“Good idea,” Garrett agreed.
He and Mike headed to the door.
As they did, Garrett made no reply and just kept on walking when Ryker called out, “You can thank me later, sport.”
They were in line at Mimi’s when Mike started chuckling.
“Don’t start,” Garrett warned.
“Jesus. Ryker, a matchmaker,” Mike murmured, the words shaking with humor.
As they hit the front of the line, Garrett lifted his chin to the girl behind the counter, who had blue hair, and said to Mike, “He sucks at it.”
“Don’t know, Merry, you get laid last night?”
Garrett turned to Mike.
“This morning?” Mike asked.
Garrett said nothing.
Mike watched his partner be silent a beat.
Then Mike burst out laughing.
* * * * *
Garrett had the door to his condo open barely an inch before the smell assaulted him.
He didn’t even have to eat it to know it was brilliant.
He pushed through, saw Cher in his kitchen, Ethan on his couch, and two sets of bright, happy brown eyes turned his way.
One set smiled.
The other did as well.
But the mouth under it shouted, “Merry! Guess what?”
He grinned at his woman, then turned that grin to her son.
“What, bud?” he asked, throwing the door closed behind him and walking to the dining room table, shrugging off his suit jacket.
“One hundred percent on my geography test,” Ethan declared, turning on the couch to get on his knees in order to share this exciting news facing Garrett fully.
He threw his coat around the back of a chair but didn’t take his eyes off the boy.
“Right on, Ethan.”
“Give me a mountain range,” Ethan ordered.
“Andes,” Garrett said, moving toward Cher.
“South America!” Ethan cried. “Another one.”
“Alps.”
“Europe! Another!”
Garrett made it to Cher and slid a hand from her waist to the small of her back, but he didn’t take his attention from her kid. “Himalayas.”
“South Asia!” Ethan yelled. “Now give me a hard one.”
Fuck, he didn’t know a hard one.
“Ural,” Cher muttered under her breath.
Someone had helped her kid study.
He pressed his hand in and called to Ethan, “Ural.”
“Russia!” Ethan shouted.
“Impressive, buddy,” Garrett declared.
“One hundred percent, impressive,” Ethan decreed.
Garrett chuckled before he requested, “Mind if I say hey to your mom?”
“Sure,” Ethan allowed, twisting back to land on his ass on the couch. “Just not too gooey.”
He was still smiling when he turned to Cher.
That smell.
Her right there in his kitchen, looking pretty.
Her kid giving him the best welcome home he’d had in years, even though he hadn’t even said hello.
All that, Garrett wanted to give Cher more than gooey.
Ethan right there, he couldn’t.
But with what he did give her, he managed to touch his tongue to hers briefly before he lifted his head.
“Hey,” he murmured.
“Hey, gorgeous. Good day?”
It had been a good day.
He’d had an important conversation with his father that settled his soul and maybe, he hoped, neutralized the poison in his gut for good—or at least made it so he could manage it.
He’d discovered his woman and her kid were never in any danger, but now they were really not in any danger with Carlito and his crew picked up and being processed on RICO charges.
And it was looking good that Wendy Derian’s killer was behind bars with the RICO haul. The gun in the suspect’s possession was the caliber that did Wendy, had been recently discharged, and Robert Paxton didn’t have a firm alibi for the time of her murder. He was also in possession of her cell phone.
Jake still had to run ballistics, but during interrogation, Paxton gave Mike and Garrett indication he may roll over on a variety of things, including being ordered to carry out the hit on Wendy, doing this in order to make things tougher for Carlito but easier on him.
He didn’t tell Cher any of that.
He said, “Yeah. More later.”
She studied him a beat before she nodded.
“You gonna tell me what that smell is?” he asked.
“Garlic cheddar chicken, buttered noodles, fresh rolls from Kroger, and…” She dipped her voice quiet. “Green beans.”
“I heard that,” Ethan called.
She smiled up at him, not having moved from the curve of his arm, not an inch.
And he saw it. There in her face. That look he had memorized. That look, part of which she’d given him over and over for years and he’d been too blind to see.
That look now he’d never forget
She was happy. She was safe and happy.
And the part that had been his for a long time and he didn’t notice.
She was in love with him.
He lifted his free hand to slide it into the side of her hair as he took that look in.
He was wrong.
She wasn’t prettiest first thing in the morning.
She was at her prettiest any time of the day when she was looking into his eyes.
And hers were happy.
And in love.
* * * * *
Ethan
Ethan looked from the TV to his mom and Merry in the kitchen.
They were being gooey, standing close, staring into each other’s eyes, Merry’s hand in his mom’s hair by the side of her face.