Law Man(54)
“I don’t –”
“Mara,” his arms gave me a squeeze, “baby, you’ve got to live in the now. Not in your head. Not controlled by your fears. You can’t live for what might happen five months in the future. You got issues you gotta face today. You gotta deal with them now. You got two kids who count on you and their lives aren’t gonna go perfect every day because you weigh every decision you make and tread cautiously. Those options are no longer available to you. You’re gonna have to live day to day and make decisions on the fly. And I’m tellin’ you I’m here to help. You need it and they need it. Are you honestly gonna say no?”
I pressed my lips together finding it annoying when he was right.
I didn’t tell him that. Instead I changed the subject.
“There are other things we need to talk about.”
He stared at me a second then shook his head once and sighed.
Then he said, “Yeah, the Trailer Trash Twins.”
“Well, actually, no,” I told him. “I was referring to, um…what, uh…what happened last night.”
He smiled and shook his head again. “Jesus, you can’t even say it.”
My eyes narrowed and then I informed him, “I don’t need to say it to tell you it’s not going to happen again.”
His head jerked slightly back as he stared at me. Then he burst out laughing.
“Mitch!” I snapped, slapping his chest with one of my hands.
Still chuckling, he remarked, “Fuck, that was funny.”
“I wasn’t being funny,” I retorted.
Now only grinning, he said, “You’re tellin’ me after the three best kisses you’ve ever had, kisses you had with me, you’re never gonna kiss me again?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“You’re standing in your bedroom, in my arms, wearin’ your cute nightie and robe, tellin’ me you’re never gonna kiss me again.”
“Yes!” I bit out.
“You’re cracked.”
“I am not!” My voice was rising.
“That’s okay, sweetheart, it’s cute.”
“I’m not cracked!”
Suddenly, his face was all I could see and that face was serious as a heart attack.
“It’s gonna happen again, Mara,” he promised me. “I’m gonna kiss you and you’re gonna kiss me. I’m gonna do other things to you and you’re gonna do other things to me. No way in hell even you can share a kiss with a man like the ones we shared last night and not explore where that could go.”
“Mitch –”
“Tell yourself all you want it’s not gonna happen but I’m tellin’ you, baby, it is.”
“I think –”
“That subject’s closed,” he announced. “Now we’re talkin’ about the Trailer Trash Twins.”
“We need to go back to the, um…”
He stared at me. When I stopped speaking and couldn’t start up again, he noted, “Jesus, you really can’t say it.”
Crap! I couldn’t!
“Whatever,” I muttered.
His arms gave me a squeeze. “Yeah, definitely cute.”
I glared at him. “You know, Detective Mitch Lawson, most normal, sane men would run a mile from women who suddenly find themselves the guardian of two children whose father has the Russian mob after them, has trailer trash for relatives and who you think are cracked, clueless and have their heads up their asses.”
“Yeah, lucky for you I think all that’s definitely cute.”
“Trailer trash relatives aren’t cute!” I snapped the God’s honest truth.
“No, those two weren’t cute. You bangin’ your head against the wall after they left and talkin’ to me about my mother wearin’ scarves was not only cute, it was fuckin’ adorable.”
“There it is, you aren’t sane,” I declared.
Mitch just grinned at me.
Moving on!
“All right,” I stated then warned, “They’ll be back.”
“Yeah, I was guessin’ that.”
“I don’t want the kids to see them.”
“Yeah, I was guessin’ that too.”
“So we need a plan,” I told him.
“You got any ideas?”
To that, I asked, “How illegal is murder, exactly?”
He burst out laughing again. Luckily this time I was joking. Kind of.
When he quit laughing, his arms gave me another squeeze and he said, “How about this? I give Bray, Brent, LaTanya and Derek the heads up that they call me if they see them. The kids and I find somethin’ to do today that takes us out of the house. And since The Trailer Trash Twins have no clue I live across the breezeway, the kids and me hang at my place and you come get them from there when you get home tonight. They come callin’ late again, I don’t hear them from my place and intervene, you call me and I’ll intervene.”