out to me from her perch, as soon as I’m close enough to hear her.
I lean across the podium she’s standing at and give her a grin. “There’s my girl.” I haven’t been in here since Thursday. Four days, which in Nora time is like forty years. “Did you miss me as much as I missed you?”
“Probably not.” She cackles at her own joke, smacking her bony fingers against my cheek. “Startin’ to think someone’s husband tossed you out a window.”
“You worried about me, Nora?” I capture the hand she smacked me with and raise it to my lips to kiss the back of it.
“No use worrying about what don’t want to be fixed,” she says, giving my hand a quick squeeze before she pulls it from my grip. “You want your booth.”
Despite what I said to Henley, I have no intention of leaving her in the car while I eat. “Actually, if you just want to grab me something from—”
“Assume she’s with you?” Nora aims her sharp, dark eyes over my shoulder and I turn, more out of reflex than actual expectation.
Henley is standing just inside the door, hand poised on the push bar, eyes wide and unsure, body turned like she’s about to cut and run.
Before I can answer her, Nora raises her voice to cut through the noise. “Get your fancy ass up here, Rita. I ain’t got all day.”
People are looking at her. Know she’s with me. I expect her to bolt. She wants to. I can see it. But she doesn’t.
Weaving her way through the crowd, Henley stops a few feet away from me. “I’m hungry.” She says it to my shoulder, but I don’t care.
She’s here.
She’s with me.
It’s taking everything I have not to not reach out and touch her to make sure she’s really here.
“You know where you’re going.” Nora waves us off, her gaze, narrowed and suspicious, on Henley’s face. I remember what she told me, that Nora accused her of breaking my heart when we were kids. Henley what right. Nora does look like she wants to rip her throat out.
I lean across the podium and she tilts her cheek up so I can drop a kiss on it. “You’re my best girl.”
Nora snorts, giving Henley some serious side-eye. “I better be,” she says, shooing us away.
As soon as we slide into the worn vinyl booth, Tina buzzes by and takes our drink order. “Need a minute?” she says to Henley who has her head buried in a menu, so she won’t have to look at me.
“Yes, please.” She darts her gaze and a quick smile upward before refocusing on the menu. From the corner of my eye I catch Tina’s sly smile before she walks away.
“Who’s Rita?”
I look at her, expecting her face to still be buried in her menu. It isn’t. She’s looking right at me.