Page 117

"I do love you and Mack thinks you're her best friend, crazy or not. She almost didn't let me take you home."

Marley looked at me like she didn't believe me. I locked the door and jutted my chin, "Bed, Marley. Now."

"Bossy."

But she did as I asked, throwing clothes off as she went. I grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen and by the time I made it to the bedroom she was naked and sprawled starfish style on the bed.

"Shall I sleep on the couch?" I unbuckled my belt and started undressing.

"What? No!" She sat up and looked around. "Oh. I brushed my teeth. I'm minty!" She huffed into her hand and grinned. "Want a taste?"

Drunk Marley was a comedy show. A cute, adorable, sexy comedy show. "How about I brush my teeth too, and when I get back, you're curled around that pillow with enough room for me to spoon you?"

"That," she snapped her fingers, "that is such a good idea. You are so smart. I knew I picked the right man."

She grabbed the pillow and collapsed onto the bed, just barely missing the headboard.

I shook my head and finished getting ready for bed. Scottie reported in that dropping off Willow was successful and they were home. Travis said that he gave up on dropping Joanne off and took her to his place. She was currently passed out on his couch. I let them know we were home and congratulated all of us on our accomplishments.

With the lights out and the windows cracked to take advantage of the cool mountain air, I finally climbed into bed and wrapped myself around my warm, naked Marley.

Thirty-Six

Jackson

Yeah, she looked pretty green when she delivered my eggs

I wentto bed as happy as I'd ever been but woke up feeling off. There was something in the air. Like a coming storm, but different. The kind of feeling that made me want to stay with Marley until whatever it was showed itself, but she insisted she'd just thrown me off by having a night with the girls instead of her. She kicked me out and went back to sleeping off her night of fun.

But the feeling was bone deep. So instead of going to Karis's right away, I went to the barn and checked it out. Aside from being neglected, the apartment was the way Travis and Digger left it after their poker night sleepover. The workshop was empty.

I stood outside for a while listening to nature because if something was wrong, the animals knew it first. A doe and her fawn nibbled their way past me, barely sparing me a second glance. The morning fog started burning off, revealing a crystal-clear blue sky. A woodpecker was beating the shit out of a tree nearby.

Apparently my gut was the only thing picking up on the bad vibes.

So I dragged my ass down to Karis's and took over Gus-duty so she could hit another round of early meetings. But even Gus with his drooly smiles and baby babble—that was actually starting to make sense—couldn't pull me out of my funk. I dropped him off at daycare and brought my cloud of good cheer to ODX.

"Well, aren't you just a ray of fucking sunshine?" Travis grumbled over his coffee.

"And you're a pretty, pretty princess," I shot back.

Red laughed. "I hear girls' night out was wild."

Travis shot me a look. I shrugged. Hell if I knew how Red had the details this early in the morning. We shuffled into his office. He had his reading glasses perched on his nose, a calculator at his right hand and his computer humming.

"How do you know about last night?" Travis asked.

Red laughed again. "I was opening up when I spied Annie making the walk of shame from Aviana's house."

"Yeah, the whiskey tasting took a turn."

"Oh, I heard." He pulled off his glasses and grinned up at us. "I love gossip almost as much as the M&Ms." Damn, that name stuck hard. "So of course I decided I needed a nice big breakfast to start my day."

"You're evil, dude." Travis shook his head.

"Yeah, she looked pretty green when she delivered my eggs."

"Cruel, Red. Just cruel." Marley seemed fine this morning, but I left a fresh glass of water and a sleeve of crackers on her nightstand just in case.