I nodded and moved further into the kitchen, murmuring, “I’m cool.”

“Sylvie –”

I turned to her. “He has to matter for it to matter and, babe, he quit mattering a long time ago.”

This was the conclusion I’d come to the night before. I was off my game because I was letting him get to me, like he meant something when he didn’t, not anymore.

So I had to let that go and when I did that, I would get a partner who knew what he was doing. I would work with him to make Knight’s troubles go away. In the meantime, I could jump a hot guy whenever I felt like it.

This was not a bad deal.

The rest was done and had been a long time.

I just had to get over the shock of it and I’d done that over bourbon and pool with a bunch of g*y guys and drag queens which was the best way to go about that. Or one of them.

“Sylvie, when you told me –” Charlene started.

I stepped close to her. “When I told you it was my birthday. That was our day. That was the day. And I was drunk. Being over it doesn’t mean being over it. Shit like that,” I shrugged, “you never get over. But you can deal. I’m gonna deal. He lives in Arizona, has kids and a life down there and he’s a f**king great lay. You know me. I don’t get involved but I do have fun. So I won’t get involved but I will have fun.”

“The guys you pick up, honey, they aren’t Tucker Creed.”

I shrugged again. “They aren’t anyone. Neither is he. A memory come back to life, who’ll eventually become another memory. Might as well make it a good one this time.”

She bit her lip looking doubtful before she let it go to whisper, “Be careful.”

I grinned. “Careful’s my middle name.”

She rolled her eyes at my blatant lie then shook her head and, doing so, caught sight of the microwave.

“Crap!” she snapped. “Right!” she called loudly to the house at large. “Car! School! We gotta go!”

She moved into the dining room where Theo was chewing on something, diapered ass to the floor. I moved there, straight to Leslie who was sitting on a booster seat at the dining room table, coloring. Creed and Adam appeared in the kitchen as we were heading out.

We got the kids in the car and I was still being a goof with Leslie when I heard Creed ask Charlene, “Sylvie got a set of keys to your house?”

I gave Leslie one last smile and touched her nose with my finger before pulling out of her car door as Charlene answered, “Yeah.”

“I’ll change the windows out today. Tonight, I’ll deal with the faucet and look at your car,” he told her. “Good for you?”

“Definitely, Tucker, thank you,” she replied and her gratitude was genuine. Dan was gone but even when he was around Dan was a lazy-ass motherfucker. Creed, for Charlene, was a godsend.

I slammed the car door, moved to Adam’s window and pressed my hand to it before I bent and pressed my mouth to it and blew my lips wide making him and Leslie giggle.

After doing this, I moved around the hood of her car to the other side where Creed was standing as Charlene went on. “And thanks for the donuts.”

I watched Creed jerk up his chin.

“Later, babe,” I called as I walked by him.

“Later, honey,” Charlene called back. I lifted a hand and kept going as I heard her say, “Bye, Tucker. Thanks again.”

“No problem,” he muttered and I knew he was following me.

I stopped at my front door, Creed at my side, and I waved as they drove away.

Badasses, apparently, didn’t wave because Creed didn’t but when I turned to look up at him I saw that they watched cars drive away while smiling.

“Your agenda for the day?” I asked and he looked down at me.

“First up, drugstore,” his smooth, rough voice answered, giving me a quiver.

“Excellent,” I muttered. “Next?”

“Got a lead yesterday. Following it. You?”

“A lead?” I prompted and he shook his head.

“Let me see if it pans out, Sylvie.”

Oh shit. Oh no. Oh shit.

That could mean bad things if he had a lead on one of the guys.

I buried that and nodded. “Okay, me. Nair.”

“He doesn’t get out of bed before noon,” Creed shared.

“Right. Okay. Me, drive-by of Nair’s to get the lay of the land. Then office. Then check in on Serena. Back to Nair.”

“Check in with me, too,” he ordered, I nodded and he went on. “The part of your business I help you do is not this but, head’s up, saw your girl had job applications on her counter. Part-time. How the f**k she thinks she’s gonna manage part-time on top of full-time and three kids, got no clue. What I do know is, you do all your own admin and you got the money not to have to. It also doesn’t take full-time help. It’s none of my business, shit like this can go sour amongst friends but, you set her up, she can do it at home. Extra money for her, bullshit work you don’t wanna do gone for you.”

Fuck, that was genius and it sucked because it was his idea and I wish I’d thought of it myself.

I jerked up my chin. “I’ll talk to her.”

“You’re at the office, grab any files you got on the jobs I may need to get involved in with you. Bring ‘em home. I’ll look ‘em over.”

I nodded.

“Now you’ll give me her key so I can see to her windows before I head out.”

I jerked up my chin again, walked in and opened the drawer to the table by the side of it, grabbed the keys and tossed them to him.

He caught them then his other hand snaked out, nabbed me around the neck and yanked me to him. He bent low and his mouth crashed down on mine whereupon he laid a deep, wet, long one on me that ended with me arched into his body with my hands fisted in his hair.

He pulled his mouth from mine, looked directly in my eyes and muttered, “Later.”

Then he let me go and took off.

I took in a deep breath.

Then I headed to the shower to get ready to start my day.

Gun was sitting on the top of my couch, tail sweeping the back.

“Meow,” she said.

“Not you too,” I replied.

“Meow,” she repeated.

“Whatever,” I muttered, not needing a lecture from my cat and pulling off my clothes as I moved. I was na**d by the time I hit the bathroom, which meant no delay in the shower so I turned on the water, waited for it to get warm and stepped right in.