Page 115 of A Lick and A Promise
I raced to our table, heard Byron ask, “Jesus, Luna, are you okay?” but I didn’t answer him as I grabbed my bag.
And then I guessed the wuss was back.
Because, without that first glance at my friends and a man who was once my lover, but no longer was my friend, I raced out of there.
THIRTEEN
HIT ME
“Kids?” Knox asked softly, as we clung to each other and floated in his pool under the stars.
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Two, three. You?”
“Two. I was a middle child. It wasn’t fun. I wouldn’t want to put one of my kids through that, and all middle children go through some version of that.”
Even two kids went through some version of something (and didn’t I know it), but from what I’d heard, and from what Knox told me of his own experience, it was way worse for a middle child.
So…
“Agreed,” I declared. “Boys? Girls?”
“Couldn’t give that first shit. Though, if we have girls, they better have your curly hair.”
If we have girls.
We.
I tightened my legs around his hips and tried very hard not to howl at the moon.
I succeeded in this, but just barely.
“You married to living in Phoenix for the rest of your life?” he asked.
Hmm.
This was an interesting question.
I’d never lived anywhere else, but…Mom and Dad, Raye, my friends, my job, even Dream, but definitely Dusk, Feather and whoever she was nurturing in her belly, not to mention, if I wasn’t around, I couldn’t be an Angel, the thought of leaving all of that didn’t fill me with joy.
That said, I had a life philosophy, if you had the chance to expand your horizons, you should always take it.
Though, this brought up a pertinent and perhaps frightening question.
“Why? Are you thinking of moving?”
He gathered me closer as the water lapped around us, the stars shone down, every moment together a new kind of perfect idyll with my man, and he answered, “I’m from Tucson. My family’s there. When I got out of the military and joined the NI&S team, I trained in Denver and LA. I really liked Denver. But I came to Phoenix because Cap was here. That said, I can be at any location I choose. There’s always enough work to go around.”
“And Denver is farther away from your family, and the crap they’re pulling,” I guessed.
“Yeah.”
I thought on this, doing it verbally. “I’ve been to Denver. It was rad. It’s not too far away from Phoenix. And the Rock Chicks would be an instant friend posse, and a good one. So I could do Denver.”
He sounded shocked. “You’d leave the Angels?”
