“Elvira, I… well, thank you for… I mean, I don’t really know you but thanks for looking out for me but it’s unnecessary. It’s all good.”

“Just you sayin’ that means it’s all bad. We’ve decided its cosmos at Gwen’s. Trace and Cam are in and so is Martha. Tonight. Eight o’clock. Don’t worry about eatin’ ‘cause I’m doin’ boards.”

“I can’t make it because I’m having dinner with Brock.”

This was met with a moment of silence then a muttered, “Oh boy.”

I looked through the windshield and up to the top floor and saw it. Apartment sixteen, on the end next to some tall, bushy pine trees that meant if he had side windows, those trees would block out the light.

Then I pulled in a light breath.

Then I looked at my dashboard and whispered, “I left my husband the day after he raped me.” I heard her suck in breath and hers wasn’t light. “This was after eight years of a not great marriage then two years of him hitting me, not regular, but when he did it, he did it hard. This came out during the questioning at the Station and Brock was observing. When he heard me say I’d been raped, he threw a chair. I heard it. I heard the crash. He threw a chair and they had to drag him out so he wouldn’t interrupt the questioning to get to me.”

Elvira, for once, was silent.

I, for once, was not.

“His sister was raped as was an old girlfriend. His father jacked his mother around and he assumed the role of man of the house at seven years old. When a woman means something to him, he takes care of her. He told me this and I believe him. I mean something to him. I don’t know what you’ve heard or who this Hawk guy is but I know who Brock is to me. Now I’d love to have cosmos with you and the girls. But I won’t listen to anyone trash talking Brock because he also means something to me and only he and I know what’s going on between us and all that other shit, well, Elvira, it just doesn’t matter.”

She, again, was silent.

I, again, was not.

“Honey, you’re the third person in six years I told that to. Martha just found out last night.

Brock heard me say it and he’s unfortunately got experience with this kind of thing and he knew I’d buried it and he’s helping me to move on from it. This is not a man you don’t trust.

He has my back, he has my front and he’s handling me with care. Trust me.”

“All right, girl,” she whispered.

“And thank you again for being cool. Any other time with any other guy when all this other stuff isn’t happening, I’d appreciate it. But this isn’t what it seems, it’s something a whole lot different.”

“Okay,” she said quietly.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“We didn’t mean –” she started but I quickly cut her off.

“I know you didn’t, honey.”

“I won’t say anything to them about, you know,” she assured me and I closed my eyes.

Then I opened them and told her, “You don’t have to keep this secret. I did for too long. I didn’t do anything to be ashamed of so there’s no reason it shouldn’t be in the open.”

“Still, girl, I’ll let you do the talkin’.”

Okay, maybe she was nosy, meddling and a little scary. But she was also very sweet.

“All right,” I replied.

“Over cosmos at Gwen’s.”

“Sounds good.”

“Another night.”

“Yeah.”

Silence then, softly, “He threw a chair?”

I smiled at the dash but my smile was for me. Then, softly back, I replied, “Yeah, he threw a chair.”

“I’m thinkin’ Hawk don’t know that,” she remarked.

“Well, maybe you should tell him.”

“Bet yo’ boots I will. I got one on Hawk. I never got one on Hawk.”

I laughed softly.

Through this, Elvira said, “Have fun with your hot guy.”

I smiled again, that one was for her even though she couldn’t see. Then I said, “I will.”

“Later, girlfriend.”

“Later, Elvira.”

I took the phone from my ear and hit end call. Then I dropped it in my purse, gathered up my stuff, was sure to bleep the locks on my car and I braved the rickety steps.

Then I stood in front of door number sixteen and knocked.

Two seconds later it was thrown open by a tall, gorgeous, rounded, dark-haired, silver-eyed woman with a flushed face and a visible desire to kill.

I took a step back.

Then she whirled to face the apartment and shrieked, “Dylan! You do that to your brother one more time and it won’t be the naughty step when we get home! I don’t know what it’ll be I just know you… won’t… LIKE IT! ”

I checked the impulse to grab my phone and inspect the text Brock sent me to make certain I got the apartment number right (and, while I was at it, the address) when she turned back to me, smiled sweetly and said, “Hey, you must be Tess.”

I blinked.

She went on. “I’m Laura, Slim’s sister.”

My entire body seized and I feared an acute onset of epilepsy when I heard Brock’s rumble coming from deep in the apartment, “Jesus, Laura, what the f**k?”

To which Laura (apparently Brock’s sister!) turned back to face the apartment and snapped, “Slim, we try not to drop the f-bomb in front of the kids.”

“Great, you’re in your house or at little league or wherever-the-fuck, try not to do it, your hooligans are systematically tearing up my place, anything goes.”

Then he appeared in the door by his sister, grinned at me, leaned out, extending a long arm, his fingers closed on my wrist and he pulled me into the apartment whereupon his arms locked around me and he shuffled me in deeper and, before I knew it, his mouth was on mine and he laid a hot, sweet, deep, but short wet one on me.

“Gross Uncle Slim!” a child’s voice shouted.

“Yeah! Gross!” another one chimed in.

“I like her shoes,” another one, this one clearly female and clearly having good taste, observed.

Brock’s head lifted and I had three thoughts. One, even with an audience of family members, some of them being children, he could really kiss. Two, I was obviously meeting members of Brock’s family and I was in no way prepared. And three, I was glad I gave the flip-flops a rest and was wearing a pair of sexy, strappy sandals, really good jeans and a complicated designer blouse.