Page 63 of Losing an Edge

My heartbeat was pounding so hard I thought my chest might explode. “So you’re serious about this? About me coming to stay with you?”

“Serious as Jesse’s chocolate-covered-bacon obsession. I’m not scared of what Guy might do to me, but I’m fucking terrified of what he might do to you if he got you alone.”

“So what happens when you guys go back out on the road?”

“Come back here. Go stay with Anthony and Jesse. Katie would love some company, I’m sure, or maybe the two of you could go stay with her mom and have a week-long slumber party. Whatever you want—I just don’t want you to be alone. Not until we’re sure that son of a bitch is out of your life.”

I couldn’t stop chewing on my lip. “I still don’t like the idea of him coming after me while I’m with you.”

“Better than him coming after you when you’re with Connor and Cassidy, though, right?”

I nodded.

“I solemnly swear I’ll keep my hands to myself—unless you don’t want me to.”

Laughter burst free without my permission. “Thought you were going to start quoting the Weasley twins on me.”

“I’ll save that one for when you’re ready.” He winked. “Because at that point, I will be up to no good.”

Something in the general vicinity of my heart fluttered. “All right.”

“All right?”

“I’ll come to stay with you. We can work out the keeping-your-hands-to-yourself part once we’re away from my brother’s house.”

“That sounds like a plan I can live with.”

Surprisingly, it sounded like a plan I could live with, too. “Mischief managed?”

“Not yet, it’s not.” He nipped my nose.

I laughed again as we got up and headed back down the stairs to fill everyone else in on what we’d decided. The smell of pizza nearly knocked me over. Or maybe it was Levi picking me up and carrying me over his shoulder so we could go downstairs to the pizza faster.

As soon as he set me down, Connor demanded his turn to be carried by Tarzan.

“Looks like that one backfired on you,” I said.

The way he looked at me, I got the impression he was more than okay with that.