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—Pepper to her brothers
PEPPER
3 weeks later
The ‘ding-ding-ding’ of the bell had me glancing up from the display case I was reorganizing with what was left of our cookies, to the man ringing the bell.
A wide grin spread across my face.
I knew with how evenly the bell was rung who it was, but it still was a shock to my system.
“Hey,” I was definitely smiling too wide. “On your way to work?”
He leaned into the counter, his body pressed to the glass display case.
I idly checked out the way his shirt rode up, exposing the trail of hair that started at his navel and disappeared into his jeans.
“I am,” he rumbled, sending a shiver down the length of my spine. One full of pleasure and excitement and intense need.
It’d been three weeks since Sage was fired. Three weeks since the DA decided that they didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute her. Three weeks since Atlas had told me we were doing this… but slowly.
Sage and Emory hadn’t shown in twenty-one blissful days, and I almost got lulled into the perfectness of my life.
“Do you want something for a snack?” I asked,
He pulled his eyes away from me, then bent down to look at the display case.
“Peach scone?” he asked hopefully.
I rolled my eyes and moved to the bag I’d already set out for him before they’d all sold.
Maven had been here and gone. She had a doctor’s appointment, then mid-afternoon plans with Garnett and Shayne.
I was all on my lonesome, and since I wasn’t too sure I’d remember to not sell the last one, I’d set it back for him for when I knew he’d come by before work.
“Obviously,” I said as I handed it to him. “How did Forest do today at drop off?”
“Mom said he went in like a dream,” he rolled his eyes. “Apparently it’s only me that he makes feel terrible when I leave him.”
He’d started at the daycare last week. He’d been dropped off by me once, Atlas four times, and Garnett the rest of those times. For me, he went willingly, excited and happy. For Atlas, he’d cried the tears of nightmares, and Atlas had felt bad the entire day. For Garnett, again he was happy.
“That just means he loves you,” I leaned onto the counter. “I’ll be picking him up today. I’m almost sold out. If these aren’t sold in the next five minutes, I’m closing up shop and dropping these off at the shelter.”
“Load ’em up for me, then,” he said. “I’ll take them to the SWAT meeting I’m being forced to hold today because of ‘team morale’ or some bullshit like that. Orders came down from the upper management.”
AKA his father.
I got everything into the biggest box I had, then handed it over.
“How much?” he asked.
“Umm,” I hesitated. “Usually that would be like three bucks a cookie. But Maven has a Carter allowance now.”
Atlas shook his head, then pulled out two twenty-dollar bills from his wallet.
He tossed them on the counter, then leaned forward so our faces were inches away from each other.
“Come see me before you take off with my kid,” he ordered.
