“I like her,” Cleo piped up, and High saw his youngest aim an irritated frown at her sister before he looked to his big girl.

“I’m glad, baby,” he said quietly.

Zadie didn’t say anything, so Cleo looked to her sister.

“Zade?” she pushed.

Zadie hopped from her knees in the seat and grabbed her bowl, muttering, “We’re gonna be late for school.”

She didn’t give a shit about school.

She wanted this conversation to be over.

She took her bowl to the sink.

“Rinse that and put it in the dishwasher,” he ordered.

“Whatever,” she mumbled, dumping the milk in the sink.

“Look at me, Zade,” High demanded.

She gave him a squinty look that told him she had things to do and he was wasting her time.

“First, wipe that look off your face,” he said. She didn’t, so he went on, “Now.”

She huffed and changed her look to a bored one.

High let that slide.

“Your old man loves you,” he told her.

She changed her look to a disbelieving one even though she knew deep down that was not right.

He let that slide too.

“Measure of the love you got for me how you decide to give it back,” he said.

“Measure of the love you got for me you got rid of Mom and found some other woman,” she returned.

He stared straight into her eyes and whispered, “Ouch.”

That got her.

She flinched.

But she didn’t say anything.

“Honest to God, you okay with layin’ that kinda hurt on your old man?”

She stared at him a beat before she turned to the dishwasher, opened it, and shoved her bowl in.

“Now more hurt, you not answerin’, which means you obviously are,” he noted.

She looked back at him. “Just because I don’t like your girlfriend doesn’t mean I don’t love you, Daddy.”

“Hit me, darlin’. Lay it out straight. You won’t get into trouble,” he told her. “Tell me, what did Millie do to make you not like her?”

Zadie didn’t answer.

So Cleo joined the conversation.

“She can’t say anything because Millie’s nice.”

Zadie turned to her sister and hissed, “She’s old and fat.”

“You’re so full of it,” Cleo snapped back. “She’s super pretty.”

Right.

This had to end because now his baby girl was pissing him off.

“She’s two years younger than your mother,” High declared. “And I hope to God you don’t think she’s fat, Zadie, because you think what Millie is is fat, we got more problems, those bein’ about how you think a woman’s body should be.”

She turned to him while he spoke and opened her mouth when he was done.

He lifted a hand before she could say a word because he saw on her face that what she was going to say he wasn’t going to like.

“Enough outta you. There’ll come a time when you look back at this weekend and you’ll wish for it back. I love you too much to let you make that worse.” He dropped his hand and jerked his head to the couch. “Get your books and jacket. We gotta get goin’.”

Zadie stomped to the couch as Cleo got up and dealt with her bowl and High poured himself a travel mug of coffee.

Zadie then stomped right out as Cleo helped him shut down the RV to leave.

He’d shrugged on his cut, nabbed his keys and the mug, and was reaching to the door Zadie had slammed when his big girl looked up at him.

“At least she got kitties who’re really pretty,” she said softly.

Fuck.

His girl.

He put the mug on the counter and reached out to curl his hand around her soft cheek, bending so his face was in hers.

“Comes as a surprise. My girl hides how deep she feels so when she lets that out, comes as a surprise, darlin’. A surprise I love each time I get it. Thank you for that, baby.”

She grinned up at him, pleased at his words but more pleased she did her bit to smooth out a bumpy morning for her dad.

He leaned in and kissed her forehead, then straightened away, grabbing his mug and saying, “Now let’s get you to school.”

*  *  *

After dropping off the girls, High drove straight to Millie’s.

He parked the truck in the courtyard, got out, and moved to her office.

He opened the door and heard the alarm beep even as he saw her on the phone behind her desk, hair piled up at the back of her head, another turtleneck, this one beige. He couldn’t see the bottom through her desk at his angle, but he could see she had on her brown boots.

She smiled huge at him.

He grinned back, turned to the alarm’s control panel, and punched in the code as he heard her say, “I’m so sorry. Someone just came in the door and it’s unexpected but it’s also urgent. I need to call you back. I apologize but I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

He turned to her to see she was up and rounding the desk, coming his way.

He moved hers.

Tight brown skirt that skimmed her knees and hugged her hips.

Brilliant.

“Right. Of course,” she said in her phone, still walking. “Thank you. Talk soon,” she finished as she got to him.

She disconnected and instantly threw her arms around his neck.

“Hey, Snooks,” she whispered as he slid his hands around her waist.

High didn’t return her greeting.

He bent his neck and laid a long one on her. She had the fingers of one of her hands in his hair when he finished it.

“Hey,” he replied.

Her smile was hazy but it was bright.

It faded slightly before she said, “Missed you.”

He gave her a squeeze. “Then good I’m back.”

The smile came back.

“Know you got shit on and I got somethin’ I gotta do with Snap, so I gotta go,” he told her, and watched her mouth with its cute little mole start pouting. “But I wanted to come by, see you, drop some more shit in the house, connect with Chief and Poem, then I gotta take off.”

“More shit?” she asked.

“Don’t got much, babe, but I’m movin’ in. Packed some things this mornin’ while the girls were gettin’ ready, put ’em in the truck. Outside of the stuff that stays in the RV, like plates and mugs, with the bag I got in my car, most of my crap is here.”

“So you’re essentially moved in.”

He studied her, thinking they’d gone over this already, and after the shit conversation he’d already had with Zadie that day, not wanting to have another one.

“That a problem?” he asked.

“If you hadn’t done it, I would have probably taken off work, found Boz’s house, broken into your RV, and done it myself.”

He felt a smile hit his face.

Her lips quirked as she said, “Waking up alone sucks.”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Goin’ to sleep without gettin’ off sucks too.”

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling and told it, “Men. Sex on the brain.”

“You use your toy while I was away?”

Her eyes rolled back and when he got them again, they were bigger and her cheeks were pink.

Fuck.

He’d been teasing.

But she did.

“You made yourself come without me?” he asked.

“Well...” She trailed off. He gave her a squeeze and she kept going. “I was actually doing that thinking of you. Does that count?”

“Dinner,” he grunted. “Sweater dress. Tonight. And after-dinner plans changed.”

Her eyes got big again. “How?”

“You’ll see.”

She slid her fingers from his hair and wrapped them around the back of his neck. “How, Low?”

He bent in and put his mouth to hers. “Trust me, beautiful, it’ll be a good surprise.”

He felt her tremble in his arms.

“Now gonna let you go ’cause I gotta go. Give me another kiss.”

He watched disappointment hit her eyes that he was leaving before she closed them and pressed her mouth to his, touching her tongue to his lips.

He gave her entry and he gave her time to taste him.

Then he took over before he ended it on some soft, quick kisses, let her go, turned her, and slapped her ass to move her to her chair.

He moved to the door saying, “Later, babe.”