Vance didn’t agree. “I see you do that again, I hear you did it, I’ll find you and knock some goddamned sense into you,” Vance warned and I knew it wasn’t a threat and I suspected so did Roam. “Now’s the time when you nod your head,” Vance went on.

Roam decided to play with fire. “Don’t see why it’s your f**kin’ business. You dumped her.”

Uh-oh.

“Roam, there’s been a –” I started again, and got interrupted again.

Roam continued talking. “Thought you were the shit. Thought you knew a good thing. Thought you knew everything. You don’t know nothin’. You threw away a piece like that?” Roam’s head jerked in my direction. “You’re an ass**le.”

Yikes.

“Roam,” Sniff said in a cautionary tone. Even Sniff knew Roam was carrying it too far.

“Okay, listen to me right now –” I put in only to be thwarted again.

“I have another rule,” Vance talked over me, his voice was still scary however now it was scary-scary and I knew he was just hanging on to his control, “you call Jules a piece again and you’ll be sucking your meals through a straw. I don’t care if you’re a kid.”

Roam looked from me to Vance and back again and opened his mouth to say something but luckily Vance got there before he dug his hole any deeper.

“Only reason I don’t put my hands on you right now is because you’re pissed on Jules’s behalf. We had a misunderstanding. I didn’t dump her. We’re together, nothing’s changed, except the fact that I was gonna find you and offer you some time. You want that time, see what I do, understand why you have to be smart, you learn some goddamned control.”

Roam’s face changed, confusion warring with hope.

My face probably changed too mainly because Vance just offered to take Roam under his wing. I was finding it hard not to turn to him and kiss every inch of his beautiful face.

“You’re still together?” Roam asked.

“Yeah,” Vance answered.

“Hey! Cool!” Sniff exclaimed.

“You didn’t dump her?” Roam went on.

Vance didn’t bother responding.

Roam looked at me. “Why didn’t you f**kin’ say anything?” he asked or more like accused and I knew he felt like a fool.

“Sorry, Roam. I didn’t know I needed to inform you of the intricacies of my love life. I’ll add your name to my girlfriend list and invite you to the next powwow,” I said it full of attitude, hopefully loving attitude, and went on. “And for f**k’s sake, stop saying f**k!”

The confusion faded from Roam’s eyes, leaving only the hope.

He turned them to Vance. “I’ll learn control,” he promised.

“I f**kin’ hope so,” Vance responded.

“It won’t happen again.”

Vance nodded.

The crackling, white-hot vibes disintegrated.

Crisis averted.

Thank God.

“Go make an appointment with the tutor,” I ordered.

“This mean I’ll get to be a pall bearer?” Sniff put in.

I looked to the heavens.

Jeez.

“Ring bearer, stupid. How many times do I hafta –” Roam started.

“Tutor! Now!” I snapped in my word-is-law voice.

Sniff grinned at me.

Roam didn’t but his eyes were shining. “Later?” he said to Vance.

Vance nodded again.

They took off.

I turned to Vance.

He didn’t look ready to commit murder anymore. He was staring at the front door of King’s where Roam and Sniff had disappeared and he looked like he was thinking about something.

“You okay?” I asked.

His eyes came to me. “That boy’d lay his life down for you.”

I blinked.

Then I realized he was right. Not a lot of people would throw attitude at Vance like that especially when he was promising physical retribution.

I felt that velvet shroud coming around me again and I mentally snuggled into it.

I looked at his empty hands. “I thought you were bringing lunch?”

“I left it in the Explorer. Saw you with Roam and Sniff and didn’t have a good feeling about the body language.”

He’d come to my rescue.

“I want to kiss you right now,” I blurted.

Oh jeez.

Why did I say that?

Before I could take it back or affect a head crackin’ mamma jamma pose, Vance’s face went soft and sexy and his arms came around me, drawing me into his body.

“Don’t,” I said, “we’re standing right out front, everyone can see. I already had a public display of affection with May this morning. I can’t take another direct hit to my street cred.”

His head was descending, completely ignoring me.

“Your street cred?” he asked, his voice silk again this time in a good way. His eyes were amused.

“Yeah.”

“Fuck your street cred,” Vance said against my mouth and he kissed me. Not a touch of the lips but full-on, open mouths, lots of tongue. I had no choice but to wrap my arms around his neck and when I did, he leaned in, I bent back and we went at it like teenagers.

It took awhile for the cat calls and wolf whistles to penetrate our invisible fortress. It was around the time a kid yelled, “You go, dawg!” that I pulled away.

Vance and I looked to the entrance of the Shelter and at least a dozen (maybe more), kids were standing outside the door. May was there beaming from ear to ear. More kids, Stu and Andy were looking out the windows.

We received an ovation, more whistles, cat calls, shouts of raunchy encouragement and full-on clapping applause.

“God dammit,” I whispered to Vance’s neck, trying to pull out of his arms but they just went tighter.

“I think that should do it,” he said to me and I looked into his eyes.

“What?”

“Don’t expect anyone will think you’re dumped anymore.”

Oh.

Well.

I expected he was right.

I relaxed in his arms and smiled at him, street cred be damned.

He smiled back.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Toiletries and Tiaras

This was my afternoon and evening:

About ten minutes after Vance left from lunch came call number one, Indy. “Hey, what’re you doin’ tonight?”