Dad’s attention swings in my direction and his scowl deepens. He knows what I’m thinking and he knows I won’t say it without his being one hundred percent on board. He warned me off Cora and I didn’t listen then, but this is so much bigger than my attraction to her—this is her life. I’m aware I have shit for experience. My life until now has left me completely unprepared for what I’m about to volunteer for.

Dad gives a brief nod.

“I can stay with you,” I say. “Sleep on the couch.”

Cora’s gaze lasers in on me with the precision of a military drone. Again I’ve offered myself to her with absolutely nothing to recommend me. I proved once that I’m not totally useless to her. Maybe I can do it again if she gives me a chance.

I see the struggle in her expression and the moment she comes to a decision. “Okay.” It’s not quite the enthusiastic victory I wanted, but it’s close enough.

“Do we need to have another talk about workplace decorum?” Dad asks.

Cora’s eyes widen a fraction and she presses her lips together. She thinks this is funny.

“No.”

He gives me the stern dad stare that says he means it. Cora is off-limits. Except I already blasted past and ignored those limits and I’m likely to keep right on doing that. Provided Cora’s on board. Her part is yet to be decided. I’m still proving myself, and when I’m not I’m waiting for her to make room in her crowded life. The body is willing, but the mind is not. It’s her mind that I’ll have to convince that we deserve a chance. She can have more than Beau’s case. She can have anything she wants. If only she wanted me.

“Good.” Dad looks to Cora for confirmation. “You okay with this?”

My ears pound and my gaze narrows to where all I can see is Cora.

“On the couch,” she confirms, for me more than for my dad. She’s setting the limits between us and I’m just going to have to honor them.

“On the couch,” I vow. I’m surprised at how much I mean it. The usual me would already be trying to find a way around the rules. That won’t work with Cora. Nothing about her is usual and neither is whatever it is going on between us.

“Okay, then,” Dad says. “Leo, can I talk to you for a moment in my office?”

“Sure.” I follow him and take a seat as he closes his office door.

Sitting at his desk, he opens the bottom drawer, pulls out a small case, and hands it to me. I already know what’s inside. I’ve coveted it since I was a kid and he first showed it to me. It’s his backup piece from when he was a police officer.

“I want you to take this,” he says. “Keep it loaded.” He sets a box of ammunition on top of the case. “You don’t have a permit to carry, but we can take care of that. For now it’s enough that you’ll have it at night just in case. I don’t want you taking any chances. If anything, and I mean anything, at all happens, I want you calling 9-1-1. Don’t be a hero. This gun is a backup plan. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“When was the last time you went to the range?”

“A few weeks ago, with Brandon.”

I don’t own a gun, but my cousin and uncle own an arsenal. We go to the range whenever I come home from school. Coming from a long line of law enforcement officers and former military, it’s practically in my DNA for me to love guns. Dad taught me not only to shoot, but to respect firearms. He taught my sisters too. It was the one cool thing about having a dad who’s an ex-cop private investigator.

Dad nods. “All right, then. You’re all set.” He pauses and I know what’s coming before he even thought to say it.

“I know,” I say. “Respect her limits. I will. I do.”

“There’s something about her…I don’t know. It brings out the dad in me, I guess. I don’t mean to be hard on you. It’s just that she needs…protecting.”

“I feel the same, except for feeling fatherly toward her.”

He chuckles. “Yeah, I got that.”

“Thanks for this.” I stand. “I’ll take good care of it.”

“I know you will. Remember—9-1-1.”

“Got it.” I stop at the door. “One more thing. Savannah’s mom has stage-four cancer. I don’t know what kind. She might have to go to some doctor appointments with her. She wanted me to let you know and to keep it between just us.”

“Damn. I knew something was up with her, but I thought it had to do with you.”

“So did I. Learning the world doesn’t revolve around me was quite the wakeup. Anyway, that’s what’s going on with her.”

“Okay. Thanks for telling me.”

“Sure.”

“And Leo?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a good kid.”

I leave with the case in hand and my dad’s words echoing in my head. I know I’m lucky. My dad trusts me with more than his favorite gun. He trusts my word and that I’ll do my best to make sure that Cora is okay. Now if only I can live up to all that trust.

Chapter 17 Cora

We stop at Leo’s parents’ house for him to pack a bag. I’m not excited about having a roommate, especially one who pushes all of my buttons, even the ones I didn’t know I had. I’m used to living alone. I’ve been on my own for a long time now, nearly a quarter of my life. I like being alone. Having him there is going to be awkward and weird, and I’m not sure how long I can be on my best behavior. I’m not hostessy. Jamie is the only person who has ever spent the night at my house and I’m ashamed to admit that most of those mornings I couldn’t wait for her to leave.

Leo’s parents’ house looks a lot like the house I grew up in. The neighborhood with the toys in the yards, the dads out doing whatever dads do in garages, and the occasional dog walker give me an unexpected nostalgic pang. I took it for granted that things would always stay the same and that someday I’d bring my own family back to my childhood home for a visit. I don’t imagine a converted garage apartment would have the same effect.

He opens the door and the sound hits me first. A dog barks. Female voices drift from somewhere at the back of the house and the play-by-play of a baseball game blares at us from the left. Mr. Nash sits in a recliner with a beer in hand. For a moment I tense and then I remember that not everyone drinks to forget until the blackout of oblivion turns him into someone you don’t recognize or want to know.

“Hey, Dad.”

Mr. Nash raises a hand, his concentration on the game.

“Come and meet my mom,” Leo says to me.

I don’t remember the last time I met someone’s mom.

We move into the kitchen area, where a woman lifts the lid on a pot and gives the contents a stir. Now I know where Leo got his good looks. He’s the young male version of his mother. A young woman sits at the counter bar, doing homework. The radio is on, tuned to something classical.

“Hey, Mom. This is Cora.”

Both sets of feminine eyes turn in my direction. Mrs. Nash smiles and puts the lid back on the pot.

“Cora, this is my mom, Laura. And that’s my youngest and most annoying sister, Anne.”

“Leo,” Mrs. Nash admonishes. “Don’t talk about your sister like that. Nice to meet you, Cora. Will you join us for dinner?”

Anne takes her time looking me over. “Hey,” she finally says.

“I don’t know,” I answer Mrs. Nash, because I really don’t know. I don’t know how to act or what to say or how to get Anne to stop looking at me like she’s memorizing me for a police sketch artist.

Another chick comes into the room, this one a little older than Anne. She skids to a stop when she spots me. “Oooo, Leo brought home a girrrrl.” She strings out the last word, making it sound like Leo brought home a giant cockroach or something.

“Cut it out, Mary,” Leo growls. “That’s my other sister. Feel free to ignore her.”