(( This is a "back in time thread" to illuminate and play, just for the fun of it, how things had happened years ago which were mentioned in play. This will not change any of the current "realities" presented in the group. If you see a contradiction we missed, please PM me or Grace Low so we can address it.

Thanks to Grace's player for playing along. Hope you enjoy.))

It?d been last week when some others had been brought in by Silas, about four women and one man. He?d said that there just weren?t enough women in camp and that camps needed women to keep the place looking right. Women were needed to get the right food and be the right distraction for men. Mac hadn?t had any say in it, but he wouldn?t have protested. The idea seemed like a waste of time if not a distraction from what they really needed to do.

He needed to go with Sonny and Cole to Makers' Mark bar and trade their money for guns. Once they all picked up and went to the next location they would make triple what they paid for. Instead, they were fooling around setting up new women Silas had vetted as being proper.

Camp was treated like a co-ed college. The RVs were either exclusively male or female, usually with a ?chaperone? figure his Uncle trusted. For him, he lived with his Uncle and took up one of the bunk-bed style sleeping spaces that ran parallel to the RV wall.

Instead of worrying about the gun trade that night, his uncle wanted them to host a social. There would be booze, sure, but also what he thought of as a proper meal they would precede with the Lord?s blessing. That was in thirty minutes.

He was still shaving, the way men shave before an execution.

There was a nervous flutter in her stomach. The feeling was unusual, and it took her a few minutes to know what it was. Her senses, in general, were still dull, shrouded as they were in the thick black mourning curtains of her trauma.

Grace Cassidy was breathing, so she had to be alive. She kept telling herself that, reminding herself that life was for the living. There was no sense living in a graveyard of might have been, your gaze fixed so steadily on the ghosts of the past that your muscles atrophied and your mind melted away. She?d been here once before, she could do it again. Reinventing herself one doggedly determined step at a time.

The meeting with the elders of this group had been harsh, but they always were. She was newly divorced, from an outsider no less, and the only things she had going for her were a viable trade, a pretty face and Rally?s word that she was a good girl despite it all. With one eye constantly cast over her shoulder for any sign of her ex-husband, Grace had agreed to go with this Camp specifically because its reputation was rougher, more violent than some of the others. She hated violence with a bitter taste like bile in the back of her throat, but she was looking to the MacIntosh crew to restore just a little of what she thought she might never experience again: feeling safe.

She knew that she?d been chosen, at least in part, because she was still young, still pretty, newly single. The divorce was a black smear against her, but she could name drop her famous adopted brother in one breath and bring up visions of the terrible tragedy that had befallen him in the next, she could show her scars as proof that she?d simply lost her head. Silas and company had taken her on because she was the right age for some of their younger men, and the closer a man got to thirty without yet being married, the more intense the pressure to settle down became. Grace wasn?t looking for a relationship -- the very thought made her sick -- but she knew better than to say so. Of course, she wanted to get married (again) and have babies (again) right away. Naturally. Who wouldn?t?

Dressing for this upcoming ?formal?, she fixed her hair one way, took it down and tried it another. It was pink, a soft pastel baby pink that was hard to maintain and --currently-- very in vogue. The outfit she?d chosen was demure but feminine -- jeans that had been modified to fit her tiny frame, clusters of gems adorning the pockets, and a pretty green camisole that magnified the color of her eyes. Ready as she?d ever be, she stepped out of the RV she was sharing with another of the new girls, Rachel, and sat on the short stack of steps that lead up to it, waiting.

Silas was already there with five of his favorites. Men that all looked a little too-much like him and laughed too hard at his jokes, even when they weren?t funny. He fucking hated that. It seemed like when those men laughed that they were howling out their insincerity, forcing out a sound from their bearded faces to get praise from him. The sight should have been comforting instead of uncomfortable, but he felt like he wanted to peel off his skin.

?Oh! Joshua! Little M,? one of the not-uncles said, as if he hadn?t seen him yesterday and was on the verge of saying just how ?big? he was now. He knew what patronizing sounded like far away, but he pushed on a smile anyway.

?Andy?. John? ? he said their names and nodded, his eyes next landing on Silas, ?Fuckwad.?

His Uncle reached over, giving his face a smack so playful it made his cheek burn. They smiled afterward and he tipped his head, two fingers under his fedora touching his brow in respect, ?Uncle.?

?You see the ladies, Josh? I picked some of them out for you.? His Uncle pressed him with a smile like a hot iron.

He looked away, ?Well, sure. But you want tomorrow to go down or do you want me stuck between a set of wet legs?? His gaze went back to his uncle, pointedly, who threw his head back in a laugh to reply.

Rachel was everything that Grace couldn?t, wouldn?t be. She was tall, with long shapely legs and a body to match, curves in all the right places. Grace looked something like a boy in girl?s clothing by comparison, though breasts that had swelled with pregnancy were still fuller than they?d been before it. She had long black hair, honey gold skin and flashing brown eyes full of mischief and daring. She was boisterous and bubbly, friendly and loud. Grace felt like a ghost beside her, a washed out after image, a grey relief.

When the other girl was ready, she stooped her shoulders to link one of her arms through one of Grace?s, and together they moved towards the appointed gathering. Grace in her converse with Rachel towering over her, tottering beside her in heels that were too high for the terrain. The neckline on her chosen top was perfectly modest but the skirt she?d paired with it was almost obscenely short, and the little stylist pictured herself as a favored doll from childhood, worn and ragged from years of handling, dragged along to the party as an afterthought.

They arrived, and Rachel practically bounced with energy, eager to introduce herself and to be introduced. Grace painted a practised smile on her full lips, the one she used with customers all day long whenever she had work. It was a friendly smile, open and interested in conversation, but it never quite reached the golden sparkle that starred her wide green eyes.

?Better get you some, boy, unless you don?t have the rocks for it.? Silas was smiling so large that his eyes were slits. Josh pretended to laugh in a way that was obviously fake, but not rude. His cheek was still burning from before.

?See?? Silas motioned to Rachel and Grace, and the two others echoing behind them, ?Not bad.?

?Sure.? And he was trying to figure out which one of them would fuck and dump him first. The smaller one with the boring outfit looked good for a row and forget. Ms. Legs was selling but he wasn?t buying. She might have been wet between the legs but there was something annoying about that. Something about her overdone nature, about her confident presentation, that made him roll his eyes.

There was thousands of dollars on the line and he was being held up here, for this.

?Get you one,? His uncle nudged.

?Yeah, sure.? The little one would do. First, he grabbed a whiskey and coke that Sonny was mixing up by the cooler. Cole was there, giving him that mean-ass look that said they were due for a battle. Fine, fuckface, we?ll battle.

Both girls were holding their breath, for vastly different reasons. Rachel looked expectant, hopeful, as her eyes flashed over each man in kind, seeking out the younger ones, sizing each of them up in kind. The need radiated off her like a flashing neon light. Grace was also sizing them up, trying to fit each one into the run down of names she?d been given. There was the big guy, head and shoulders above his mates, making drinks by the cooler. The mean one who looked like an angry junkyard dog, bristling with aggression. There was the one who looked bored, the one in the fedora who kept getting elbowed by the older guys. That had to be him then, the young nephew Silas?d found reason to mention ?in passing? at least half a dozen times during their little ?talk?.

The nephew was moving closer, and even Grace had to admit that his eyes were an irritatingly pleasant shade of blue. The muscles of her stomach twisted more tightly as she fought to keep her shoulders from drawing up defensively. ?Y?must be Joshua,? she said when he?d joined them, and her voice carried with it a distinct English accent that had gone buttery of the edges, blunted by time. ?Your uncle?s told me loads about you.?

?Sounds tragic.? His tone didn?t imply that it was tragic. There was his smile, rough and like it still needed to know when and where to quit. Yet, there was still something vulnerable and promising in it. He stepped up to her and said, without leaning in and speaking in a careful whisper, ?You want to roll some bones tonight?? He was only talking about weed, but Silas was strict about there being none. They sold drugs, but it was only hard drugs and only for money. Their gypsy line acted more like a fence for gangs than anything else.

There was a tip of his head towards his RV, ?Me, Sonny and Dave were gonna roll tonight. We could get the party started early unless you wanna keep hanging out here.?

For a moment, she was taken aback, her body tensing instinctively. When he said ?roll some bones?, well, the first thing that came to mind wasn?t drugs. Grace knew she wasn?t exactly pristine goods, but that seemed awfully forward, even so! She stared at him, uncomprehending, until he elaborated. Putting together what he must have meant, the tiny girl breathed an inward sigh of relief. Oh! Oh.

This gave her a whole new dilemma. She stared down at the glass in one hand, lifting the other to smooth soft baby pink waves away from her face, curling a tendril behind the shell of one ear. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, torn, and resisted the urge to check and see whether Silas and the others were watching them. The truth was that Josh was right, everybody was watching them, to some degree or another. It made her feel scrutinized, unprotected, vulnerable. Weighing that uncomfortable feeling against its counterpoint -- being close to this man, being seen to leave with him, potentially getting high with him, Grace squared her shoulders and made a decision.

?Alright, cool. But here, tell you what. Put your arm around my shoulders as we walk away. People will jump to conclusions, but then they?ll quit looking.?

?It?s not a bad conclusion,? his half smirk developed seconds before the motion to wrap his arm around her shoulders occurred. Oak. He smelled like oak, somehow. Not a living tree but like a polished up piece of furniture. The scent wasn?t entirely musky or earthy, but it rested somewhere in between. He was young to be wearing a fedora and it would have looked pretentious on him except that it had the sort of years on it that made the hat look legit. Beyond that? No one else was giving him shit or calling him names so somewhere along the line that shit had been earned.

?So how did Silas get your ass into camp?? His uncle had a way with people, a way with getting what he wanted. Sometimes he just leaned back and watched the strings pull. Sometimes he took notes while he did it.

?S?that so?? Sometimes her words were cramped, blurring together where she skipped syllables. The smile on her face was deliberately nonchalant even as her little body was pressed into his side, underneath that arm; even as delicate looking little fingers tightened subtly on the plastic cup she still carried in one hand.

Up close, he smelled nice, nicer somehow than she?d strictly expected. Up close, she was hair products that smelled like cherries and the soft scent of honey. That golden scent seemed to linger and collect in the hollows of her collarbones, the soft dark spaces at the nape of her neck and the crook of her elbows. It was subtle, barely there, and it took the way they?d come together to even have a hope of noticing it.

Grace took a deep breath, eased one arm low around his hips. She swallowed, her heart squeezing awkwardly in her chest, but then it relaxed. She breathed some more. To reinforce her nerve, she took another sip of the drink. ?How much did he tell you ?bout me, hm?? She needed to know where to start.

?Enough that I know you weren?t his top pick. Silas is? a bit traditional. Not in his behavior, just his expectation. Oh, he?ll fuck a woman that was rode hard and put up wet but he?ll expect me to marry some virgin goody-goody.? That was always how the old generation treated the new and Joshua didn?t hold back on his tone. It said he thought it was all hypocritical and annoying.

?Besides, Rachel looks like she?s trying to get what she can get. I expect to see her around once she figures out what?s what.? He shrugged his shoulder indifferently. Joshua was used to sort-of ass kissing. He wasn?t powerful enough to warrant it, he just had a lineage that said it was the smart thing to do because he *might* get somewhere with his name.

?What about you? What did you hear??

Grace nodded, a soft laugh that was but an approximation of her usual giggle, and really carried no humor in it, spilling from her lips. Her gaze was temporarily downcast. His answer hadn?t surprised her in the least -- if anything, she was still a little shocked Silas had invited her along in the first place, much less spent so much time talking up his nephew.

?True enough,? she conceded with a dim smirk, lifting those vividly green eyes that were almost feverish in their brightness back up to his face with a tilt of her chin. The crass talk didn?t faze her much; she?d grown up around the boxing ring after all, and the lads could only manage to hold their tongues on her account for so long. ?It?s amazing how far past my sins my heritage sometimes carries me.?

He mentioned Rachel, and her smile took a knowing turn, one corner twisting just so. ?A word of warning, then. She?s eager but clueless, and positively scandalized to be stuck with me.? What the young girl with all the legs was selling hadn?t ever been opened yet, all her advertising to the contrary.

He asked what she?d heard and that was a fair question, but it brought the light back into her smile, the playfulness finding its way into her tone anew. ?Only the usual, I?m sure. You?re the heir but you need a woman to mind you. You?re smart but reckless. Determined, which sometimes means obnoxious.? Tipping her head further back, she sought to meet his gaze underneath that fedora, a single brow lifting curiously. ?You obnoxious, Josh??

It made Rachel all the more the package. Something pristine a man could call his own, claim his own, but Josh only sorta shrugged at the idea. There were plenty that would have wanted to wet their dicks in that, if only to say so, but as far as he was concerned she was ripe for the picking. Enough attention and maybe some flowers and those legs would spread wider than a sunset horizon.

?A woman to mind me?? His arm around her squeezed, he laughed like she offended him but not enough that he?d chastise her, ?Sure, maybe I need minding or a little taking care of.?

At the RV, it was Sonny that opened the door and gave a big grin to Josh, waving him and Grace on inside. There was, apparently, something he was excited about.

She asked if he was obnoxious. As they stepped in tandem inside the RV, he reflected, ?I dunno, are you are cunt??

?His words, not mine.? She clarified as he squeezed her, and as he squeezed her those little knuckles went white around her cup once more. She took a second to just breathe, going still against him though she didn?t pull away. A second more and she was moving again, falling into step beside him.

She found herself all too aware of the way the weight of his arm felt wrapped around her shoulders. The way the rounded angle of his pelvis where the hip made its outward jut felt as it rubbed her soft flank, tugging at the fabric of her shirt. Grace breathed, reminding herself that in this cage made of blood and muscle, no other beasts could find her.

Only the one who held her.

With a soft laugh, Grace stepped inside still glued to his hip. She made no immediate move to escape him despite the harsh edge in his tone. ?Oh, probably.?

?Then I guess the worst we have to fear is each other.? His head swiveled and he grinned at Sonny, who had beaten them from mixing drinks to getting to the RV. The man had a presence, but it was a predictable one. Large as an ox with preferences that never, ever change. The man hated oranges and it was only after realizing that that it was apparent just how many things were orange.

?Where?s Dave and everyone??

?In the back. Jimmie?s running interference on Silas with? I dunno what.? Sonny was the only man in the world to make alcoholic kale shots. Yet there they were, a whole line of them. Ezra and Dave groaned, crawling out from their bunks and making an overt show of disdain for Sonny?s drinks.

?Dude, that shit looks foul.?

Mac gave Grace a squeeze, leaning in to speak in her ear, ?Think you can handle it, pinky??

?There?s beer,? but he didn?t sound as if he would be willing to go get her something else if she didn?t like it. Beer or pre-chewed kale seemed to be her options. Once Ezra had climbed up, he reached in his front pocket, pulling out a set of keys that also had a beer bottle opener on it.

Josh nudged one box, which moved so readily that it had to be empty. The second had resistance and he leaned down, drawing one up. His face looked as if he was trying to decide whether or not he wanted to frown, so instead his lips made a hard line and he muttered, ?Not ice cold, but cool enough.? His right hand opened in the air, wiggling in that ?gimme? motion to Ezra. The bottle opener was tossed with a jingle of metal.

?Then,? he smiled at Grace, the cap folding in half with the winking sound of coated metal before he handed it to her, ?better get to calling her over so she doesn?t feel left out.? He didn?t sound like he was making a request, but she didn?t sound like she was withholding.

She would take beer over kale that tasted slobbered-on, even beer that was just ?cool enough?. ?They drink it room temperature back home,? commented Grace as she reached for the offered bottle, and the way her fingers brushed his in the exchange was incidental. Neither deliberately sought nor deliberately avoided. ?Ta,? she said, and it was something like ?thank you?.

Lifting it to her lips, she drank from its mouth, using her free hand to smooth pink strands. There was a voiceless nod when he said to call Rachel, but her brows drew together when she read the display on the phone she pulled from her pocket.

Swiping the message she'd seen there away, Grace took a deep breath. Quickly, she looked up Rachel?s number, texting the other girl to join them on the roof. ?What about the other two?? she asked, and as she did she'd moved instinctively back towards Josh. Whether it was the conclusion they were exhibiting, the vodka in her system or the unwelcome message on her cell, being near him, or nearer at least, somehow felt ideal.

His shrug was a hard vote of indifferent for the other two, ?Yeah, sure.? As far as he was concerned, with her and Rachel it wouldn?t be the old crew hanging out with the old crew, and Silas would be happy to see the ladies he picked being welcome and possibly well received by the others.

Had he noticed her fingertip brush? Either he was nonchalant and unaware, or he wasn?t going to give her any special attention for the small gesture. A loud whistle peeled off to the side, causing him to step back gingerly, peering down over the edge at Cole.

?Hey!? He shouted, one hand by his mouth the amplify the sound, ?Silas is ready for dinner to start. Wants to say Grace.?

Josh smiled, the edge of his thumb nudging the brim of his fedora up, ?Sure thing.? His head turned to Grace, ?Looks like the other two will have to catch us by the tables.?

Grace laughed, but she was glad for the reprieve. The alcohol was heavy on her stomach already, and she wasn?t altogether sure she was ready to put weed on top of it quite yet. She glanced over the edge of the roof at Cole, and the phrasing he?d used made her roll her eyes good-naturedly. ?Saying Grace? was an expression a girl named Grace could rapidly come to despise no matter how religious she was or wasn?t.

?So, am I not sending this text then?? She?d been about to tell Rachel her presence was requested roof side, but it sounded like they were going to have to get back down again instead? She?d been raised in a highly traditional Camp too, and saying the blessing at a gathering like this inevitably meant that everyone had to assemble.

?Just make sure they know to be there so they don?t get yelled at,? Mac shrugged his shoulders at her and then, as if following the original pattern, they all climbed down the ladder. He went just after her and once on the ground, Cole was there to blow him off with a look and walk away. That ****.

He started towards the tables and chairs, where banquet style food was laid out and Silas and the old guard were there, musing over beers as they stood. One even stroked his beer thoughtfully, a gesture which seemed so staged he had to bite the inside of his cheek not to say anything. Walking side-by side with Grace, he muttered, ?You see the other two girls??

Nodding, she amended what she?d written and hit ?send?, then shoved the phone in her pocket. She took one more sip of the beer and set it down, turning her back to the roof?s ledge so she could climb down the ladder when it was clear that even Josh was waiting for her to go first this time. Her descent wasn?t quite as smooth as the climb had been, the clear liquor sloshing awkwardly in her stomach, but she hopped down the rest of the way and brushed herself off.

Her phone went off in her pocket again. As she stood aside, waiting on the others, Grace pulled it out and checked the read out, her brows furrowing once more.

Shoving it hastily back into denim, she turned to walk beside him, glancing once over her shoulder to the makeshift parking lot. At his question, she drew her attention back, pressing one hand to her temple because her head was swimming. Scanning the crowd assembled by the stairs, she picked out the other two newcomers, pointing them out with a tip of her chin. ?There,? she said. ?Kate and? um. I want to say th?other one?s name is Jessica? I haven?t really spoken to her yet.?

?Yeah, they seem nice.? It was an empty statement and clearly chit-chat talk. Josh was already looking down at the screen of his phone, but once his uncle saw them there he gave a piercing whistle which shut down the conversations making white noise over the night.

?Now all of you know how grateful we are to God and Jesus for our blessings,? he raised up both of his hands, ?And the good women of our tribe have prepared a fantastic meal. I want us to eat in His name and to rejoice in our many blessings, some of which are the new additions to the family. We have,? and both his hands would pause in the air, as if holding an invisible football in their direction, ?Rachel, Grace, Kate and Jacklin. Let?s let them know how much we welcome them.?

The crowd that knew Silas muttered in unison, ?Amen.?

?And now,? his hand waved to the tables laden with food, ?Let?s eat and make our introductions to one another. Bless you.? His hands dropped, which seemed to be the unsaid way his speech ended. Josh looked bored, but he had put his phone away during the talk. At the end-salute of it he smiled down at Grace, ?I?m Josh.? He was being playful, his Uncle having just said he should introduce himself.

With a lift of her brows, Grace laughed. They seem nice. Right, like Josh had spent more than five seconds getting to know either one of them. He didn?t seem all that interested in getting to know her, even, and he was actually talking to her. ?I?m sure,? she said dryly, but fell silent a moment later when she saw the signal from Silas.

She was dutifully still throughout the little speech, despite the fact that her phone was buzzing in her pocket for most of it. Over and over again, the silenced indicator vibrated, making a soft rattle-click sound against the rhinestoned grommets that decorated the pockets of her jeans. It was low enough that it was possible no one else heard it; Grace seemed to be pretending that it wasn?t there. When Silas said her name, she lifted one hand in acknowledgment -- yes, I?m Grace --but otherwise didn?t react until they?d been dismissed.

Josh reintroduced himself, and Grace dutifully held out one hand like she was expecting a formal handshake. ?Grace. Apparently your uncle just said me.? Her phone went off again.

His hand closed around hers and his smile, well, it qualified as charming. He watched her for a second and then his eyes jumped down to where her phone was and then back to her face. He had heard the thrum of a phone set to vibrate. Since everyone else was here, who kept reaching out to her? He wasn?t going to go through the theater of asking her about it over and over. Instead, he just gave her phone a meaningful look and dropped his grip on her hand before he spoke, ?So, where does Silas have you all holed up, anyway??

It was likely that the drinking and weed would come later on in the evening, where it wouldn?t be noticed that they had slipped away.

Near the very front of the buffet-style food line was Sonny, loading up his plate while he talked at a brunette who kept her back to him, pointedly, the whole time.

It was a charming smile, more charming than she expected it to be. Grace found herself smiling back at him despite the mounting anxiety the continually buzzing phone was causing her. She saw the meaningful look and knew that he?d heard it, that he could hear it still. Her smile turned apologetic, a sigh lifting her chest.

He deliberately didn?t ask, but that didn?t mean he didn?t expect an answer. Grace had spent enough time reading faces to know that much. Looking down, she pulled her phone out of her pocket again, tipping her head towards a cluster of trailers on the ?girls? side of the Camp. ?Over there. With Rachel. Some older woman named Debbie lives like five feet away.? As she spoke, she typed in the code to unlock her phone and accessed the messaging program. She?d accumulated thirteen messages so far from the same source, labelled ?****? in her phone. It was offered out for him for the taking, to read if he liked. The messages were becoming increasingly graphic in the detailed explanations of what their sender would do when he found her.

?My ex,? was her explanation. ?Lawyer let me know he got out of jail a couple days ago. It doesn?t matter how many times I change my number, he always figures it out again.?

?Guy like that only speaks one language,? Josh gave a small shrug of his shoulders, ?and lucky for you, I speak it just fluently.? His smirk appeared shortly after he spoke. Using the tip of his hat to point, he indicated towards the tables that had a line at it now, ?We?ll miss dinner if we stand here talking all day.?

Ezra was busy saying something to Michael. They discussed a new show on tv, or something. The conversation was quick, excited, punctuated with laughter. At this point Sonny and the brunette, presumably Jenny, had sat down and were eat/discussing beside one another. It was hard to miss an ox like Sonny, and even if he hadn?t been big his smile was.

Josh started them off towards the tables. He gave one look to her phone and then back to her eyes, ?Yeah??

In the course of holding it out for him to examine, it went off twice more between her fingers. Grace?s lip curled -- it wasn?t quite a snarl but it was getting there. The bravado in the curve of her mouth was offset by the widening of large green eyes, the gold stars in them caught and flickering, reflecting both the firelight and her fear. It was a visceral reaction, the same gut instinct that had moved her into and underneath his arm earlier.

Grace nodded, her throat feeling thick as she moved to follow him towards the tables, towards Sonny and the girl who had been of so much discussion among the men earlier. Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. ?Apparently. If he could do anything so well as he can track down my phone number, he might actually be dangerous.? To somebody other than Grace, anyway. She swallowed roughly, looking away.

The phone went off yet again as they walked, and a low sound of frustration escaped. Frowning, she turned the phone around again and shut it off altogether. ?Guess I need to change it again tomorrow.?

?Just give it to me,? Josh said to her over his shoulder, ?One good day or three and you?ll find it silent.? His left eyebrow hiked up, a gesture meant to ask her if she was as serious about getting rid of her problem as she put on. It didn?t sound or have the feel that he was offering to kill anyone, just deal with a problem that was interrupting his time with her.

?No one is gonna want a problem lurking around camp, you know? Especially if that problem is so keen to be heard?? his eyes went ahead and he plucked up a paper plate, loading it with what was either turkey or chicken and a sort of gravy sauce, ?Takes that guy one time of coming around here to be a problem.?

?Nice meeting you. We?re having a little get together,? to answer Grace?s question while looking at them, ?Grace will be there. So will Sonny and Jennifer.?

?S?Jenny now, boss.? Ezra said it, but calling him ?boss? seemed playful. He was grinning, and Josh turned to look at him, waiting for an explanation. Ezra?s back straightened, ?She says Jennifer is too proper, little too snotty. She wants everyone calling her Jenny, now.?

?For ****?s sake.? Josh rolled his eyes and then emphasized, ?Sonny and Jenny will be there.?

The exchange had Rachel and Kate laughing nervously, but they felt more at ease with Josh and his smile for them encouraged that. Ezra and Michael looked at them like they were possibilities, which both of the girls liked. It was fantastic to be in a new place and feel suddenly wanted and valuable. It was also like feeling new. Whatever had been, half of that was washed away as rumor and that left them pure as the moment they stood in.

Who didn?t want a fresh start?

Josh took another bite of his food.

Grace finished her dinner. A combination of returning sobriety and the fact that the constant rattle-buzz of her cellphone was somebody else?s problem for the time being had brought her appetite back, and the food that had been prepared was good. The tiny dancer girl was an excellent cook herself, but she rarely got cast in that role for the community, considering her position as resident barber.

A smirk lifted one corner of her mouth as she listened to Josh converse with the other girls. Rachel spent a minute trying to catch Grace?s eye, presumably hoping to have some non-verbal conversation about how things were going with Josh, or something to that effect. Grace pretty deliberately didn?t catch it, her attention swiveling back and forth between all the table?s occupants. She glanced back over her shoulder at the table where Silas and Cole were seated with some of the others, and she smiled broadly when she found the camp?s leader deep in conversation with someone else and Cole staring daggers at she and Josh. With a little shake of her head, she returned her focus to her immediate surroundings, and pretty deliberately slipped small fingers along the inside of Josh?s arm.

Grace imagined she could hear Cole scowl from here.

He felt the warmth of her hand before the impression of her fingertips. Something gentle about it, something that wanted to be claimed and was ready to curl into a nest. He figured that was the insecure new-girl part of her talking. She wanted to be in, to belong, and didn?t want to be some new girl sorting things out on her own. His arm wasn?t a bad one to be on, and Silas would ease up on him once he saw it.

Josh was pretty sure Silas saw it three seconds before it actually happened. The old man was a hawk with a hundred eyes around town, each one focused on the wrong thing.

It was all of that, but it also wasn?t. She?d done it more for Cole?s benefit than her own, and all that was needed for it to work was that he didn?t brush the contact away. The fact that he gently squeezed her arm in kind served as an added bonus.

?You done?? He tipped his head at Ezra and Michael, not outright acknowledging the sweet curl of Grace?s fingers against his arm.

?Huh,? They weren?t, not really, but Ezra said, ?Sure, heading up top??

?Yeah,? Josh stretched his neck to catch Sonny?s eye and give a head jerk to say that they were going. Finally, one of his arms unwrapped and touched Grace?s forearm, giving it a squeeze before he stood up, ?Let?s roll.?

Josh declared them done, and Grace was ready for that. Rachel and Kate had only just joined them and hadn?t had a chance to eat much of their food yet, so she leaned over in that direction and pointed out which camper they were headed to in case the girls wanted to stay behind. For her part she stood, smoothing out the wrinkles that had accumulated in her tank top from so much time more or less glued to the younger MacIntosh.

Climbing back over the bench, she checked the security of the barrette that was clipped into frosting pink waves, gathered her empty plate, the cup, and after a moment?s hesitation, she gathered Josh?s empty plate as well. Separating from him long enough to find the nearest trash receptacle, she threw them away and then moved to rejoin them.

Eventually Sonny and Jenny came lumbering up to them while she was doing that. The tower of a man stood next to Josh, sharing some quick joke that wasn?t funny enough to laugh but good enough that they all grinned and did a river-rumble chuckle that was just barely above the volume of their breathing. Josh hung back a minute so that Grace could join up with him before he continued.

His attention had been distracted, briefly, at the camp side inhabitants before she returned right to his side, ?Was wondering where you went. Thought you dumped me.?

It didn?t take her long to throw the used items away, but she imagined she felt the burning weight of Silas? gaze on her the whole way. Returning to her place at his side, Grace tipped her head back to look up at him, both brows arching as a smile lit up her features. ?I very seriously doubt that,? she laughed, knowingly. ?You don?t exactly miss much, do you? ...But it?s sweet of you to say.?

Most of the group had gone ahead, the two remaining girls were still at the table, seeming to inhale their food more than swallow it, focused as they were on not being left behind or having the invitation rescinded. A couple of backwards glances from the boys who strolled ahead, checking on their progress, seemed to reassure them.

Taking advantage of a moment more or less alone, Grace shrugged seemingly nonchalantly. ?That Cole wants your place, doesn?t he??

Both of his hands were shoved into the front pockets of his jeans as they walked. His smile was amused when she said it was ?sweet? of him. Josh wasn?t certain about the last time someone had called him sweet, but he also knew that the way she spoke was a figure of speech, more about the act than a person, more about paying a compliment.

She wasn?t the only one aware of his Uncle?s eyes though he never put his gaze on his to say as much. Usually he kept an eye on things but tonight he was especially hawk-like.

?Sort of,? taking his hat off for the first time since they met, one hand raked through his hair, digging at the circle-impression of the hat on his head. While he hadn?t looked at his uncle after the mention of him, he did shoot a look at Cole when he was brought up in discussion. The intention of his gaze wasn?t subtle since his gaze checked back over his shoulder and not to his side where Grace was or ahead where the boys squared off at the large, black RV and climbed up.

Cole and Josh?s rank wasn?t all that different, but that was the problem. Cole wasn?t trying to take something away from him as he was trying to get the ?promotion? or ?recognition? first. He hadn?t been bad about it. The guy was aggressive and persistent and he knew, at some point, they?d be squaring off a little less politely. It was all the sort of political talk and weaving that Grace didn?t need to worry about, so his commentary stayed brief without becoming curt.

They reached the RV and he smiled, calling up, ?Are we better fortified this time or do I need to go into the kitchen and grab some stuff??

She smiled dimly at the way he answered her question, her focus sliding away from him altogether for a moment. She knew better than to pursue her line of thought despite the conclusions she?d come to, so for a time she said nothing at all, walking beside him in silence.

As with every time she?d landed somewhere new, Grace studied the camp in its abstract; watching the people as they finished their dinner and milled about, forming off into groups of two or four or more depending on what they intended to do next. Sharp-eyed chaperones who strode with purpose as they marched between younger men and women who?d chosen to walk together. A small tribe of women passing among the tables, cleaning up the plates that had been abandoned and putting the food away. The older guard, the Camp?s leadership, gathered around a particular picnic table, some of them stuffing tobacco into pipes as they discussed the day?s events.

This was, for the foreseeable future, home. Would it be the right place for her, somewhere she could finally feel like she belonged?

Josh took his hat off, and Grace?s gaze was automatically drawn further upwards to his hair. Professional curiosity, mostly, with a touch of genuine interest mixed in. Looking beyond the creased indent made by the fedora, she noted almost absently that the hair itself wasn?t in terrible shape, a little choppy, a little in need of a trim, but fairly well cared for overall. She wondered who had been cutting it for him up to now.

Rachel and Kate appeared behind them just a minute or two after they reached the RV; the girls had all but sprinted to make sure they wouldn?t get left behind. Grace smiled at them in greeting as Josh asked his question of the boys above. ?You got water bottles or anything?? Her green eyes found his face again, ?soda maybe?? Grace wanted something non-alcoholic to help keep her out of puddles before she ventured onto the roof again.

?There?s one two liter up here but it looked awfully flat,? Ezra was leaned over the edge of the RV, one hand at the side of his mouth to direct his voice to them.

Josh looked over at Grace, weighing whether or not that would suit her. It seemed his gaze moved past her and to the other two before he hawked his response up to Ezra, ?I?ll get something in the kitchen. You have five minutes to hit me up with anything else before you?re SOL.? Josh touched the brim of his hat at his friend, who grinned down at them and then claimed one of the few lawn chairs that were available.

He didn?t seem to think that Grace would be his company. He made one small hand gesture to excuse himself from her before he moved to the door of the RV and climbed inside. For Josh it was a one man show. There wasn?t much expectation for it to be otherwise.

She tipped her head all the way back to look up at Ezra, one hand lifting to cup her brow so as to shade wide green eyes washed of most of their color by the moon from the glare of the security light not far behind her. A two liter that was mostly flat didn?t sound terribly promising, but she glanced aside at Josh -- meeting his gaze when he looked to her -- to see what he would say.

Evidently he either agreed or guessed that she was hoping for something else, and he?d decided he cared enough to do something about it. This brought a faint smile to her lips even as she acknowledged the universal gesture for wait here with a quick nod of her head. Grace would have doubled back to her own RV for bottled water if necessary, but it was nice that she apparently wouldn?t have to.

As Josh went inside, she moved towards the other two girls who were milling about, joining them in a low conversation about just what this ?after party? might entail.

?Hey, you coming up or what?? Michael was bent over, his hands on his knees, looking down at the ladies. Not far off, Sonny and Jenny were working their way towards the RV. She was smiling more than she had been before, looking up at him brightly. As they approached the camper, her eyes jumped from Sonny?s face to that of the several new girls.

The two of them stopped at their little gathering, where she stood a bit awkwardly until Sonny motioned, ?Jenny, this is Grace and Rachel and?? the name of the third new person was escaping him. He was trying to smile in an amiable way so she would know he was sorry for not knowing her name offhand.

?It?s Kate.? She didn?t like being the only girl whose name had slipped from memory, but she tried to smile like it didn?t matter.

The door to the RV opened, Josh had two fingers hooked at the neck of a fresh two liter. He grinned at seeing Sonny and Jenny already having re-joined them. He knew the faces of the other girls for what they were and smiled like he knew them. In a way, he did. Josh knew what fresh faces in camp were and what they meant. For a second his eyes cut over to the general direction Silas was in before it blinked back to present company.

To Michael?s question, Grace gestured the camper itself wordlessly. Josh had hung back at the picnic tables waiting for her, there was no chance in hell she wouldn?t extend him the same courtesy. She was encouraging the other two girls to head up the ladder and get better acquainted with the others, though, when a glance aside let her know that Sonny and a girl who must have been the oft-mentioned Jenny were coming up the path.

The big guy confirmed it with his introduction, and the little dancer shot a reassuring look over at Kate. It?s okay, she tried to say without saying anything, don?t read anything into it. ?Nice to meet you,? she said aloud to Jenny, and it wasn?t hard to infer from the look on the other woman?s face just how much history there had to be there with the ox she?d partnered herself to. It made her smile to see her look so happy.

Josh returned, and Grace?s attention cut towards him, taking in the new soda bottle he carried, the way his gaze swiftly roved out over the camp and back. She could guess who or what he was looking for, could see, too, the way he deliberately brought his focus back. When he did, she was there looking back at him.

?Is the party up here or down there?? Michael called back. Kate might have been eager to want to connect with someone, now that the situation had an awkwardness to it from the introduction and partial reassurances. She was the first to climb up the ladder, treating it as an opportunity to shed what had happened and have the situation get born anew.

Rachel wasn?t about to be outdone, though she paused by Josh, ?You don?t drink??

Her eyes were on the soda. He looked down at it and then back to her, a dry half smile forming, ?I do, but there?s more to drink than booze. Let?s get on then, it won?t be long until Silas swings by.?

Rachel seemed torn. At once she was looking up top at Ezra, Michael and the others and smiling, then she was looking between Josh and Grace and hesitating. Once Sonny and Jenny lumbered ahead, Rachel was behind them. Josh seemed fine bringing up the rear, though it was clear by his quiet and moving eyes that he was mulling something over. Since getting the soda he?d begun to calculate a situation. It was clear he hadn?t come to terms with it, yet.

A couple days later

?Wait a minute, slow down, what the ****,? Josh had to put one finger in his left ear and pushed the speaker of his phone in closer to his ear drum to get past the disruption of the wind as they drove along. It was him and Sonny, coming back from an arms trade with about three thousand crammed inside his jacket. Some of the bills felt wet, floppy and war torn by the time they finally reached his hand. The deal wasn?t the largest they had ever scored, but that didn?t mean a few low level punks with ideas wouldn?t look at them like an opportunity, so they didn?t hang around the place to find out. Sonny took the driver?s seat because he planned on stretching out to take a nap on the way home.

However, once Josh and Sonny had gotten into the car and were speeding along, his Uncle?s voice cracked over the speaker to him. ?Tommy is skimming and it?s on you that the numbers aren?t square. Break the boy?s nose and find the money.?

?Tommy wouldn?t skim, I?m not gonna crack his nose just cause you got some idea in your head.?

?Are you talking back to me?? The pause between them was long. Sonny acted like he couldn?t hear the phone conversation, his eyes stabbing the road.

?No. I?ll talk to Tommy.?

?Yeah, well, you been handling him too soft as is and the kid thinks he can get away with things. If you let him make you a fool you?ll be eating the shit of everyone. Remember that. Now do like I tell you and sort it out.?

?Heard you the first time.?

?Joshua??

?Yeah??

?You talk back like that again and you?ll be the one with a broken nose.?

The line went dead. He frowned and jammed the phone into the front pocket of his pants. Sonny cleared his throat and after several minutes, offered an olive branch to alleviate the tension that had kept the car so quiet, "There?s supposed to be a get together tonight. One of the girls, I think Kate, has a birthday and Michael is trying to get somewhere with that one. So there?s a little thing going on.?

He didn?t feel like talking about partying, not with Tommy and his Uncle and all that crap on his mind. His weight shifted and he dug around the car for a pack of cigarettes before lighting up. Josh found he had to focus to avoid being a dick about it all, ?Yeah, sounds fun.?

?Tommy might be there.?

?Yeah,? he scratched his forehead, his right elbow a pinpoint on the armrest of the car as they drove. His thoughts were still trying to make sense, they were still trying to finish sorting themselves out. He didn?t want to beat Tommy?s ass on a whim. What if the kid wasn?t the one doing all this ****? The cigarette was put to his lips, the lighter put it to life and he drew on it, hard, before speaking, ?What time is it??

?I think in a few hours. Enough time to get home and get cleaned up. Maybe even have a little fun.? It was hard not to smile when someone as large as Sonny was smiling. He just had a way of making the serious **** feel a little less serious, like maybe he should have been smiling and he was just thinking of the situation all in the wrong way.

***

?So what are you going to wear tonight?? Kate was asking as Grace let herself into the trailer she usually shared with Rachel.

?...Tonight?? replied Grace, mystified, throwing a quick glance around for her actual roommate. ?What?s tonight?? She shucked her shoes off at the door and made her way over to the bunk beds, but she stopped just shy of climbing the ladder. Glancing around the RV again, she arched her brows. ?Where?s Rach??

Kate, who was kneeling on the bottom bunk with one dress in one hand and a different one in the other, rolled her eyes. ?My birthday?? Her tone was impatient.

?Oh, right, sorry,? Grace said with a smile that was apologetic. ?Happy Birthday??

?Thanks. I?m getting ready here so you can do my hair. Rachel went to my RV to get my silver shoes for me.?

Her brows rose for the ceiling, wondering inwardly when exactly she?d been volunteered to work overtime for free. She held her tongue, her green eyes flaring with faux curiosity the way they did whenever a hair client dropped one of those leading sentences that was about to treat her to a long, complicated story she couldn?t really follow and didn?t actually care about, but had to act interested in anyway. ?I see. So... what?s the plan??

It was her first day at work at a salon in town. They hadn?t wanted to hire her at first, given how frequently she changed locations, but one look at her portfolio had put an end to that hesitation. She?d been on her feet for eight hours already today and wanted nothing so much in that moment as to sit down, but the way Kate was frowning at the two dresses she was examining told her that would be a bad move. Pulling her purse off her shoulder, Grace stepped forward just enough to lift the bag onto the higher mattress and then withdrew again. She shifted her weight to the foot that hurt the least and lifted the other off the ground, tucking it behind the opposite ankle. She looked a little like a flamingo. Or a dancer.

***

Almost an hour and a half later, the girls were ready to go. Kate had run through every dress she owned, every dress Rachel owned, and two of Grace?s besides, not that either of them fit her. Grace had done her hair for her, pinning the top half up in a series of pretty twists despite the fact that her fingers hurt already. She?d even helped the other girl with her makeup. It hadn?t left the little stylist much time to make herself presentable, and maybe that had been part of the point.

Even so, the tiny dancer wasn?t looking entirely like a bag lady. She?d said a small prayer for the two dresses Kate had tried to wiggle into and then set them aside, slipping into a pretty mint green sundress that really magnified the color of her eyes and also didn?t clash with hair that was no longer cotton candy pink but a deep royal purple. She?d left it down but for a single silver hair barrette that held the right side up away from her face. Delicate dangly earrings made of thin silver wire, a little bit of a touch up to her eyeliner and mascara, a hint of gloss on full lips and she?d called it good enough. It was all she?d had time for between Kate?s demands, in any event.

Some of the other girls from camp joined them--Rachel returned with the shoes, of course, Jacklin in tow--but even Jenny and some of the other girls had walked over in the interim and were hanging out either in the RV or on its front stoop, giggling, speculating about boys, catching up and the like. When Kate finally declared herself ready, Grace breathed a sigh of relief and ushered everyone outside, shutting off the lights as she went. She locked the door behind her, a somewhat unusual habit she?d picked up while she?d been living outside the gypsy way.

?So how are we doing this?? She asked Kate once they were all assembled. ?Waiting on the fellas or??

?The fellas should always be waiting on us,? She laughed, but it wasn?t entirely confident. It came off as her deflecting Grace?s question like she knew what she was doing and was terribly important while also having no real answer to give her. Kate was certain that the guys would be waiting on them because that?s what they were supposed to do. The women were supposed to be late so that when they rolled into a room, it commanded the attention of all the boys present. That didn?t exactly happen if the women sat around, looking bored, while random men and women trickled in.

Kate wanted to hit the camp like an awe-inspiring wave. She was in a new place and was certain, more than anything, that it would bow to her if she just let it know what was up.

Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes, Grace mirrored the false laugh. ?Right, of course, what was I thinking?? She put a little bit of distance between herself and Kate, letting some of the other girls filter in between them, and they moved towards the picnic tables as a loosely clustered group.

Grace kind of hated that. She?d grown up mostly with the boys, excluded from the large girl groups like this one because she was a little bit younger and had no one to vouch for her, because her father was a drunk who didn?t do much to contribute to the family, because she spent most of her time around Mason and his friends. She?d been told time and again that she?d hated the way they gaggled together like geese because she felt excluded, because she?d wanted nothing more than to be part of the flock. But here she was, at the center of the squad and still fighting the urge to curl her lip in disgust. It was like being at the salon turned up well past eleven. They were loud and bubbly, and the honking laughter that erupted here and there only made her impression of geese stronger.

Kate had timed herself well enough. At the picnic tables were strung lights and drinks and food laid out. It smelled like pizza and barbecue, and it felt as if everyone knew they would be waiting. Someone was playing a series of videos on a laptop screen as others gathered around to watch. Silas, with his tight, combed beard, looked like a young Santa Claus grinning and nodding, being acknowledged by all behind a smile that seemed a little too tight.

Hovering at a picnic table, looking at the laptop screen, was Josh and several other members of Silas? crew. Sonny was always the unmistakable ox not far from his side. The one at the laptop was Ezra, showing them the latest craze in videos being uploaded to YouTube. Even though it was dark enough not to warrant a hat, Josh still wore that old plaid fedora, except the brim was pushed up so high it was at his hairline. There was also Jimmie and Cole, everyone peering in to see the next bit of video that Ezra had found. When the short clip ended there was an audible ?ohhhhh? that followed them sucking on air and cringing. The video, along with the arrival of Kate and the flock of women, heralded the end of the video clip camp out. Jimmie and Cole splintered away and Michael grinned up at seeing Kate. It was a shame Kate was too busy grinning at Josh, whose attention had just been caught by Sonny. The large man had clapped him on the shoulder and was saying something into his ear which had his head turned in that direction.

Lagging behind the others, then, Grace arrived at the decorated picnic tables last. Ezra was just getting up from the laptop, Michael was looking up at Kate, who was looking at...Josh. Her gaze moved over him and Sonny, thoughtful, and then slipped away to track where Cole was in relation.

She found him grinning about something with Silas, smacking the elder on the shoulder with the back of his hand to punctuate a story. What a junkyard bulldog. He looked like he wanted to gnaw on bones, but was doing something nice because it happened to be in the way.

Josh had his head tipped back, his eyebrows dropped in a stern expression as Sonny spoke. At some point he caught a look at Grace and smiled, motioning her over with his left hand as Sonny continued to speak into his ear. At one point he cut a smile, something that was like gold rubbed in dirt.

?Oh! That?s my cake!? Kate reached down to squeeze Grace?s hand, tugging them in a storm towards a picnic table where other members congregated with the set up. Rachel was there, and she wasn?t playing around that night. Her halter top attire left a lace midsection that revealed her flat no-babies stomach.

Tucking a few loose strands of purple behind one ear, she?d caught the gesture from Josh and even started in that direction when Kate snagged her wrist and then her hand with a squeeze, pulling her back the other way. Adrenaline surged through her veins, making her tense up suddenly and twist her hand away, drawing in a sharp breath of surprise. ?Sorry,? she panted, hugging herself tightly to make the sudden rush of panic subside. ?Y-you startled me.? Giving her best apologetic smile, she let the other girl tug her forward a couple of steps.

Admiring the cake appropriately, Grace was still breathing unevenly when Jacklin stepped in to get a look as well. Using that interruption as her cover, the tiny dancer extricated herself from the throng of them, resuming her initial course to Josh and Sonny.

The boys were headed over. Josh had seen that his invite was sidelined by something else-- Kate and whatever it was she was doing. He rolled his eyes and then smiled at Sonny as they moved. Jenny was already at the table, so the ox wanted to be there promptly before another Michael incident happened.

It was en route, bridging the distance from where they had been to where Kate was, that Grace interrupted his path with her presence. His cocky smile reappeared, chin lifting up as he delivered a crisp, ?Hey.? It sounded far more offhand than it was.

?Hey,? she quipped back at him in that same crisp, offhand tone. ?Hi, Sonny,? she greeted the other with a friendly smile. Joining him meant backtracking almost immediately, following virtually the same path that had led her to him in the first place, but at least it couldn?t be said that she?d ignored the signal. Rejoining the others from the opposite side now, Grace lingered near his side, watching the assembled people milling about as the party got started in earnest.

Kate was looking their direction, her gaze lingering on the both of them for a moment before she pulled it away, redoubling her efforts at animated conversation with somebody else. Jacklin had positioned herself near Ezra, asking him about the videos they had been watching when the girls first walked up. Silas was still holding court, a little ways removed from the younger crowd but keeping a watchful eye on the events. His gaze, too, fell on Josh and Grace together, lingering there until Grace caught his eye. She smiled and so did he, and then he looked away, pulled back into some other joke Cole was telling.

Grace took the shot, but she didn?t drink all of it at once. She drank about half, leaving the other half in the plastic cup which she set down on a picnic table.

Josh, along with all the others, finished off his drink in a blink. Down along the table, from the glow of a computer screen was an exclamation. ?Oh my gooodddddd,? Ezra put a fist to his mouth and then used his free hand to flag the rest of them inward, ?Have you seen this? Two girls, one cup.?

Josh stared on at him as the others stepped forward, intrigued by his sudden pallor and wide eyes. Kate straightened up her paper tiara and then smiled at Josh, ?So, how many spankings do I get on my birthday??

His response was good, on point like he?d practiced it, ?As many as you want.?

Kate beamed at him, and then Rachel took her hand. ?Come on, let?s see the video.? Rachel?s eyes, however, were telling Grace to run. Run hard and far away as she could, ?cause this was all about to be a hot mess. Josh watched them go and reached up, taking off his hat and setting it on the picnic table with a short, snap toss of his wrist. Once the cheap shot glass was set aside, he combed his hands through his hair, making the ring impression of the hat disappear as he looked at her.

?You don?t look shy.? He was talking about the fact that Grace was always hanging back for some reason.

Grace blanched visibly and took a reflexive step back. Could be she?d seen that particular video already, or enough of it at least that she knew without doubt she didn?t want to relive the experience. She watched the exchange between Josh and Kate, Kate and Rachel, Rachel?s eyes on her. She could plainly read the warning that was being broadcast, but at the same time she was stuck.

Twisting the cap off her water bottle a second time, she was finishing the last of it when Josh took his hat off and resumed talking to her. Swallowing, a thin shrug moved over little shoulders. ?I?m not,? her reply came back to him. ?But all that,? she gestured the assembled crowd of girls, ?--wears me out, I don?t drink much to begin with, and I?ve been on my feet all day already.? Making a point to glance after Kate, her wide green eyes lifted to his face. ?She?s set her sights on you. Are you interested??

?She?s okay.? his shoulders didn?t move, but he somehow shrugged about the idea of it, anyway. Josh?s head tilted as if he considered it a bit more, then he actually shrugged, his eyes following Kate for a moment before he looked back at her, ?Depends on what my chances here are looking like.? He didn?t sound like he was used to hearing no, even if he wasn?t some sorta Brad Pitt or whatever. Josh has something about him. Maybe it was that he was a little bit cocky. Maybe it was that he was Silas? nephew. Could even be that he was just that damn good at bluffing that he made her believe he wasn?t used to hearing no.

?Just want to have a good time in between jobs, you know?? There was a pause. He didn?t look at her, but in the direction of the horrified, silent audience that watched Ezra?s video, ?What about you??

Grace smiled at that, either because she recognized the bravado in the words or because they were more in line with what she wanted to hear. Fidgeting with the bottle, she rolled it between her fingers, listening to the crackly crinkling sound it made. ?That?s kinda what I thought you?d say,? she answered him, her gaze lifting from the bottle in her hands to his face. ?I ...kinda thought we had an understanding already, but it seems like nobody else noticed.? She gestured towards the assembled partygoers, all staring riveted, some of them open mouthed, at the laptop screen.

The crowd made gasping cries as the finale of the video struck them. Kate rolled her eyes and covered her mouth, dramatically staggering away so that Rachel could retrieve her.

?So on one side I got Rachel telling me to leave you alone or else, and on the other side I got your uncle telling me to keep an eye on you, and I?m stuck here in the middle wondering how come nobody?s actually stopped to ask what you want.? She paused. ?So...what do you want, Josh??

He didn?t say anything, he just tilted his head and kissed her like it was something she?d been waiting for him to do all night long. His lips, his kiss, it was all just like him. It was like an old photograph developing. It was like cheap vodka and it was like skin and the way hair smells when it sweats underneath a hat. He took advantage of the pause, of the moment, and his mouth stayed with hers enough that all she had to do was lean in further and slide her tongue in to meet up with his own.

His mouth closed over hers and for a split second, Grace couldn?t even breathe. She froze in place, her heart jumping straight up into her throat again, her senses suddenly overwhelmed by his presence. The smell of him, all cheap liquor and cigarettes, soap and sweat and something distinctly male. The taste of him, his lips on hers, his tongue waiting only on the right response from her. The way he felt, the potential energy singing in every line of corded muscle as he bent to be on her level.

In a moment like that, she knew suddenly why no one ever told him no. She could no sooner do it than tell herself not to breathe. The tiny dancer went up on her toes, the better to meet him, responding to the kiss at last after several breathless seconds.

The back of her head was suddenly supported by his palm, her mouth knew his tongue and could feel him pursuing her, but there was always the sense that this was a public display, be it for his Uncle or for Kate. That he was settling accounts with all invested parties and said ?this, and now **** off,? when he kissed her. Once his mouth broke away he smiled, turning his head to look towards the others that had gathered.

What had happened wasn?t dramatic, but it was enough that the knowledge spread like a fire. Rachel looked as if Grace had given her a death sentence. In a way, she had. She?d have to spend the whole damn night fluffing Kate?s ego so that she wouldn?t get drunk and dramatic, ?cause that?s usually what happened with situations like that.

?All taken care of,? he assured Grace with the sort of half smile that had the impact of a grin. A new round of shots appeared shoulder-level on a tray via Jenny. She looked like she was trying to be busy and social and like Sonny could go **** himself because he was a dummy that had a lesson to learn.

Swept up in that kiss for several long seconds, Grace curled one hand into his hip, the other placed somewhere on his chest for the duration. This was the culmination of what they?d started before, the shotgun smoke almost kiss from the other night. It was bold and it was very public, and Grace half thrilled and half cringed to know that everyone was watching. At least things would be settled now.

When the kiss broke, she shook her head at him, but a smile lingered on full lips. ?So this is it, then?? He?d said it was all taken care of, and she knew what he?d meant, but she asked anyway, in a low voice, to confirm. ?We?re doing this now??

?Yeah, that a problem?? His eyebrow yanked upward as he looked at her. It felt like the last time she could tell him no, like they were walking a fine line and that there were events, more than the ones present, which had been set into motion. It was likely he?d known his Uncle gave him the nod to pick her. Maybe that?s why he?d just kissed her like that, or maybe he figured that the claim had already been made and now he was just seeing to it that the world knew that.

Whatever the reason, it didn?t feel like there was room to say no anymore. Her hand had his hip and he was taking that to mean that there were other moments that needed to be figured out. She was the type of girl that needed to get bent over a bed because the longer he let her talk about feelings the more she?d just talk herself out of everything. Sometimes women just didn?t need the room to think or talk or everything was wish-washed and suspect.

She had three seconds. Was it a problem?

Grace shook her head, though, more humor coloring those vivid green eyes. ?Not at all, just don?t want to be one of those girls who mistakes assumptions for reality.? It took a lot of effort not to look over at Kate just then, but Josh would likely know who she was referring to. It felt like the moment to say ?no? was long past already, somewhere between telling him to put his arm around her shoulder so people would at least have something to stare at and giving him her phone to deal with her actual ?problem?, she?d given him a ?yes? that was only just getting to be made official.

Her hands fell away from him, sliding off his hip and down his chest, but she didn?t move even an inch out of his vicinity. Marveling to herself how quickly it had all transpired, she wondered a little how much this moment would change the course of her life going forward. From ?that really short new girl? to ?Josh?s girl? in under sixty seconds, or so it seemed. It felt like a moment that needed celebrating, so she reached for one of the shots Jenny had on offer, saluted him with it and then drank it down.

***

There was drinking and laughing and partying. There were mistakes and there was conversation that rolled on through the evening. At times, they kissed each other, maybe because it was new or maybe just to establish the ?order? of things during various stages of sobriety. Sometimes he broke away from her to talk and laugh with the guys and it was at those points that Rachel would give her a look like she?d made life annoying because Kate was annoying.

It was a little alarming, how easy the transition came. That single public kiss had altered everything in the blink of an eye: now, whenever Grace was near, a spot beside Josh seemed to open up automatically. People were looking at her differently, more than once she caught some of the older crew, Silas? men, looking at her, and when she looked their way she got nods of approval, or not so subtle gestures to rejoin him if she?d wandered too far away. Josh might not have been their leader, but even so there was a clear if unspoken deference for him, and some of that got extended to her by association.

The drama would have all been focused on Grace if it wasn?t, perhaps, for the fact that Kate needed this to be her night and to have it all be about her. With Jenny on edge and serving drinks, she had found her little outlet for drama. In one of their temporary break ups, Sonny was available and Kate pulled no punches when it came to flirting with him, kissing him and making Jenny completely infuriated.

After a showy little make out session, Josh found a place beside Grace and whispered, ?I don?t plan to stick around to clean up a murder. I?ve got some vodka, water and some of the other stuff back at my place.? Maybe she could feel the weight of what he felt, which was Silas applying the pressure of his gaze to them. It was a party, he was supposed to cut loose and get lucky, right?

The night wore on. People kept handing Grace shots, and though she only drank half of them and she?d backed each half shot up with water, she was feeling at least a little wobbly by the time Josh found her to speak of leaving. ?Hm? Oh, yeah. I?m all for being done with this,? she nodded, grateful for an excuse to bail even though the implications of that excuse sank like lead weights in her belly. Jenny didn?t seem to be the type who tolerated being trifled with, and Kate was provoking her deliberately. Grace fully anticipated that a fist fight would break out any moment, and she had no desire to be anywhere near it when it did.

Looking up at him, there was a thrill of heat in her cheeks as she nodded, collecting her latest water bottle. ?Relocation sounds like an excellent plan.?

?Yeah.? Kate was in the midst of making out with Sonny as he said it. Something was about to burst very, very quickly. His arm caught Grace around the lower back, steering her away just as the high, indignant scream of ?WHAT THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU?RE DOING!?? broke the air. Josh smirked even if he shouldn?t have, and made the path back to his RV a quick one.

The girl in his arm flinched very visibly when Jenny?s shout rent the air. She shrank noticeably into him, up against his side, as though she could actively hide herself in his frame. Squeezing her eyes closed for a split second, Grace willed herself to get it together, and she was glad for the way Josh picked up their pace, leading them further away from the altercation with all haste.

Once they were at the door, he took a moment to check on his crew. Maybe even get another nod, another order to get her legs spread and have a good time. It was a party. This was the sort of thing that was supposed to happen.

It felt safer, or less imminently dangerous, as they stood just outside his RV. The moment?s hesitation while he checked in on his boys --and anybody else who might have been watching-- was enough to let her catch her breath, and to let her nerves build quietly over something else altogether. It was a party. Commitments had been made. Encouraging nods and nudges had been given. It all added up to something made that much more clear by the fact that no one else had been invited back with them.

?Watch your step. The last one isn?t as tall as the others.? his hand glided down to her ass as she scaled the steps up into the place he shared. Some eyes weighed on him more heavily than others. He was trying not to think about it.

Don?t freak out, she told herself as she climbed the stairs, her pulse skyrocketing as his hand slid down her back. It was as much out of anticipation as it was anxiety. She caught her lower lip in her teeth and pushed the door open.

?Hey,? the voice rang out at them, just as he was about to shut the door behind him. It was Ezra, waving something at him with one hand. He grinned and reached, snagging his hat away from the man, ?Thanks.? He didn?t put it back on, just dumped it off in the driver?s seat before shutting the door and finishing his climb up the steps.

You got this. It?s fine. He swallowed and then he caught up to Grace, his hands at her hips, turning her around so that she?d face him. When their lips met again, it was the sort of insistent kiss she would have known once she felt it on her mouth. Inside his place, and in that private moment, he was going to slip her right out of her clothes and put that girlfriend tally mark in the leather of his belt. She was cute and all, but she was also already there. In his place, not one piece of his intention for her veiled.

For half a second, it looked there might be a reprieve in the form of that signalling voice. Grace had made it the rest of the way up the stairs by the time he had his hat in hand, closing the door behind them in a way that was both firm and irrefutable. The last chance to say no had been a while ago.

His kiss confirmed it, an urgency in the way his mouth moved over hers, catching her up in it. You?re his girlfriend now. What did you expect that to mean? Her stomach fluttered nervously, and maybe it was the alcohol in her system that saved her. Maybe it provided just enough distance, enough liquid courage to see her through. She didn?t back down or twist away. She wasn?t reticent or visibly uncomfortable. He kissed her and she kissed him back, her delicate fingers tangling in his shirt.

The Morning After

In the morning he rolled over, hearing his phone on the floor of the RV ringing out loud. Sonny grunted and rolled over in the neighboring bunk before Josh clicked answer and put it to his ear. Because of how small his sleeping space was, it was required that he have his arm around her, velcroing her to his side. Still no shirt, but he had his boxers and pants back on, along with a headache and the dry thirst for a cigarette.

?What is it?? His voice was rough.

The other man?s voice wasn?t clear at first, but as the seconds went by he knew it was Silas. His voice was deep, it was certain like he was reading from a book he knew too well. The latter end of his statement had something to do with Jenny. Josh?s eyes went to the slumbering Sonny?s direction for a moment. The ox was impossible to see with the curtain drawn, but he was audible enough that there was no doubt to his presence.

?Yeah? Yeah? huh. She?s here.?

Grace awoke with a start. Consciousness caught her unprepared, abruptly, and a sharp spike of panic-induced adrenaline hit her system like a Mac(k) truck. Disoriented, she had maybe thirty seconds to put it together, to place where she was, who?s ribs she was tucked into, and why. Her eyes, when they opened, went temporarily wide, her breath hitching in her chest as the pieces fell together into a picture she recognized. Oh my god.

The party. The alcohol. The kissing. The sex. The weed. More kissing. More sex. More weed. The boyfriend. The little dancer hadn?t meant to spend the night here, hadn?t intended to stay much beyond that second shift. She realized suddenly that she must have passed out at some point after the third round, or had it been in the middle of things? She blinked a few times, struggling to find focus and coherence, and the panic in her chest was that same panic that sits you bolt upright in bed from a dead sleep when you just know you?ve overslept your alarm and missed something important.

Josh looked down at Grace, cocking up his eyebrow as to tell her to be ready, to take the phone. He turned it around, offering it to her with a turn.

?Yeah? huh. She?s here.? Josh was saying, and there was only one person he could have been saying it to. Silas. ****.

Grace realized that she had about three seconds to get her act together and appear composed. It only reinforced the feeling that she?d been caught doing something wrong, found somewhere she wasn?t supposed to be, that she was in some kind of trouble. Clearing her throat, she swallowed thickly and accepted the phone, putting it to her ear.

Silas didn?t wait for her to say hi. ?Good morning, girl, I see you?re taking care of Joshua. Good. Good. There?s something else I have for you that you need to take care of today. Can you tell me what it is??

There wasn?t room for any kind of salutation, which was just as well. As the adrenaline response subsided, the hangover headache was making itself known at the corners of her eyes, and her mouth tasted something like death. Her nose wrinkled while she listened, trying to catch up with the man?s train of thought.

Something else she needed to take care of? The answer came to her immediately. ?Yes,? she said, her voice hoarse from pot smoke and certain other activities. ?Kate.?

?Good girl. Now, Jenny?s given the word on this and we?re not going to meddle in this business you ladies have. It?d be a shame if you ladies couldn?t handle it all on your own.? There was a pause for her. Josh rolled his head to the side, turning away from her as he took a measurement of what was going on in the RV.

?It?s 8:30 in the morning, are you s--?

Josh?s hand waved at the arm impatiently, shutting up Ezra before he interrupted or distracted Grace. There was an exhale and Ezra rolled over, yanking the curtain over his bed area and burying his head under his pillow. Josh?s head turned again, looking back at her, his attention focused on the not-private conversation she had with his Uncle.

Kate. Grace scowled, recalling more of the details of the night before, the brewing fight she and Josh had walked away from just before they?d ended up...here. She nodded mechanically, a hard knot forming in the pit of her stomach. ?Yeah. I meant to do something about that last night but I?? she looked up at Josh. ?...felt that other things took priority.? Swallowing, the little stylist tried hard not to make a face.

The way her body twitched, the reflex of a nervous rabbit, said she?d heard a voice she hadn?t anticipated, one of the other blokes apparently lived here too. There was Josh, there was the snoring that had to be Sonny, and then there was someone else? Was it Michael or Ezra or somebody altogether different? Not Cole, surely. She started to sit up and froze, realizing very suddenly that she was still completely naked. Her dress was still presumably on the floor, which...all of them would easily have seen when they came in.

Grace cleared her throat, her cheeks taking on a lick of flame as that realization settled home. ?I?ll take care of it.?

?Good, now put my boy back on the phone?

Josh?s hand twisted to grab the phone from her, putting the speaker back to his ear. He cleared his throat and said, ?Yeah.? The conversation didn?t have much more meat to it, though. His Uncle told him not to forget about Tommy, that those sort of problems needed to get addressed sooner than later, that the one who needed a lesson would end up being him if he didn?t address it. When he hung up, he dropped his phone back to the floor of the RV and stretched. Maybe he had felt her twitch at his side, maybe not, but he reached for the privacy curtain and pulled it up, creating a small, dark cave.

?I gotta go take care of some **** today. I have my ****, you have yours, right?? He kissed her temple like someone checked a box. Josh?s back arched up again as if unable to get the right bone to pop. He grumbled and then looked at her, ?Get the knot on my back, I can?t shake the ****.? The space between them was so tight that it spoke to how well he was used to maneuvering in it when he managed to untangle from her to lay on his stomach.

All too glad to relinquish the phone, Grace lay there for the duration of the conversation, breathing. She needed to get up, to get something to drink, to go to the bathroom, but she wouldn?t have taken a chance on interrupting or distracting him from his conversation with Silas for anything in the world, even if she?d had her dress at her disposal. Instead, she laid there quietly beside him, raking her fingers through deep purple tangles, waiting.

The call was terminated and Grace found herself nodding automatically. He had his **** and she had hers, each of them assigned tasks from on high that took precedence over everything. She found herself tilting her face into that temple-kiss, checking a box of her own. Superficial affection given on the morning after, check. Superficial affection received, check again.

He shifted next to her. Small as she was, she could have pressed herself into the RV?s wall, given him more of his space, but it seemed pointless, suddenly; the girl found herself wondering whether she?d ever untangle herself from Josh completely ever again.

Once the curtain was pulled closed and Josh was settled on his stomach, Grace sat up at last. She seemed tailor made for these compact spaces, born for the caravan life as much as she?d tried to deny it -- she sat up completely without any danger of hitting her head on the bottom of the bunk above them. She could even turn her body at a ninety degree angle to his, balancing herself on her right hand as she transferred her featherweight across the back of his pelvis. Sitting on her knees, she straddled his hips and settled there, her skin tingling with the nervous thrill of being so brazenly exposed when there was nothing but a thin curtain between them and all the camper?s other occupants. Her heart made an awkward flip in her chest, but Grace pressed on, her hands landing on his back.

They were strong hands, surprisingly so considering how delicately her frame had been constructed. Translating the skill of her trade into this slightly different exercise, she trailed her fingertips lightly over the muscles of his back, feeling the jerky ridges of vertebrae, the smooth ripple of ribs, until she found the offending muscle. Gently at first and then gradually increasing the pressure, she worked her knuckles in a slowly spreading circle. ?You should let me cut your hair,? she said in a low voice, ?later.?

?Sure, if you want. Higher, like? right almost under my shoulder bl-- there.? There was a near growl in his chest when her fingers started to work over the right place. Now that there had been morning conversations, Ezra couldn?t sleep. Sonny must have been reading or something, because there wasn?t any snoring anymore. The metal sound of a curtain drawing back raked the air and then the plunk of Ezra?s weight followed. He didn?t say anything to them, but the sound of his steps and then the motion of the cabinets said he was going about fixing breakfast.

?Josh??

?What is it, Sonny??

The conversation went through the curtain as she straddled his back, her hips rocking forward with the weight of her when she really put herself into what she was doing. He thought, for a second, that she might have been able to rearrange someone?s bones that way.

?You want me to invite Tommy along for the job this afternoon??

?Yeah, soun--mm-sounds good to me. Shoot him a text that he?s on it w-- mm- with us.?

Grace had lived in RVs most of her life, frequently with other people, and she?d also had a relationship with a man. She?d never done both at the same time before, though, and so it was somewhat disconcerting to be here with him like this, not a stitch of cloth to conceal her body as she worked the stubborn knot out for him, Josh making obvious sounds of pleasure while she worked, and Sonny just at the other side of the curtain, carrying on a perfectly normal conversation with him at the same time. Should she acknowledge him? Say good morning? Pretend she wasn?t here even though both of them clearly knew she was? She found herself glancing up at that curtain from time to time, double checking that it was still closed, acutely aware that it could be raked back at any time for any reason. It felt so completely immodest and wanton that her heart was pounding in her chest.

She tried to concentrate on the task at hand, to drag her mind away from the speculations that were only making it worse, like whether Sonny was standing on her dress, whether he?d know it if he was. What happened if Josh rolled over underneath her, wanted another go? Leaning most of her weight onto one little fist directly over the angry muscle, she lifted her other hand to his shoulder, tracing it lightly down to the forearm. ?Give me this hand,? she said quietly, catching the fingers in an attempt to pull it gently behind his back.

As the conversation went on, it was clear that Sonny knew or was a complete idiot. The lack of surprise probably meant that this was not an unusual practice. Grace already had the inkling that Josh didn?t hear no a whole lot, an idea that was becoming more solid as those around him likewise seemed to expect that when he wanted something, he got it. In this case there was a quiet understanding that it was more than what Josh wanted, it was also what Silas said. If he had disagreed or thought differently, it didn?t show.

His arm adjusted, ribs turned when he had to twist it in the other direction so she could turn his arm and better ease the muscle. At one point he seemed to hold his breath, like she had found something deep and painful.

?Kay, I sent him the message. Ezra, quit eating that crap.? It seemed that even with the curtain drawn, they could feel the giant?s presence recede to the front of the RV, where Ezra was eating his Lucky Charms. They had a back and forth, one that Josh had heard about twenty times where Sonny explained to him that he needed protein and supplements and that if he would just go to the gym with him a few times he would see the difference. After a few minutes the conversation was interrupted by a call from Jenny, which he took after stepping outside.

?You cook any?? His question went into the pillow since his head was still planted downward.

She wrapped her hand around the one he?d moved at her request, palm to palm, at the center of his lower back. Her fingers didn?t lace with his but folded around the hand itself as far as she could reach, the better to hold it in place. With the sharp triangle of the shoulder blade lifted at that angle, she pressed the little digits of her free hand underneath it, seeking to release the tension in the muscle at its source. The position was awkward for him at best, and possibly quite painful at times, but it was the only way to get at the meat of the problem.

It might have felt vulnerable, too, had there been any chance at all that Grace had the physical strength to hold him.

The more time passed, the less weird she felt about it. The more certain she was that while this was strange for her, it wasn?t for them; the more confident she felt that nobody would suddenly yank the curtain back on her. At one point she even lifted herself higher on her knees, stretching out and balancing her body directly above his so she could use her elbow to manipulate the shoulder blade more effectively, a position that had her hair streaming down the opposite shoulder over his back, her breath spilling over the back of his ear. The one hand still gripped his where it was theoretically pinned behind him tightly.

At last she released him, transferring herself off of his hips, back onto the mattress beside him. ?Yeah, I can cook,? her reply came a few seconds after it probably should have as she settled and wrapped part of the sheet that wasn?t trapped underneath him around her torso. The usual morning after needs -- some water, some aspirin, a bathroom -- were becoming increasingly urgent. ?Hand me my dress? I?ll make some breakfast if y?got the food for it.?

His body resisted her at first, the conflict of him trying to make himself relax and the instinct to resist what she was doing gave moments where his body seemed to pulse under her work. Just when it seemed that he would bark at her to stop, his body relaxed and everything began to ease. The feeling of a floating, abrasive but desirable presence subsided and she became a small, delicate figure hovering over him again. The length of silence between him asking and her response went unnoticed. She settled back in near and he rolled over to his side, looping his arm around her to pull her back into him.

At first, it seemed like he might grab a condom to start the morning right, but the arm twisting, massaging, and Sonny?s conversation had put his mind on what needed to be done. Her request for the dress wasn?t ignored, he rolled away to drop his hand out from the curtained cave area, fumbling until he felt something that was thin and kinda girly and pulled it up, holding it out to her, ?Should be some stuff in the fridge you can get creative with.? She had just a few minutes before he pushed open the curtain and climbed out, ready for the relief of a morning piss.

The way Josh dragged her close again was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise, a kind of tacit almost-thank you that she hadn?t anticipated. A glimmer of a smile formed on full lips, just beginning to twist that perpetual pout upwards. She had just seconds to breathe in the scent of his body, two days past a shower now and with the residue of sex and smoking on him, before he pulled away to find her dress.

?Alright,? she said, sitting up again as she claimed the dress from his fingertips. Working quickly to find the top of the garment, determine that it was inside out and turn it right-side out again, her wide green eyes scanned the twisted jumble of sheets and blankets for any sign of her underwear. She vaguely remembered having lost track of them the night before, and they weren?t anywhere obviously in sight now, either. Giving up the search, she pulled the dress over her head, threading her arms through thin spaghetti straps and pulling the fabric down to her hips. Fingers plucked tousled purple tresses free, and she nodded to let him know she was ready.

Grace blinked a couple of times to make her eyes adjust to the relative brightness from the RV?s interior, rubbing at one of them while she waited for Josh to get up first. Her makeup was still mostly in place, the shadowy traces of smudged eyeliner just beneath her eyes made their color pop that much more dramatically. Balling one little fist against a yawn, she scooted to the edge of the bed and climbed out when it was her turn, smoothing down the wrinkled folds of her skirt with one last halfhearted attempt to find her panties. She could only hope they were in the bed somewhere and not like? in the kitchen.

Grace had lingered long enough for the coffee pot to begin spitting out its pungent dark brew. She pulled a fresh, clean mug down out of one of the cabinets and, watching the erratic stream of dark liquid, she waited for the right moment and quickly swapped the glass carafe for the ceramic mug, letting it fill itself nearly to the brim before she traded them back. With the full cup, she padded back to the closed bedroom door, tapping lightly on its surface. ?Coffee?s ready, Silas,? she said quietly. She made her escape as soon as it was handed off.

The morning light made her eyes hurt, reminding her that the coffee had not completely pushed away the headache borne of too much consumption and not enough sleep. The more she woke up, the more tired she felt, her body making her aware of its little grievances --a bruise here, a raw feeling there, joints that ached from being held at unfamiliar angles. The evidence of dehydration in the way her face felt tight, the way the level of the sun seemed perfectly angled to cut into deep green eyes just the right way to slice all the way into her tired, hungover brain.

She was looking forward to getting a shower, taking some aspirin, maybe even catching up on a little bit of sleep before her afternoon shift. But first, first she was going to have to deal with Kate.

Outside, the day was underway. Josh, Tommy and Sonny would be leaving any minute now, and Cole and Michael had already gone. Underneath the RV, Ezra was teaching a handful of young teenagers how to change out the septic units because they were getting old enough that they needed to do more than pick pockets for chump change. **** was **** and it still needed to be dealt with and no one here, except for maybe the girls, got away with not spending part of their life facilitating that.

A small cluster women had gathered just outside one of the campers on the women?s side of camp. If Grace hadn?t known better, she might have thought they were there in a more friendly, social context. It only took being within fifteen feet of Jenny to know she was pissed.

Rachel's eyes widened when she saw Grace and then she looked relieved, pushing between two girls to get to her. ?Where have you been? Jenny says that she?s going to kick the **** out of Kate but Kate has locked the door to the RV so Jacklin can't get to her stuff and neither can Molly or Barbara, and then she says she's going to get the cops here if we don't stop banging on the door and so then Jenny said if she wanted to be a stupid-you-know-what that she could call and see what happens.?

She took a breath and then frowned. Jacklin, spotting Grace?s arrival, walked up then, eager to recount the drama of the morning in her own words. ?Grace, look at me,? said the other girl, cutting Rachel off. ? I haven't been able to change or shower or brush my teeth since yesterday.?

Grace?s smile was tight as she listened to first one and then the other of them. She gave a wordless gesture to her wrinkled dress that said, yeah, me either, but her nod was sympathetic. ?Use mine,? she said automatically, gesturing to the smaller RV she shared with Rachel, a short distance away. Only the two of them lived in it, which the tiny stylist was coming to see as a rarity, due partially to Grace?s profession and the need to have enough space to practice it, and partially to Grace?s reputation and the need to be away from it. ?You can use my shampoo and things, and I?m sure some of Rachel?s clothes will fit you.?

Problem one handled, the smallest of them looked around at the other assembled women, at least a little shocked that not one of them had already thought to act on the very thing Grace was about to do. She shook her head, pulled her fingers through her tangled hair as she took a deep breath and let it out again. The braid she?d put it in before she?d made breakfast had come undone enough on its own to be abandoned. ?Alright. Who has a bobby pin? Or a butter knife??

?She said she was going to call the cops.? Jenny called at her, reaching to the back of her head that had pinned up the brown hairs at her neck up into her ponytail. In terms of the quickest way to get kicked out, Kate was two for two. It wasn't that she was particularly stupid, just that her impulsiveness and temper had gotten the better of her. She wanted some boy to make out with her at the party and then she wasn't going to deal with Jenny getting bent out of shape about it.

?So if bacon gets served this morning, that?ll be on you.? Jenny wasn't mad at Grace, she was just mad. And waiting.

?She won?t,? said Grace, accepting the bobby pin when it was offered. ?Not if she knows what?s good for her.? Green eyes met Jenny?s for a moment as she put the pin in her mouth, using her teeth to pry it further apart. Her gaze as she met the other woman?s was skeptical, like she wasn?t entirely sure Kate actually did know what?s good for her. ?And anyway, she doesn?t live here anymore as of this morning, so if she does call anyone, we?ll have her arrested for trespassing.?

Grace hadn?t been in camp any longer than Kate had, but she spoke with the mantle of authority. Sure, she was wearing yesterday?s clothes and last night?s makeup, her outfit rumpled from a night spent on someone else?s floor, her hair tangled in someone else?s fingers, on someone else?s pillow. There was a hickey on her shoulder and her underwear had gone missing. Even so, a walk of shame is only that when the person whose bed you were leaving wasn?t Josh?s, or so it seemed.

Reshaping the rest of the bobby pin the way she?d been taught with her fingers, Grace examined it once to check for accuracy and then squared her little shoulders, marching up the short steps of the RV without further ceremony. Dropping to one knee on the little stoop, she fit the bent wire into the locking mechanism on the door, inserting it until the hook she?d made on the end caught the teeth. From there it took her three quick twists to have the door unlocked, and she stood up again, pulling it open. She closed it behind her once she?d stepped inside.

?Hey!? Was about all Jenny managed to say before the door was shut.

Kate was smart enough that she feared the worst. Unfortunately there wasn't much to defend herself with. The kitchen area was small and the knives there weren't impressive. Even so, she had armed herself with a paring knife and was sitting on her bed against the wall with her knees up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her bent legs.

Everyone looked like they were recovering from the party the night before. Her makeup was smeared and it looked as though she'd spent a large portion of the night upset.

?Oh, thank god, it's you.? Her shoulders dropped in relief and she dropped the paring knife on the mattress beside her, ?Everyone that lives in this camp is crazy. Just. Crazy.?

Grace stepped into the living room, looking to the left where she found Kate tucked into the corner of what was ostensibly her own bed. She moved closer, her gaze falling over the cheap little kitchen knife that had landed on the mattress once Kate realized it was just Grace. Considering the weapon for a moment, her gaze lifted back to the other woman?s face. This...was not what she?d expected to find, and a brow arched. Her voice was gentle when she posed the question. ?What?s going on with you, Kate??

?Nothing. We were at my birthday party and everyone was having a good time. You went off with Josh and I was with Rachel and everyone was having a good time. Then Sonny and Jenny got into it and she stormed off and he looked like? I don?t know, like he needed a hug and we were talking and then we were flirting and like way later, I don?t know it was three am or something, we were making out. Everyone was kinda messed up and fooling around or acting stupid so it wasn?t like I was the only one.? This was all said in one, upset stream that sounded a lot more like tired venting than anything else. She frowned, her knees dropping to the sides so that she was sitting cross legged.

?Then this morning Jenny is all kinds of pissed and says I need to go. I literally just got here.? It was probably because Grace showed up with her to the new camp that she trusted her. Even having disappeared with Josh, Kate may not have connected the significance of that. Instead, she believed that there was a ?new girl? camaraderie that Grace must have understood.

Grace?s brows were a faint shade of purple to match her hair, and they rose together now, all but disappearing near the hairline as she listened. Shifting her slight weight to one leg, she let the girl say her piece in its entirety, her full lips pursing at the other?s interpretation of the prior evening?s events.

When she was finished, the tiny stylist shook her head. There was no anger in her tone, but the way she spoke didn?t leave much room for doubt or uncertainty, either. ?That?s not what happened, Kate. Not even close. To start with, me and Josh were already pretty much together since that welcome dinner Silas put on a couple days ago. But you spent the whole first half of last night trying to get between me and him, hanging on his arm, saying ridiculous, inappropriate things to him like I was just invisible or not there or something. Me own roommate kept trying to ?warn? me that you had your sights set on him, like I should just step away and let you have him. It was only after he made a point to kiss me in front of everyone that you finally let up.

?Then, no sooner had you given up this quest for Josh than suddenly you were all about Sonny. You?d made out with him at least once before I even left the party, so don?t sit there telling me that it was ?way later? when you kissed him. You kissing him is one of the reasons Josh and I left when we did ?cause we didn?t want to be involved in the drama.? Not that it had done her any good, as it turned out. Here she was, involved anyway. Grace paused. ?There are like five men here for every woman, Kate, and loads of them are attractive and single. You could have had Ezra or Michael or Johnny or any number of them, and yet you chose to throw yourself at ...basically the only two who were already involved.

?So first,? she lifted her thumb, ?you disrespected me. Next,? her index finger followed the thumb, ?you disrespected Jenny, who is an established and central part of this camp.? Her middle finger came up to join the other two. ?Then, you went and locked yourself in here, preventing all three of your roommates from being able to get to their own beds and causing a public disruption of camp life, which ---in case it never occurred to you, the men who run this camp hate that kind of disruption.? Grace lifted her ring finger last. ?And as if things weren?t bad enough already, you threatened to call the police. Here. You?ve been here five whole minutes, Kate. What on earth were you thinking??

?That's not even fair! You and Josh weren't a thing so there was nothing wrong with flirting with him. Do you know how many men I've seen start flirting with one girl only to end up with someone else? He wasn't even with you or whatever until you kissed and then I left that alone.? It was starting to dawn on Kate that Grace may not have been a new-to-camp sister-in-arms that she had thought. Maybe the relief that it wasn't Jenny beating through the door had given her too much hope.

?Jenny was so crazy mad she was going to hit me so I had to lock myself in here and then when they threatened to come in, anyway, I panicked and didn't know what to do so I just? threatened to call the police. That part was dumb but the rest was all what it was. It wasn't like Sonny didn't kiss me back so she just needs to take that up with him.?

The stylist exhaled through her nose, a commingling of amusement and amazement in the expression. She shook her head, glancing aside at the time displayed on the little blue clock that had been affixed to the wall between two of the bunks. Quickly gauging in her head how much time she had before work, how much time she?d need to get ready, she determined how much more of her nagging headache she was willing to devote to this particular endeavor.

Lifting green eyes like crushed emeralds back to the other girl, Grace shook her head again. ?You are not privy to what agreements were or weren?t made between me and Josh before last night,? or what agreements had been made for them, for that matter. ?But I don?t have time to go through this with you tit for tat, and it doesn?t matter anyway. It?s clear that either there were no women in your last camp at all, or you?ve never tried to join up with an existing group of women before, so let me offer you some advice for next time: pay attention to your fellow women.

?They will condone or condemn you according to your treatment of them, and the men will not defend you no matter how long your legs are or how often you open them. They do not care about your justifications or excuses. They care that you are causing a problem that did not exist before you were there. In your next camp? Find the Jenny and make friends with her, or at bare minimum, do not go out of your way to piss her off.? Grace spoke of ?next time? and ?the next camp?, and the words carried the finality of judgment with them, a sentence pronounced.

Her belief that Grace was on her side had, at this point, entirely evaporated. There was even a glance towards the knife, but she never gripped it. She sat there, her lips wrinkled together like she was keeping herself from spewing something venomous. Her eyes went down to her lap, her cheeks blushing with frustration. Events hadn?t gone the way she wanted, and not even the other new girl was going to help with that. She was on Kate island.

It took her three minutes before she could lift her gaze back to Grace?s and breathe out the words, ?So how do I get out of here? I?m not going back out there just to have a bunch of jealous girls jump me.?

Had Kate?s only offense been the initial slight to Grace, things might have been different. She and the tiny stylist would never have been besties or anything, but she could have found a place for herself among the other girls somewhere. As it stood, though, Kate?s histrionics were symptomatic of a deeper, more significant problem -- a single-minded self centered-ness that simply could not coexist with the gypsy way of communal living.

Grace waited out the other woman?s silence, letting her work through it on her own. While she waited, her thoughts began to drift, skimming back over the events of the last twelve hours. Kissing Josh. Having sex with him. Waking up in his bed and in his arms. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected to be in this place again so soon, physically intimate with anyone on any level, much less in an actual relationship with the heir apparent. She thought about the little things he?d done to confirm it -- the way he?d pulled her close again after the massage. The kisses to her cheek, her temple. The way he?d squeezed her waist as she did the dishes --not exactly a hug, but a close approximation of it all the same. The casual way he?d said that he was getting her a new phone - not that she should, that he would be taking care of it.

Maybe this was more like what a relationship was supposed to be.

Kate spoke up at last, and Grace cut herself out of the reverie, snapping back into the present moment. ?Mm. I can probably take care of that,? she replied, hoping that at least part of the shadow of Josh?s status would fall over her despite her newness, bolstered by the weight of Silas? pronouncement. ?An apology would help matters considerably,? she sounded like she already anticipated that Kate would rather chew on nails than say she was sorry. ?How soon can you have your ride arranged??

?I don?t know, I guess? tonight. I still know a few people that aren?t psycho back home.? Though the question of why she had left the other camp didn?t seem mysterious. Kate still was indignant, her shoulders weren?t slumped and she was intent on keeping her chin up. One of her hands rubbed over her cheek, breaking the dried up pathways of her tears. She took in a broken breath and looked at Grace, ?Apologize? You?re kidding, right? He was kissing me back.?

Then, rolling her eyes and deciding, seconds later, that it would just be an argument and that she was feeling ?over it? already, she relented, ?Fine, I?ll apologize.? Her legs unfolded, landing on the floor. The first order of business for her was just shoving her things back into a half unpacked bag that was quilted with the first letter of her last name stitched in large on it. She regarded Grace the same way a child does a teacher who was telling them something they didn?t want to hear.

Pleasantly surprised when the girl relented, Grace gave a nod and stood up out of her lean then, rebalancing herself on both feet. In this measure alone, she tended to agree with Kate -- Sonny was every bit as much to blame as the girl was for what had transpired between them. Sonny was Josh?s best friend though, and Josh was the upcoming MacIntosh. No one ever claimed that the world was fair to gypsy women. She gave Kate a small measure of a smile that said she knew it was unfair and also that it was the way things were.

?I?ll leave you to it, then.? She said, running one hand through her hair and then rubbing at the side of her neck. Grace was tired and sore and slightly hungover, and the siren call of a shower and a nap was getting increasingly harder to ignore. Turning, she moved to the door and let herself back out of the trailer. One more thing stood between her and her own goals: Jenny.

The tiny dancer found the other girl, both hands raised in a conciliatory gesture. ?She?s agreed to apologize and she?ll be gone by nightfall.?

The time it had taken Grace to talk to Kate had been enough time that Jenny wouldn?t automatically insist on there being blood, but she certainly wanted Kate out of sight and out of her life. Her mouth opened when Grace said she was apologizing as if she intended to go into a tirade, but her temper calmed as soon as it was clear that Kate would be gone-- and soon. Jenny lifted her head up by the chin, measuring the reactions of the other girls. Sometimes the disrespect couldn?t be ignored if everyone else still thought you were a fool. For the most part, they seemed awed at how quickly Jenny?s little problem had been dealt with. It hadn?t been twenty-fours hours yet and Jenny was having Kate cleared out.

The message was clear: Sonny was off limits, and you didn't **** with Jenny.

Another message was clear: Grace and Josh were something, also not to be **** with.

The tiny stylist had ministered more cracked and broken ribs than she could possibly remember or count. Sprained wrists, broken noses, dislocated jaws and elbows and shoulders. If it could be wounded in a fight, chances are that she had encountered it, learned to deal with it. She wasn?t a doctor by any stretch, and wouldn?t hold herself out as being well versed in medicine. But taking care of broken, hurting bodies -- that, she could do.

Her fingertips traced down the grooved center line of his spine to midway. Josh leaned forward the way she?d asked, and Grace moved to stand just beside the chair. The tips of her fingers skated along the circumference of the rib just above the one that seemed to have taken the brunt of it, as whisper soft as she could make it and still feel the line of the bone. They stopped when they reached his chest, splaying flat. She bent down beside him, raking purple locks off her neck with her free hand as she laid her cheek carefully against his back, pressing her ear in close near the spine. ?Breathe in. Slowly.?

Her hand felt small, warm and fragile at the center of his chest like a hot flower that had just opened up. Her touch made his skin prickle, sending it into a mild case of gooseflesh as she pressed the shell of her ear against his back. His breath came in and pushed out. On the second breath the motion became broken, challenged by the soreness of his ribs. Josh wasn?t sure why her presence was a comfort, just that it was. Her being there was the same as having a childhood blanket or some pillow he could faithfully hold.

?How?s it sound?? His skin is fresh, some part of it still smelling like the struggling that had taken place on the ground. There was dirt, grass and sky.

Grace still hadn?t ever made it home, hadn?t managed to take a shower or brush her hair. She smelled a little bit like Grace, a little bit like the last clingy traces of her soap or shampoo, a little bit like sex and latex, and a lot like Josh. She listened carefully, her eyes closed to help her concentrate, and when the first breath came mostly clear, that hand on his chest pressed in subtly.

He struggled and she relented immediately, her fingers skimming down his side as she lifted herself away from him, her mouth lingering near his skin long enough to press a light kiss to the top of his shoulder. ?It?s definitely broken, but the lung?s not punctured,? she answered him. ?So that?s good. The bad is? the place it?s broken is going to give you some nasty headaches and make you tired. The Tylenol will help your kidneys. Them, too,? she gestured the blueberries she?d laid out for him, not quite scolding him for not having finished them.

?Drink your water -- like, so much water you?re sick to death of it.? She said, turning to perch herself on the table?s edge so she could see him better. The petite girl wasn?t clingy as such, but seemed in no great hurry to be away from him, either. ?I?ll bring some arnica by later on for the bruises. In the meantime, which hurts more, the rib or the kidney?? She paused. ?Also, I need to borrow your phone, please.?

?I gotta lay down,? his hand gripped her thigh as he pushed up to his feet. Perhaps he would have kissed her just then except for the pain that spiraled out from his side. There was only the unnecessary, kind squeeze of his hand on her thigh before he swiped up the pills and swallowed them with a last sip of water, then started his path towards his bunk bed. He didn?t know anything about the kidney other than Cole had punched him with the impact of a train. He swallowed, his hand pressing on the walls for leverage as he walked towards his bed, ?Ribs, this **** **** hurts.?

It wasn?t until he was in bed that he reached in his back pocket, dropping his phone into her, ?Don?t check my texts or Silas will put words in my ear.? It was how most of the business was conducted, largely because it was an easy-to-check voicemail with information. Addresses. Prices. All of that ****.

?Get these damn pants offa me,? he was trying to, but the rib impacts more than just the area it was in. Moving around, in general, just hurt. He wanted to just splay out in his boxers for the rest of the day. Maybe tomorrow the overarching soreness would be less.

Ribs or kidney. The answer told her whether to reach for ice or press him again about the heating pad. Grace waited until she was sure Josh was steady on his feet and then moved away from him, stepping across the small kitchen to open the freezer. Scanning her options, she pulled out a bag of frozen spinach so cheap it had to have been bought specifically for this purpose. Breaking it up in her fingers, she walked down the short hallway to where he'd collapsed on his bunk.

Tugging his shirt and the towel down off her shoulder, Grace dropped to a crouch in front of the bunk and set them on the floor, laying the spinach bag down on top. She took the phone and set it aside for now, too. ?M?just gonna call out of work,? she explained. ?Gotta look the number up and then make the call.?

At his request, she slipped her hands around his hips, seeking to unhook the button and slide down the zipper without jostling him too much or causing more pain. Pausing, the girl stood and moved down a few steps, bending to pull off his shoes one after the other, first. Retracing her steps, she gently tugged the fabric down over his hips, and when she had them down far enough, she doubled back yet again to tug them the rest of the way off by the cuffs. When they were off him at last, she set the phone on the bed beside him, grabbed his shirt and folded it up with the pants and set them both at the end of the bed, then wrapped the bag of spinach in the towel and placed it on his back over the break. Only then did she pick up the phone in earnest, quickly finding the icon for the internet without looking at anything else.

His body was wanting him to sleep, mostly so it could focus on doing repairs. He had been on the tired side, anyway, because their night together hadn?t been one that was restful and restoring. He?d spent himself all last night and then a wall hit him. At this point, Grace was still learning what he looked like, even if she had experienced it. This was her boyfriend, and his body spoke of other incidents, of other fights and other scars. He wasn?t crying about what happened, he acted like it was part of life, the sort you don?t know is going to happen but expect that it will, eventually.

?I?m not doing a whole lot today so if you want to go in, just go in.? But they both knew, maybe from Silas, maybe from the way the world worked, that she needed to call out of work and be there. It was as supportive as it was a statement.

Grace gave a quiet laugh as she typed in the name of her salon and then scrolled down until she found its phone number. She read it over a couple of times in her mind, memorizing the sequence of numbers in a little singsong, then switched over to the phone application and typed them in again before she forgot.

In the interim, she?d sunk to the floor in front of his bunk, twisting so that her back was to its base, her head near his shoulder. ?I still haven?t been able to take a shower, I kinda need to make sure Kate really does leave tonight as promised or Jenny really might kill her, and I?m not about to let somebody else look after my man, so?? She pressed the button to connect the call. Family came first, always.

?She?ll go,? he reassured without really knowing because, well, to him it was inconceivably stupid that she wouldn?t. Life could be hard just playing by the rules, just by trying to claw your way up or retain what you had, nevermind what happened after you spit on Jenny?s face.

The one certainty many had over the last eight years was Jenny and Sonny. They were volatile, but it was the sort that you expected. Kate had played her cards wrong, and maybe by her little interaction with Sonny had thought that, like Grace, she had gained some sort of leverage. It had been done wrong, it had happened wrong, and no one was surprised at the outcome but her. Sonny and Jenny were a thing, even when they weren?t, and it took someone who was blind or greedy not to see that. Kate had been greedy, she had misjudged and lost, severely.

He didn?t say anything else as she connected her call. He just turned, kissing the back of her head and then settling back into his position in the bunk bed.

The phone call was a short one. She made her excuses, which were honest -- she had a headache, hadn?t slept much, didn?t feel up to being on her feet all day -- and asked the receptionist to reschedule the two appointments she had for that afternoon. There wasn?t any trouble - Grace had a particular flare for her job and worked hard when she was there -- so they wished her well and to feel better, and she hung up.

Grace set the phone down to the side of his pillow so it would be there if he needed it, twisting her body to the side so she could reach him again. She trailed her fingertips lightly down his spine, letting her nails graze the flesh gently. ?You should sleep,? she said, leaning in to kiss his shoulder again. ?I?m going to try to actually make it home this time so I can shower and change, but I?ll be back in a bit, alright??

?Sure. You can hit up the shower here, if you want.? On a different day that might have sounded like he meant to slip in just after her for something a bit more naughty. Instead, the offer had a genuine sound to it and she knew, or must have known, that he would go unmoved from where he was on the bed.

The path of her fingers left a tingling sensation on his skin from where she had been. His eyes shut, slowly, and there was a thunder in his throat that said he approved of the stroke of her hand. He?d be asleep, soon.

Smiling a little at the offer, her fingers moved up the back of his neck, into his hair. ?Thanks, but I?m sorta sick of wearin? this dress, and I want to gather up a few things for you, anyway. I won?t be gone long. Probably you?ll wake up with me all tucked in at your side again, anyway.? Her smile came a little softer then, affectionate. Her fingers strayed back down his spine over the opposite shoulder, drawing little circle patterns in the skin. She wouldn?t leave him until his breathing had slowed into the easy rhythm of sleep, and with any luck she?d be back before he opened his eyes.

Watching him a couple of minutes more, Grace got to her feet and slipped away. With the one asleep and the other occupied, she?d have the kitchen to herself for awhile unless Ezra came home abruptly. Silas, she had a feeling, probably wouldn?t be back for awhile.

Retrieving the thawed bag of spinach from the counter, she shoved it back into the freezer so it could be used again and went about the business of making lunch for the three of them. Josh had requested ?soup or whatever?, but he needed something a little more substantial than just the tomato soup she?d settled on. There would be grilled cheese for sure, and a salad too. This last was intended primarily for she and Sonny -- Grace guessed that Josh might turn his nose up at rabbit food given some of his interactions with his best friend-- but she knew better than to not make enough for him too, just in case.

Josh slept while she cooked, he slept as if he hadn't slept the night before. As if he hadn?t slept a couple hours today already. It was restless, presumably from the discomfort of his bruises and swelling. In a little while Sonny emerged from the shower with a towel around his hips, grabbed a change of clothes and then slumped back into the bathroom to get dressed. When he emerged again, he smiled at her and then climbed into his bunk, drawing the curtain closed as if to seal himself into a large cocoon.

It wouldn't be until food was done and she accosted him with it that he would stir, his mood worsened because his body had started to ache and grow more stiff as healing went underway.

Without a phone, the little dancer had no access to her music. Undaunted, she hummed to herself as she worked, snatches of lyrics from the choruses of classic 90s era grunge songs sung occasionally under her breath. She was never going to be a rockstar, but she could carry a tune well enough and her taste in music wasn?t awful.

Lunch didn?t take long to make. Twenty, twenty five minutes later, she?d arranged a plate, two coffee mugs and two bowls on a cafeteria tray she?d found in the back of one of the cabinets, the pastel orange kind you mostly saw in buffet restaurants and high school lunchrooms all the world over. There were two grilled cheese sandwiches on the plate, one for each of them; tomato soup she?d added fresh basil and some other spices to in the mugs, salad in the bowls. Only one of the salads had tomatoes in it. She?d also picked up two forks, a cup of water and two napkins.

Balancing the heavy tray in both hands, Grace lifted her voice just a little to get the ox?s attention as she paused in the hallway between the two bunks. ?Food?s in the kitchen, Sonny,? she called quietly, without disturbing the curtain that concealed him. Making sure she had a good grip and her arms were stable, she slid back down into that top corner of Josh?s bed, maneuvering it to balance longwise on her thigh. ?Josh.?

?Really?? She didn?t have to say it twice. A boulder of weight dropped to the RV floor and rolled into the kitchen, eager to consume. There was always an understanding that Sonny ate, and he took what he could get so long as the food wasn?t total crap. He refused anything that was fast food, stating that it would get you fat and lazy, fast.

Josh had stirred some with Sonny?s movement to the kitchen. His eyes had cracked and he seemed not to notice her and was working on his sharp rebuke for the ox when Grace had settled in. His eyes and chin were still pointed that way and he looked, still, half asleep. She said his name and he blinked a few times, pushing past the last few curtains of tiredness to focus on her.

?Yeah.? He didn?t make a sound, but his face twisted up in a frown when he scooted back, his left hand catching his pillow to help it bunch up behind his back for support. His brown hair was thin and soft, and he had something that seemed like a cow lick or a sleep-marked lock of hair twisting away from his forehead to fall over. He cleared his throat and made a small smile for her. He wasn?t actually smiling, he was just telling her thanks in a way that didn?t need words.

Grace held onto the tray while he sorted himself out and raised up slightly on the pillows. She?d have helped him with the maneuver but for the precariousness of the tray, and once he?d shifted himself over enough, she slid the tray off her lap between them. There was a red mark on her thigh that showed where it had been seated, the heat of the soup and sandwiches had transferred through the plastic into her exposed skin. It wasn?t a burn, just an impression of warmth.

The two sandwiches on the plate in the center had each been cut in half. She picked up one of the halves as she crossed her legs underneath her, taking a bite out of one of its corners. ?I know you said you don?t like tomatoes,? she commented after she?d swallowed. ?...But I dunno anybody in the world who don?t like tomato soup when they feel terrible.?

?Yeah, they?re not awful when they?re cooked,? or salted and spiced beyond the point of being anything like a fresh tomato. He mimicked her movement, picking one of the gooey triangles and biting at the corner of it. He could feel, like a brutal recall, a stab of pain where Cole had landed his first punch. He didn?t swear, but he frowned again.

Realizing she might think his reaction was due to the food, he swallowed before speaking, ?It?s good.? Had Sonny heard it, the glutton that he was in the kitchen, he would have chimed in with a Hell Yeah It?s Good. As it was, he had taken it upon himself to eat all of what remained of the salad first.

Josh behaved as though his salad didn?t exist, as if it was some poisonous option lurking on the cafeteria tray.

She knew the twitch in the muscle at his jaw for what it was, pain that had been concealed. Uncrossing her legs, Grace set her sandwich half down and maneuvered herself onto her knees without dislodging the tray -- she too was an expert at navigating these tight, confined spaces. Stretching herself long, or as long as she could, she snagged one handle of her bag at the far end of the bed with the very tips of her fingers and hauled it closer.

Pulling the bag into her lap as she settled back into a cross-legged position, the little stylist reclaimed the grilled cheese triangle and stuck the bite that remained in her mouth. She dug through the small duffel?s contents while she chewed, looking for a different set of pills. ?How long before Silas comes back, usually??

A glance down at the tray told her what she already knew, Josh wasn?t a salad man. Well, she was pretty sure Sonny would eat it, then, and it couldn?t be said she?d denied him anything.

The ox was grazing in the kitchen. Josh was eating the grilled cheese triangle, and it was devoured into nothing, never having taken a dive in the soup. He took two bites of the soup but, not for a lack of hunger, nudged the tray away. It was hurting too much just to exist, his chest ached to the point that it put off his appetite. It would get better, one day, but he was impatient for it to do that.

?Don?t know. Comes and goes as he pleases.? You didn?t just contact Silas, he contacted you. Asking for a schedule was a good way to get spit on, literally or metaphorically. He saw her digging around, but he had already calculated that she was up to whatever business she had of making him look better far sooner than he actually was.

She nodded. ?Yeah, figured as much. I was just thinkin?... y?got better pain killers at your disposal than I do,? she meant the box he?d been rolling his joints from the night before. Was that really just last night? Already it felt like ages ago. ?This?ll help, some though.? She twisted the cap off a white bottle, shaking three capsules into one hand before offering them out to him.

Noting the way he shied away from the rest of the food, Grace gave a sad smile. ?It?s a myth, the way they tape the ribs in movies an? things. It doesn?t help and can actually slow down the healing, making it grow back wrong, or damage your lung.? She said it apologetically, but her voice carried a note of confidence that her information was unimpeachable. ?Best I can do is give you white willow bark and try to keep icing it.?

Closing the bottle up once more, she pulled a tube of cream out of the bag and set it aside. Holding it up so Josh could see, she caught one of the coffee cups in her other hand and drank her soup from its rim. ?This?ll take the blood out of the bruises, steal the color away.?

?Yeah, you said,? he wasn?t being a smartass, more like a bellligerent child who repeated the nurses? orders just after it had been given. What he added then was, ?Go ahead.? He didn?t say a thing about the painkillers. It was day, and no one wanted Silas to skin them alive for a little bit of weed. That was top of the RV with the boys type of activity. His spine wriggled again, uncomfortably.


Josh didn?t know what was more difficult, the pain or the discomfort. Since the crack to his ribs he was searching for a way to lay, to place himself, where it just felt normal and he wasn?t thinking so much about every breath he took. Now and then he moved and the show of irritation was broadcasted.

?Go ahead,? he said again to her promises of this cream. He wasn?t one to dismiss it, the reality was he would have sucked on strange mushrooms if it meant that he could just lay down in peace.

?Well, and Devil?s Claw,? she said suddenly. ?Got you some of that, too.? The thing about going through life with a higher than average aversion to doctors was accumulating a wealth of remedies you didn?t have to go to a doctor to get. The media liked to portray the gypsy wise woman like some cross between a devil and a witch, all jewel toned turbans and chanting, jars of foul smelling herbs and other unspeakable things in her carpet bag. The reality of it was boring, disenchanting; a girl like Grace with an internet connection, an Amazon prime account, and a medicine cabinet full of vitamins.

She sipped more soup from her cup and then set it on the ledge behind the headboard. ?Take the pills,? she insisted, rising to her knees once more. ?By the time I?m done with this other stuff, maybe you can eat a little more of your lunch.? Once she was upright, Grace caught the tray in both hands, moved it off to the far edge of the bed and then crawled up beside him on the mattress. ?I know it sucks, but can you lean forward some??

The pills, finally, were downed with some of the fluids. Mac?s frown was starting to seem like how he expressed himself half of the time. The headboard was occupied. Any place separate of them was occupied with food and whatever. He heard Sonny shuffle in the kitchen, the mouth-pop of the fridge not distracting him as he looked at her. One hand patted her hip, a clear indication for her to straddle him for this, ?Yeah, just sit there.?

Her belly muscles clenched marginally, but Grace nodded. ?Alright.? The tube of cream in her right hand, she balanced that wrist over the top of his shoulder to support herself as she maneuvered into his lap, her thighs spread wide to accommodate his frame between them. Settling back on her heels, she lowered herself onto his lap, tucking her toes underneath the backs of his legs to make sure she was anchored properly.

Once she was settled, he believed it was easier to lean up. Perhaps it was because her weight influenced the pivotal point. Perhaps it was just because he wanted it to. Whatever the reason, he was able to lean forward without looking like a lemon was lodged in his throat.

Josh leaned forward into her body and she spread her arms, gently guiding him forward until his head rested against her collarbone. She caught the backs of his arms and gently pulled them around her body, into a loose embrace. From an outside perspective like Sonny?s, it probably looked like they were cuddling, and it wasn?t that they weren?t? But her intent was to let him rest as completely against her as he could so he wouldn?t have to strain to hold the position. It would also keep him still.

Acutely aware of the quietly uneven burst of his breath against her neck, Grace twisted the cap off the cream and squeezed some out onto her fingers.

?Thought you had work today,? he wasn?t sure if she had called out. Was that for today or? a different day? The bad sleep, coupled with drinking and a wrecking ball to the ribs, made the time and place all seem fuzzy. Some part of him wanted to say that she had taken the day off and would be there, but he wasn?t sure where that idea had really come from. Maybe he was wishing for it, or maybe she knew that she needed to stay.

He?d be just fine, wouldn?t he? No ribs went and punctured the lung or anything. The bone of his cheek rolled against the bow of her collarbone when she coerced him.

?Borrowed your phone to call out before I took a shower,? Grace reminded him gently. She smeared the cream gently over his ribs, her chin resting lightly on his shoulder so she could see what she was doing. Her fingers worked in slow, gentle circles, rubbing the ointment into the damaged skin as carefully as she could, mindful not to shift the busted rib too much.

?It?s...here, somewhere in the bed with you,? she glanced aside as she squeezed more of the arnica onto her fingers and then began again, gingerly targeting each area marked with the telltale shadowing that was the harbinger of deep bruising. She worked methodically, her chest rising into his with each measured breath, her arms sliding loosely around him when she was finished. ?M?not going anywhere,? added the girl with a trace of a grin, her expression playfully stern. ?So don?t ask me to.?

At first it seemed as if he was too tired to acknowledge her, perched on his lap, her fingers working their way over his body. The care had a clinical air to it, as if he was showing her the same deference a man gave a nurse just before she checked his prostate. There was the attempt at being professional, at being offhand, in an intrinsically vulnerable situation. After her hands made the second round of circles over his flesh and the throb of the pressure over his injured rib had passed, there was a not so offhand response. If she hadn?t known by seeing it, or feeling it pinned between shorts and sheets, then she would have known because he started to kiss her neck, his right hand flattening, spreading like a spill, over her upper back.

Everyone responded differently. Some would gnash their teeth, some would hide until they were better, and some sought the comfort of another. Whichever one he was was unclear, there were too many social expectations at play and right now, he wasn?t talking. He was kissing her, and that prevented any talking, any further illumination on why it was he was pulling her in near.

If Sonny heard the sounds, he pretended that he didn?t.

There was the lift up of the brim of his fedora, a hand holding a cigarette beckoned her over. Once she was there, he kissed her on the cheek and then reached in his back pocket. The phone was purple, maybe it was meant to match her hair or maybe it was happenstance. He flipped it open, ?It?s not ****, I won?t say it?s awesome but? you?ve got new digits now and I put in all the ones that matter.? His free hand cradled the purple phone while the index finger of the hand holding the cigarette punched and typed through the menus for her, ?I want you letting me know you get to bed alright at night.? The line between loving and possessive was impossible to define. He said it like a command, but his smile and the way he handed it to her said it was a gift.

?Hey!? Tommy spoke up, breaching the moment, ?You wanted to see me??

?Yeah,? Josh kissed her on the cheek again, ?Need a minute. Go catch up with the girls and then meet me at my place.? The Ox and Johnny leaned in like an audience for what she would say. Grace was still so new. But how new?

She moved towards him, one hand catching his hip briefly as she tilted her cheek up at an angle into his kiss of greeting. It fell away again as soon as the contact ended, a connection acknowledged but not maintained. Her vivid green eyes were darker in the sunset, the fire of the setting sun bringing out more of the gold in them, the emerald receding. Wide to begin with, they widened further at the appearance of the phone.

A smile of surprise split her features. ?Oh, hey! Thanks, Josh,? she said, briefly considering some of the more affectionate monikers from earlier, ultimately discarding them in favor of his name, if only because there was an audience. She was impressed, but also immediately concerned, that he?d managed to acquire the new phone today after all. Her gaze flickered over him thoughtfully as though to assess how much pain he was still in, and the angle of the sun told her that it was probably long since time that he took another round of the pain relievers. She could only hope that he?d found a chance to smoke a joint or something, but again -- it wasn?t something she?d bring up in mixed company.

Listening, a dim smile touched her face. ?Yeah, cool,? she said offhandedly of the request that wasn?t. Given the rules she?d been operating under with her ex-husband, a single check in text was more than doable. One corner of her mouth turned up flirtatiously, like there was something she might say about his ability to know whether she?d made it to bed, but her gaze moved deliberately to the stranger and back, a look that explained what it was she was thinking.

Accepting the phone when it was offered, the little stylist didn?t bother to investigate it now, slipping it instead into one of her pockets. She might have offered him a kiss of gratitude, but there was the interruption from Tommy.

Her face fell into a sneer she didn?t bother to conceal. Tommy wasn?t somebody she trusted or had much respect for, just based on his actions today. She nodded though, knowing better than to argue with him in front of his boys. ?Mm. Text me when you?re done?? She took a step back from the lot of them.

?If there?s time,? it was a way of saying yes that didn?t sound like she was the one bossing him around or nagging at him to do as she wanted. Especially not in front of Sonny and Johnny. His head twisted towards Tommy, looking as though he weren?t in a mood to deal with any of that ****.

At least Tommy was lucky he felt too much like **** to give him proper Hell. Sonny folded his arms over his chest, giving an iron smile to Tommy. Johnny, having seen what Sonny did, was quick to mimic him. Josh was the only one without his arms folded when Tommy rolled up.

?You and me need to take a walk.?

?Yeah??

?Yeah.?

He put the cigarette between his lips. It seemed from nowhere his hand moved up to Grace?s hip, squeezing her as she had done him not long ago. Either that was a universal language, or it was beginning to be the way they said hello. Now he was saying goodbye, not looking at her as he and Tommy began their paces away from it.

Sonny turned to Johnny, ?I?m cooking steak if you want it.?

?Man,? Johnny frowned, ?Jenny should be doing that ****.?

?No, a man is supposed to grill.?

?Why didn?t you say so?? Johnny cut a grin, and perhaps it was in that moment of black brown hair and a half smile that the relation he had to Josh became more clear. They almost, almost, had the same smile. Their upper lip pulled back a little to expose a set of pointed canines. Josh?s just seemed sadder, somehow, but that might have been because she?d learned it over his bruised ribs.

Grace knew the words for what they were and accepted them, flashing him a quick smile that was grateful. The squeeze of her hip brought the smile back right as it was beginning to fade, extending it into something warmer.

She watched him leave, and as she did, her expression fell. Grace trusted in Josh?s competence well enough, but he was injured, and she?d already seen for herself that he was complicit with that sneaky cheat Cole. Concern overtaking her outsized eyes, the little dancer shifted her weight to one foot restlessly, forcing herself to look away, to focus--however briefly--on the other two. She listened to their banter, but it wasn?t until Johnny smiled that she interjected, temporarily distracted from her worry by the revelation on his lips.

?Oh!? exclaimed Grace, softly. ?You?re the cousin.?

?One of them,? Johnny laughed and wrinkled his nose. His hair was thicker than Josh?s and he was more bulky. His eyes weren?t as cunning, they were too preoccupied with what was happening and not with what needed to happen.

The joke was a known one. Who wasn?t a brother or a cousin? The difference was that Johnny had the physical markers of someone who actually shared the bloodline. His eyebrow arched up at Sonny. The gesture was almost, but not quite, familiar. ?I could go for some steaks.?

?Yeah?? Sonny looked in Josh and Tommy?s direction, ?Gonna be a minute anyway. Then he?ll probably be home.? There was a long pause, one where Sonny tried not to look at Grace and even though he wasn?t looking at her, he definitely seemed to be doing that.

Grace rolled her eyes good-naturedly, a smile breaking out across full lips despite the worry in her eyes. ?Oi, yeah. We?re all cousins somewhere. You?re actual blood though. I can see it there,? she gestured his eyes, more specifically his eyebrows. The stylist eyed him appraisingly, her lips twitching once. ?And you need a haircut bad as he does. I know what I?m doing on my next day off.?

Her gaze strayed away from them, only half paying attention, preoccupied as she was with Josh?s whereabouts. She didn?t like Tommy and had a bad feeling about him in her gut. ?I?ll be glad when that business is over,? she murmured to no one in particular. ?I don?t trust that guy after what he pulled today.?

Distantly, she became aware of the way Sonny was studiously not looking at her, and glanced his way. She replayed the last several seconds of conversation in her head, looking for why he might be doing that. Then it dawned on her. ?Oh, well? I might try to convince him over to mine instead. Seems I?m down a roommate, which means there?s nobody there for now.?

?You?re a saucy little thing, aren?t yah?? Johnny said it with a smile that was perhaps too keen, too stamped with approval. He must have noticed it because he dampened the corners of his mouth quickly and looked at Sonny. The business of Tommy. Johnny and Sonny had a brief, uncomfortable moment. It was the sort of moment that said had she been one of the boys they would have volunteered more of an opinion. As it was, they glanced between each other and kept their thoughts to themselves.

?Oh, I?m sure Josh would like the privacy,? Sonny said it, very casual. Very offhand. Then he dug into the pocket of his pants to send some text messages.

Johnny turned his head, spitting on the ground, ?Yeah, well, I gotta grab Jimmie and get a few things pawned or tossed in the dump, anyway.? Some might have said it was spring cleaning. He rolled his shoulders and then put up a hand in the air, bidding them his farewell before he turned. Johnny didn?t bother texting Jimmie, the guy was usually easy to find cause he talked loudly and a lot. Just had to wait for some whale of a story, some bragging whatever to scratch at the air, and there you?d find Jimmie.

Grace raised her brows at Johnny, taking another couple of steps back from them to put distance between herself and that eager look on his face. She glanced sidelong at Sonny and nodded. ?Just while he recovers some, yeah.? In her experience, men didn?t much care to suffer in front of an audience, and that seemed to go double when part of that audience was his Uncle.

A dim smile touched her lips to see them shift so uncomfortably. Her comment regarding Tommy hadn?t really been intended for them, and the amused expression on her face as they each scrambled to change the subject or find somewhere else to be made her thoughts on their discomfort clear. What do I know. I?m just a girl, right? I don?t know anything about broadcasting body language in a fight, or surrounding one. With a slight shake of her head, she turned away from them both, ostensibly to join ?the girls? on the other side of the camp, or perhaps to go home.

As she walked, she accessed the contacts program on the new phone Josh had given her, to determine which contacts -- besides his own -- were the ones that mattered, according to him.

There would be no Jasper the Dick in her phone. There was, of course Silas and Sonny, Jenny and then Johnny. At first it seemed that his number was not in her phone, there wasn't an entry for Joshua or Josh. But there was an entry for Handsome Mother****.

There was a call in the call log, only a few seconds from her phone to his. Also what looked like a test to see if the text messaging function worked. Other than that, everything else about the phone was kept on factory settings. It wasn't much, but it was about the same quality of phone as the one she had started with. A new phone. A new family. A new boyfriend.

It wasn't for another hour that he texted her, asking where she was. He hadn't got the Sonny message yet, apparently.

She smiled when she saw the way Josh had labeled himself in her phone. In the end, she had gone back to her own trailer, which looked strange now in that it was only half occupied, the lower bunk stripped bare like a gaping toothless maw.

It was nice to have a little time alone, and she filled it by arranging her new phone the way she wanted it: texting Jenny the new number, adding her work contacts and the one number she still kept from her original camp, redownloading her social media applications and games. She was straightening up some when the new phone went off for the first time, and she left the last dress she'd been about to hang up on the bed to go answer it.

Text to Handsome Mother****: My place, which is completely empty right now if you want some space?

Text to Itty Bitty: yeah will be there in thirty

It was right at thirty minutes later that he did show. The collar of his shirt was damp, the locks of his hair damp under the rim of his fedora when he knocked on her door. At first he looked robust, a half blush coloring his cheeks and putting a wet shine on his skin. There was also a tired bruising under his eyes and a slant to his hips when he stood which said he wasn't in the mood for anything foolish.

When the door opened he lifted his chin, ?Hey.?

The half hour interim was spent periodically checking on the music program as it downloaded her playlists while she finished straightening up the RV. It wasn?t particularly dirty or cluttered to begin with, but there was a certain amount of mess that got tracked in during the back and forth chaos of a move, and Grace wanted to handle it now while she still had some energy. She opened the windows and lit some sage incense to air the space out.

By the time he knocked on the door, Grace had changed out of her jeans into a little lightweight sundress with spaghetti straps. It wasn?t particularly fancy, but it was still more presentable than the faded band t-shirt she?d been wearing earlier. Her programs had finished downloading, so there was music playing quietly in the background, stuff from the 90s grunge era that featured a lot of Weezer, Bush and Stone Temple Pilots.

?Hey,? she said, taking a step back and to the side to let him in. The little stylist noted all the minor details - the damp hair, the exhaustion on his face, and her lips pursed subtly. ?You want something to drink??

?Water, thanks,? the ?thanks? he tacked on seemed like a reflex instead of gratitude. He stepped into the path her steps had retreated, leaning in to catch her cheek in a quick kiss. Once he stepped out of the exposure of her open doorway, his left hand put itself to his lower back, where the memory of a freight train had struck. He tugged something plastic and paper out of his back pocket and sank into the nearest seat. The sounds came from a cigarette pack he peeled open, where he tugged a rolled up joint out from its cigarette cousins.

?How?d the rest of it all go?? He leaned back finding a cheap blue lighter in his pocket. He thought about Tommy, the discussion repeated in his mind. He thought about Dave and the guys, how tonight they?d be getting sideways on top of Ezra?s RV. They?d all be there, drinking and getting a bit loose for conversation. He liked the way it smelled, of bodies baked by the day with a weed cologne stamped into skin and clothes. The laughing, and sometimes even the moments a gaze was held too long.

Where he might have told Grace he was busy and spent the evening with the guys, he wasn?t in a place for it. He ached, and as much as the call to be with them sang in the back of his mind, her place was a safer one. It was what he needed. His right hand plucked his hat off his head, placing it in the nearest safe spot that he could. His finger raked, a quick ?fixing? of his hair that didn?t erase the impression.

Perhaps there should have been weirdness. Shouldn?t an aggressive man like him say something, insist or push his status to get what he wanted? Josh had relented like she'd swatted a fly. Maybe he had done his duties, had checked that box which said ?virile man? and now there was a reason not to be. He dropped his guard with her, enough to show that he was hurting but not enough to lose the impression that he was an immortal with a hard on, eating bullets for breakfast. Maybe sleeping on the bottom bunk after chicken soup could be enough.

He was hungrier than he thought, and quietly appreciated that she hadn?t just opened a **** can to make the soup. People were lazy, well, women were lazy. He expected Ezra to open up a can but he?d seen the other women do it. Maybe it was messed up that it made him lose respect for them, but he did. The way he saw it, that was part of their job. They maintained the home. If they weren?t doing that then? what? Was the laundry just spotless or something? Everyone had a weight to pull and sometimes he thought women figured if their ass was tight enough, if they were Megan Fox hot, that they could do whatever while the men put themselves into early graves.

The inner conversation consumed him while he ate, occasionally shifting when his weight seemed to make part of his ribs ache. On the last bit he leaned back, mouthing the spoon and then dropping it on the table with the same sense of accomplishment one might have after downing a shot. His lips threatened to smile, like they were learning how to do that without as much salt.

Grace ate her soup in relative silence but for the occasional scrape of spoon against bowl. She couldn?t have known the tenor of Josh?s thoughts but neither did she ask, noting only the way he seemed to relax and regain color as he finished his soup. ?There?s some left if you?re still hungry,? she said as his spoon landed on the table between with a soft clatter. It pleased her to see him eat -- it was the single best thing to make him heal faster, but she knew first hand how hard it was to want to eat when your ribs were cracked.

Josh started to smile and Grace finished the expression, her lips curving in a grin that was both relief that he?d eaten well and relief that he?d found the soup palatable. ?I should put more arnica on your ribs, too. I?m sure the bruises have come in, now.?

?It?s fine,? he assured her, his eyes going toward that lower bunk and then back to her, ?I?m worried more about where I?m going to sleep than armic? or whatever.? The blunt had done its job of keeping his muscles at ease. In a way, that did as much as a muscle relaxer to help his body heal. He wasn?t so wound up, blood moved from the vessels, offering him ease.

He propped one ankle on his knee, mostly because bending over made him feel nauseated. He hooked the laces of his shoe with two fingers and began to undo them. His shoe came loose and then dropped onto the floor. It wasn?t long after that his other shoe followed shoe, thunking on the floor before the blade of his socked foot nudged them away.

Grace unfolded her lithe little legs, getting to her feet. She gathered up both bowls and the spoons, carrying them into the kitchen and setting them into the sink to deal with later. Doubling back down the narrow hallway, the little dancer pulled a spare set of sheets from a set of drawers once she?d undone the safety latch, and within a few minutes? time she had the bottom bunk made up.

Climbing the short ladder most of the way, the hem of her sundress revealed the backs of her thighs, perhaps even offering a glimpse or two of her ass as she leaned across her own bed to tug the ends of one of the quilts she used as a blanket out from under the mattress, gathering it up to her chest. At one point she balanced precariously on one leg, the other extended a little ways behind her to help her reach further without toppling over.

Once she had it in hand, the little stylist made her way carefully down a few steps, tossing the blanket down onto the bed below. She snagged a couple of the pillows and did the same, transferring them to the lower bunk before she climbed all the way back down to the second to last step and hopped down from there, her skirt billowing out and then settling.

He couldn?t be moved from the seat, and at times it seemed the way he regarded her was too thin to notice a flash of thighs, or the way a woman could be sexy when she was looking after a man. People didn?t like to talk about that. Maybe because being servile was just repulsive and the world only existed for leaders. Even so, her thighs caught his glance, and maybe her eyes were fast enough to notice that he noticed.

He stayed at bay in the seat he occupied, cool and seemingly unaware of her. Once the last touch of the bedding was made he grunted, pushing to his feet with an elbow to the top of his chair. His breath came and went, heavy, and he sat on the bottom bunk before the bedding had completely settled. ?Thanks.?

The admission was a quiet, unspoken one. He wasn?t...expecting her to sleep next to him. The belief that they were doing rounds was established, and at her place, there was less of a need for her presence. The air didn?t need the scent of sex. She could sleep separate, and he wasn?t asking.

She wasn?t particularly trying to be sexy, or garner his attention. If she noticed him noticing, she didn?t comment on it or draw attention. Grace was ticking off a set of boxes of her own, running down a checklist of things she had to do to be ?the girlfriend?. The fact that it apparently didn?t include yet another round after dinner, if anything, was kind of a relief.

Sure, it felt weird. But still.

Shrugging, the girl smiled inwardly at the single word he?d uttered, keeping her reaction to it small and informal. ?S?the job description, yea?? She asked, glancing over her shoulder at the little alcove she?d set her phone on. ?Want me to turn the music off?? Grace wasn?t tired again yet, despite how long the day had worn on. She wasn?t necessarily planning on going to bed, with him or otherwise.

?No, it?s finally sounding good.? He undid his pants, but it felt clinical, enough that he recounted one of the few doctor visits he had received. The thought was shoved away, somewhere behind two hundred other things he would much rather think about.

He sank into a sitting position at the edge of the bunk bed, but found the struggle to take off his shirt was too much. Whatever. He could sleep with it on. His hat was not far off, kept safe somewhere on the table top. The sandpaper side of his face was given a scratch before he looked back at her. She didn?t look tired, she looked like she was trying to decide just what she would do next now that he was still there and still awake.

Maybe he should have had more soup. Instead, he offered, ?You could turn down the volume, if you wanted.?

What little affection and tenderness had seemed to be developing between them since the run in with Cole had apparently evaporated here. Gone were the little kisses, the touches that weren?t strictly necessary. All pretense of intimacy appeared to have fled as soon as there wasn?t an audience. Grace watched him struggle with the garments without attempting to intervene -- he had no trouble telling her what to do when he wanted it done, after all. She was quiet, mulling over the bizarre nature of their ?relationship? -- more business than personal-- until he?d given up. ?I can help with that, y?know,? she tipped her chin towards him to indicate what she meant. ?You don?t have to sleep in your clothes -- it might be hard, but I swear I can control m?self.?

She gave a dim smile. It was a half-hearted attempt at a joke, to alleviate the awkward position of things.

Glancing back over her shoulder at the phone, she shrugged. ?Nah, it can stay if you like it.? Grace was just waiting for him to lay down, or otherwise signal that he didn?t need her attention anymore, seeing as he didn?t seem to want it.

?I need help. Please just.. Help.? He didn?t like saying it. The sound of his voice was not unlike the sound of a general, meekly admitting that the war was a lost cause. His elbows dropped to his knees and his eyes, puddles of blue, measured her to see what her level of sympathy would be. Perhaps she would laugh. Perhaps the laugh would be in her eyes. He could handle it if the laugh was there. It was the sound of being laughed at that drove his senses up the wall.

There was an opportunity to tease her, to tell her that the only one asking her to control herself was her. Josh resisted, though. The cheer of the day was gone, eclipsed by the hurt of his ribs and the red-blue flower bruises that grew over his side and under the kidney.

Grace moved towards him again. There was no laughter, either in her eyes or on her lips, only sympathy for how much she knew it had to hurt. Standing just to the left of him, she caught the back of his shirt in her hands and gently drew it up the length of his spine. Gathering the fabric in one hand near the bottom of his shoulder blades, she used the other to work it carefully over the rounded cusp of one shoulder first, then his head, then the other shoulder. Easing it off his arms with a little tug, she shifted to stand in front of him and then sank to her knees.

Eyeing the bruising along his ribs, her lips pursed. ?Needs more arnica,? she said under her breath, leaning forward at the waist to slide her hands over his hips, underneath the fabric of his pants, her fingers caught in the space between denim and the cotton of his boxers. ?Y?gotta lay back.?

?Arnica, weed and sleep and then? maybe.? There?s a salty edge in his voice, but it wasn?t for her. It was for the world, the way it had wronged him in a way that was expected. He was glad his shirt was gone, even more glad that he didn?t have to ask her to do that like a little bitch. His throat made a grinding noise as he leaned back on his elbows, his hips lifting enough for her to easily move the cloth.

He couldn?t make the same sexual overture as he had before. There was just too much pain in being leaned back the way he was, like someone was putting an iron to him periodically. He felt the best when he was frozen like some spooked-as-**** rabbit. He was a five o?clock shadow trying not to be cynical. Everyone was cynical when they hurt.

As soon as he?d taken the weight off his lower half, Grace tugged the jeans down, clearing the angled edges of his pelvis. She leaned back in her kneeling position to slide them the rest of the way off his legs, ultimately reaching down with first the one hand and then the other to clear both of his feet. She winced subtly when he made that reflexive noise of pain, but didn?t let it stop her at her work.


Josh didn?t say or do anything particularly suggestive in that moment, but the sexual overtone was there as she knelt between his knees with him undressed but for his boxers, and her in little more than a short shift. Her hands rested lightly on his thighs as she looked up at him thoughtfully.

Their eyes stayed with one another. He was having to look down his chest to see her, not just seeing her hands perched on his thighs but feeling the soft, distant warmth of them that was greater than his own skin. Josh knew how to hold a gaze without it becoming a contest. His eyes never strayed from hers, but would jump their focus from one to the other as if to compare the color of them or figure out the words she wasn?t saying when she looked at him like that.

?I?d ask you if this is gonna feel better tomorrow morning, but I already know.? He pushed out an exhale, and though there was no rasp in his throat, there was a tension in the air leaving him, as if it had been strangled out from the bruises in his side.

?In my experience, tomorrow?s the worst of it, the day after is when it starts to get better.? Her fingernails curled gently into his thighs, pulling at the muscles hard enough to cause the sensation of friction without being sharp enough to actually scratch. Painting the skin in little pink lines, Grace leaned forward then, sliding her hands back up his legs to the waist.

Her thumbs snagging on the forward edge of his hipbones, she traced the lines there, following the ridge they made just underneath the skin. Her body was shifted forward then at an angle, loose strands of hair still wavy from the earlier braid tickling like spiderwebs at his knees. One hand moved from his waist over the flat of his belly.

?Aren't you full of good news.? Not that it was a surprise, it was likely she said something he already knew. At first he thought she was preparing to climb to her feet but her hands stayed, they dug in like a cat. She inched forward, the core of being following where her hands begin to take her, in closer to him.

The trace of her finger over his hip and the hesitation over his body caused his eyes to narrow on her. She was cat-like in that moment, from the kneading of her fingers to the way she slowly tracked ahead, as if waiting for a cue to burst into action. Josh lifted his head by the chin, which made it seem as if he was standing above her and looking down. He wanted her to know she was just a kitten, about to seize a piece of string and not the person who dangled it.

?Go ahead.? He said it like they were playing chicken and he wasn't going to blink. A few scars said that maybe he should have.

?Aren?t I?? The lift of her brows mimicked the arch tone of voice she used, though the twitching at the corners of her full, pouted lips suggested she was teasing. The atmosphere between them had shifted again, from affectionate to businesslike to something else now, something more charged with tension.

It wasn?t the bad kind of tension though, the kind that read as hostile and made her want to shut down, to retreat and disappear. The way the muscles in her belly tightened now, the nervous flutter like butterfly wings in her stomach, it wasn?t unpleasant. Grace swallowed, the soft pink tip of her tongue making a fleeting appearance as it grazed her bottom lip. She was catlike in that she was reading the situation, her fingers decoding the twisting of muscles like Braille.

He didn?t blink and neither did she, but some part of her wanted to. She was just a kitten, a fierce one but no less small and delicate for her leonine spirit, and she?d gone from being slapped down by a mongrel to swimming with sharks. The terrain was alien for all its familiar elements, and instinct alone helped her navigate.

Permission--instruction, maybe-- came, and though her throat went dry, she smiled. ?Y?sure? I don?t want you to hurt more??

?It?s as good as I?m gonna feel for days,? he offered, as if the act was a black spot, a death kiss goodbye. When tomorrow came there would be an ache throughout his body, maybe an ache like no other he had experienced. At least in this moment he was high enough, dancing on the border of a marijuana hummm, that enjoying himself seemed like a possible outcome.

?You been through a round or two,? it was talk about her purity, about the fact she?d known a man before. ?What?s this hesitation about?? Or maybe he was talking about the fact that there were already spent condoms in the trash can and that her body already knew him. What was the hesitancy? Was it esteem or was it a general dislike she had to swallow down for it to be considered?

She seemed fairly comfortable there, despite the potential vulnerability of the position. Her knees spread far enough to distribute her weight evenly, her elbows coming to rest lightly on his knees. It wasn?t innocence: she knew what he wanted. It wasn?t modesty or a sense of propriety, either: her posture didn?t give the impression that she was self conscious or shy. Her lips quirked at the way he?d worded it, and whether he was commenting on their recent past together or hers exclusively, vivid green eyes were lit with a kind of amused, dark humor. ?...Believe it or not, I know what it is being kicked in the ribs, too. I know how much it hurt me, and how little I felt like doing anything else.?

He seemed intent though, and she wouldn?t put him off again. Her hands stretched out anew, fingers curling into the hipbones and then underneath the waistband of his boxers.

?If that?s all it is,? his weight shifted to his left shoulder so his right hand could catch the one that had slid under his boxers, ?That?s fine.? Maybe the excuse to not do it had to rest on her. It couldn?t be that there was enough pain in the universe to put off his enjoyment. The touch of his fingers was a hard pressure, five points of contact pushing into her skin.

?We got the morning.? Leave it to Josh to be the one that was reassuring her about it.

It mattered, though, this little test: proof that no matter what the ?official? story was, it wasn?t Grace who had proved unwilling. Her fingers uncurled, relaxing the moment he started to push her away. She was ready to take whatever perceived public blame there might have been so long as Josh couldn?t hold it against her personally. Her hands relaxed and slipped away, retreating back down his legs to mid thigh. She bent forward at the waist, her head bowing as she pressed a light kiss there near her thumb.

Then the pressure increased subtly as she transferred her weight onto her hands, bringing her knees in and then up so she could stand. Once the little dancer was on her feet, she brushed out her skirt, stepping out of the triangle her body made to his spread knees. ?Y?want me to leave you alone, then?? In the background, Sinatra played on.

?Didn?t say that, Kitten,? his chin followed her and then finally dropped. They looked at each other then, for the first time since he got on that bed, as equals. He just looked at her, and though there had been no confession, no wince of pain or tear shed, it seemed to be as if his eyes said that he saw her, that he needed her to come in close to him. His right knee came in more directly, the heel of his foot pushing into the ground so that he scooted further back.

In all honesty, it had the grace and grunts of an old man trying to get comfortable. Josh twisted his body, aligning it with the bed. She couldn?t see it, but the taxi driver tattoo of DeNiro pointing a gun was marked up on his back. It was a lotta ink, but it was the sort of ink you forgot about ?cause the mirror never reminded you about it. It was the sort of ink everyone else got to remember all the time and then, sometimes, a picture would come around and show up that truth of you that had seemed to be forgotten.

?I got to sleep, maybe you know how to tuck in a man that?s hurting.? She?d claimed the knowledge before, he just called on her for it.

Kitten. It wasn't a bad name, as far as names went. Grace stood aside, watching as he slowly repositioned himself to lay flat on the bed. She knew better than to try to help in that moment, waiting it out until he was mostly settled.

Her eyes watched his face. She had the sense, then, that she'd leveled up in some way, that--like the video games she'd sometimes watched the boys play, she'd reached the end of one board and moved past it. Things had changed, subtly, or at least they had for right now.

Grace gave him a faint smile. ?Never tucked one in that was mine before. I suspect the procedure?s a bit different.? She hesitated only a handful of seconds before she gathered her skirt up in her hands and lifted the dress up off her body. Laying it aside on the top bunk, she crawled in beside him in her underwear, a pair of pale green panties made of some kind of stretchy lace material.

Josh had Robert DeNiro on his back, sneer cocked and gun out, demanding attention. Grace had scars that were old but still pink, lines dividing her skin into continents.

?Better be.? He didn?t shift too much to accommodate her. They were still new to each other, but it was easy to say that his stillness must have come from the ache he was experiencing. That didn?t mean his arm didn?t lift, giving her access to meet up with his side that wasn?t covered with the blushed red cloud of bruises from before. His eyelids were low, as if they were a curtain that hadn?t decided whether or not to close all the way.

His voice was so tired, it began to have the soft ease of sleep talk in it, as if being drunk on exhaustion, ?You?re not half bad.? He had a way of using backhanded compliments. He had a way of sounding, when he was tired, that it would have been okay to just keep sleeping.

Meet up with him she did, crawling across the relatively narrow mattress until she was right up against him. Grace stretched out on her side, facing him, her body pressed lightly against the unbattered stretch of ribs. With his outstretched arm underneath her neck, she tucked the fingers of her lower hand underneath that, curling lightly into the bicep. The other hand splayed flat on his chest for a moment, only to restart the lazy swirl of circles she?d drawn across it earlier in the day to soothe him.
Sleep-edged words brought a smile to full lips, a quick flutter to thick lashes. ?Yeah? You?re pretty okay, yourself.?


?It?s gonna work out.? Maybe it was half a dream that was talking to her, or maybe she had misheard him. The phrase seemed to rise from nowhere with a tone so soft that he must have been reassuring her. Or himself. His head turned away from her and his back arched fractionally in an effort to get more comfortable. One of his knees bent up, and then it seemed as if he had found it, finally found a place of rest. His breathing became quiet and, moment by moment, a long draw that occasionally cracked under healing.

It was awhile before Grace joined him in slumber. Curled up beside him, she drew patterns on his skin until his breathing slowed to a mostly peaceful rhythm, writing words--song lyrics-- in the invisible ink of her fingerprints. Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack took turns crooning in the background, her playlist repeating itself when it ran out of new material.

Her mind raced even though her body was still, her thoughts tumbling together in a mad rush of half formed sentences that all seemed to begin with What if. In the end, long after he?d drifted off and in the last moments before she followed, Grace nodded, pressing a soft kiss to his shoulder. ?...Hope so.?

?Long enough, I think.? Grace rolled her eyes internally but said nothing. She was grateful to Sonny for finding reason to hang around, and she tried to convey that to him with the way she glanced over at him as she pulled a fresh cape from the cupboard. Fastening it perhaps just a little too snugly about the man?s neck, she pushed his head forward with two fingertips, studying the line of his neck.

Moving away to her phone, she checked for any messages and then switched the playlist over to something more of her own liking, the nineties alternative grunge list. A Stone Temple Pilots song began to play and she set the phone down again, walking back to Cole. Taking up her shears, she adjusted the angle of his head to suit her and began again.

?Yeah? Josh getting around okay?? He was looking at her over his shoulder, up until her hands directed his head and then she worked the shears. Cole knew she couldn?t use them, he knew that no matter how much she wanted to take a stab at him that she couldn?t. His posture, for all purposes, was relaxed. An indiscernible image of a tattoo peeked out from the back of the collar of his shirt.

?You know what?s being said?? He wasn?t looking at her, ?That you?re filler until Silas finds the girl he wants Josh to marry. You?re just someone that?s here for a little while, passing the time until a better option comes along.?

Grace may have fantasized about jamming those shears into the back of his neck, but she refrained, maintaining perfect professionalism as she worked methodically. With a carefully neutral face, she used the spray bottle to tame a section of hair towards the back of his head and moved on. ?Must suck to have Silas care so much as to who Josh marries, when clearly none of the women he chose were intended for you.? She said it lightly, her tone as breezy as though she were discussing the weather.

She caught him by the chin from behind, her ring and pinky fingers spanning his throat, and in that way she pulled his head back with more force than was strictly necessary, though not enough to actually cause him harm. ?And anyway, wounded or not, Josh is twice the man you are. He?s getting around just fine.? Taking a breath, she used the spray bottle again, trimming the next section. ?With Silas,? she added. The ?which you are not? went without saying.

?Aren?t you damaged goods? Just a little place holder to keep him busy before a real girl comes along? You think Silas wants his nephew off with some damaged goods, or do you think he?s looking for the right kinda girl, the one keepin? herself pure.?

The stylist?s brows rose and fell in rapid succession, but there was no one to see it. The line of her smile was fixed, and fake, and there was a hard edge to it. ?Cheap shot, that.? She commented, ?M?not surprised, though. Cheap?s what you seem to be best at.?

?Josh is just a soft-hearted dog, giving too many losers second chances. Tommy walks around like his bullshit isn?t a thing.? There was a shrug of his shoulders, he smiled even though it wasn?t at her, it was just towards the air, ?Me and Josh go back. A little love tap here and there is just how it?s gonna be for a little while. I?m waitin? for him, but he?s not striking.?

There was a look at her, from the corner of his eyes. One that came with a hard smile, ?You sure that boy of yours steps up like you think he does??

Breathing deeply through her nose to keep herself calm, Grace skirted along the side of him, pushing his head only somewhat gently away so she could do the section above his ear. Tests within tests. She?d prepared for this, and the onslaught wasn?t unexpected, but that didn?t mean it didn?t sting. That much more grateful for Sonny?s presence, she took pains not to show it. The girl rolled her eyes, affecting a bravado she didn?t entirely feel. ?You seem pretty preoccupied with my man,? she said with a shrug. ?Maybe that?s why you didn?t need a woman.?

Sonny was starting to key into the conversation. He had, at this point, prepared himself a bowl of soup. It was reheating in the microwave. When the weight of his full attention went to Cole, the two held one another?s gaze for a few seconds. The air felt as if they might break into a brawl, but the two of them had been at this place before. Sonny was giving him a look, the sort of look that asked him if they were really going to have to go there.

Cole felt the shears over the edge of his ear. Even with Sonny?s gaze pressing on him, he spoke, ?Maybe if he took care of things, I wouldn?t have to be so preoccupied. I guess that?s what happens when your uncle is in charge.?

The microwave beeped. Sonny cleared his throat, ?He?s handling things just fine, considering you haven?t been watching his back. A man is only as good as the people with him so if you ask me? you?ve been dragging him down for the last few months.?

Grace cleared her throat and moved around him to the other side. She tipped his head away again, this time in the opposite direction. Much as she may have wanted to cut him, to draw blood, she didn?t. The haircut itself would be perfect, of course, and she?d give him no reason to go to Silas or any other with complaints of her treatment.

Listening to the exchange between the two men, Grace shook her head. ?You really don?t realize the position you?re in, do you?? This was for Cole, though her gaze had lingered for a moment on Sonny.

?I wasn?t asking you.? Cole shot a look at Sonny, who frowned and took his soup out of the microwave. His hip leaned against the counter as he blew on the surface of the chicken and rice soup before spooning out a bite.

Grace turned her eyes from him, but she might have felt the ?oh?? reaction he had to what she said. His head remained, turned in the direction away from her. His hair was black, each hair standing out in contrast against the color of his skin. His shoulders were broader than Josh?s, roped with the kind of muscle that said he put in the sort of effort to have it. That he was a soldier who was preparing for what would happen next.

Finishing off the side, she stepped around one of his knees to complete her work. ?Drop your chin,? she instructed him, using her comb to pull the black hair forward, into his eyes. Sighting the line she wanted, her scissors moved quickly, the metal flashing as it caught the reflection of the overhead lights. A little fringe of hairs fell like acid rain.

She shrugged. ?I?m just a stylist and I?m super new here,? she said it breezily, nonchalant, in a voice so sweet it was practically syrupy. ?What do I know? But you sure seem interested in what I thought, huh?? Shaking her head, Grace made one final cut and stepped back. Moving around to the back, she pulled the velcro apart and slid the cape from his shoulders. ?There, you?re done.?


?Yeah, we?ll see.? His hands gripped the ends of the chair before he pulled himself forward. Sonny was watching him without watching too much. He was maneuvering the spoon around the chicken and rice, his eyes moving to watch Cole when he stood up. There was a moment as if Sonny might throw the soup at him and a fight would begin. No doubt there were hard feelings all around about Josh. Things happened, they always happened, but the way Cole had gotten the jump on Josh had turned against him. Instead of undermining the MacIntosh kid, people had risen to show him support. The fight had been too dirty, it hadn?t made Josh look weak but like a survivor.

?Thanks,? when he said it, he was looking at Sonny. His eyes moved down to the hair clippings on the floor.

The door opened, ?Whoa,? it was Ezra, who seemed to immediately wish he was anywhere BUT that place, at that moment.

There was a weight to the way she?d said it, you?re done. A smile lingered on full lips, but there was no warmth in it and it didn?t make those luminescent eyes sparkle with life. The smile was a knowing one, hard with an edge to it. Fierce. She turned away from him as he stood up, rolling her eyes once as she reached for the push broom.

Her gaze slid to Ezra -- two allies in the room now -- as he entered, and then back to Cole. ?A word of advice, Cole? Stop fighting him. There?ll come a day where you?ll either walk forward with him, or you won?t.? Sweeping the last of the hair into the little dustpan, she gave him her brightest, most polite smile. ?Have a great day, hm? Come on in, Ezra.? The attention shift was deliberate, dismissive. ?Want a beer or somethin?? There?s some soup I think unless Sonny ate it all??

?You think?? Cole cut her a look, but it wasn?t a question. The sound of his voice bordered on a threat. It was enough that Sonny quit chewing his food, anticipating that he might have to do something. Cole took a few steps further away from her. Sonny?s eyes stayed on him, but his spoon moved to scoop up another bite.

?Beer? No, I got to drive in a little bit.? Ezra didn?t mind the pick ups, and he did well to step around Cole, bowing his face to the floor in a way that said he didn?t want any trouble. Ezra was good at that, he kept his head down and his eyes open. Cole wasn?t worried about him and was, in some way, eased by Ezra?s recognition of him.

Cole went out the door. Sonny stared at it, but every thought on his mind was pretty clear. Not that he ever said it. His phone went off and he put down the bowl, punching out a message.

?Jenny got you??

?Yeah.? He didn?t look up, he just kept typing. Occasionally his phone buzzed as there was a response.

Ezra checked with Grace before he sat down, ?You need a break or anything or? ??

She cut him a look but didn?t otherwise respond; Grace had said what she needed to and didn?t intend to be drawn into it further. The way she deliberately turned away from him after that look was a bravado she didn?t entirely feel, but she knew better than to not affect it. There was a tension in her shoulders, squared and rigid, her posture ramrod straight and her breath relatively shallow until the mean one had vacated the premises.

Taking a deep breath, she let it out in a sigh of relief once he?d gone. Her shoulders sagged a little, and truth be told she might have indulged in a beer just then had Ezra taken her up on her offer. She raked her fingers through her hair and gave the remaining men a wan smile as if to apologize for her reaction. Recovering herself a moment later, her real smile found its way onto her face for Ezra. ?Nope, I?m all good. Please,? she gestured the recently vacated chair as she set the push broom aside.

Hesitating only a half a second before she did it, the little stylist dropped to a crouch there at the small pile of clipped hair she?d made, pinched some between her fingers and folded it into a paper towel for safe keeping.

?He?s like that.? Ezra said with a half uncomfortable smile. His hands were on the tops of his thighs in a way that was so purposeful that it was clear he wasn?t sure what to do with them. The tension in the air could have been cut with a knife. He didn?t know everything, but he had kept his head low enough to know a few things.

?It gets like this when folks know Silas is trying to wrap his head around something. Cole?s just always been that way, anyway. Total asshole to you until he knows you?re good. He and Josh have been at it for like? I dunno.? His eyes went to Sonny, ?Couple of weeks??

The Ox shrugged, but also nodded. It was a noncommittal confirmation of what Erza voiced.

?What I?m saying is? he?s the mean one. And like? the mean one isn?t the leader.? But Cole hadn?t figured that part out yet. Ezra wasn?t going to enlighten him. If anything, it was all meant to reassure Grace. It was the story of how Cole never won, that however hard he tried he was not the piece that fit into that slot. That didn?t mean he wasn?t performing some function of the camp. As far as mean ones went? No one left bruises like Cole, and only a few would stare him down when it came to blows.

Sonny rarely did any fighting. Most of the time, it didn?t have to come to that. And with Sonny being as close to Josh as he was? The Ox was like an enormous shield. Sonny had achieved the impossible-- he was the right hand man without being the right hand man.

Grace had moved away while Ezra sat down. She wasn?t looking at him, preoccupied as she was with shaking the hair out of the used capes and folding them over the arm of another chair, retrieving a new one from the pile. She was listening, though, her body language said she was taking in every word he shared despite the lack of eye contact.

When she?d rejoined him in the kitchen, the little stylist shook out the plasticky fabric of the cape and fastened it gently around his neck. She took a moment to wash her hands in the sink and then, shaking the excess water from them, she threaded her supple fingers into the thick shock of dark hair. Of all of Josh?s boys she?d met so far, Ezra was the most conventionally handsome. He was softer, too, with less hard edges, but the things he was saying just now indicated a clear intelligence and keen observation skills. In another life, a different set of circumstances, Grace might have more readily taken to Ezra than she had to Josh. But time and Silas had intervened, cutting off that path forever.

?Yea, but he doesn?t know that. He doesn?t seem to realize that he?s a pawn, being used to mold Josh and not actually to challenge him.? Grace replied to his train of thought, her wide green eyes fixed on Ezra?s hair. Her nails ran gently over his scalp, pulling on the longest strands lightly to check the way they naturally fell. ?You have good hair,? she murmured, slipping her hands away at last. She twisted at the waist to gather her scissors.

?So you?re like? umm?? Without the obvious topic of conversation, Ezra struggled with the small talk. It could have been that Josh?s girl made him nervous. It could have been that a hot girl made him nervous.

A softer, more muted version of her Christmas bells laugh was a musical hum over his shoulder as his sentence trailed off. ?I?m a lot of things, yea. I don?t pretend I?m not a source of high speculation around here, what with everything. What do you want to know??

Grace poured herself a glass of tea from the fridge while Silas got settled, having a long drink from the cup before she set it on the counter. Lacing her fingers together as though in prayer, she flexed her hands suddenly inwards, causing nearly all of the knuckles to pop at once. Shaking her hands out as they came unlaced, the girl floated over to the cabinets to retrieve another clean cape, shook it out and returned to him, fastening it in place around his neck.

His laughter brought out her answering smile even as it unsettled her. For a flicker of a second, she could picture Silas with pastel ?mermaid? hair, his beard braided elaborately with daisies woven into it. The image made her smile more, and she ran her fingers over his scalp to coax the hair back and check the way it fell. If it was strange to her, to touch her boyfriend?s uncle this way, she didn?t show it, her manner as friendly and professional as it would have been had he been a stranger who walked into the salon. When she was satisfied that she knew what she was going to do, Grace lifted her shears and got started.

The boss was talking about Josh again. It didn?t take rocket science to know that he kept bringing his nephew up on purpose, that there was a point to all of this. To promising Sonny that Josh was alright in front of her. To commenting on how he was doing to her directly. The little stylist looked briefly at Sonny, but kept her focus trained mostly on her work. ?Well of course he is,? she answered breezily, the loyal, smitten girlfriend. ?He?s a very capable man.?

?Take this,? he held the cup out to Sonny, who half bowed to take the mug from him and set it at the corner of the counter.

?He is,? the Uncle said with a small note of approval, one of his eyebrows cocking up, ?he had to be to keep on going like he did. That boy, though, he doesn?t play chess much.? Silas cleared his throat. Sonny checked his phone like he needed to keep on looking busy.

?How?s camp been for you so far? You?ve kept your head above water.? He was commenting about the whole situation, with Rachel and Kate. It was all hen gossip and hen problems, but those had a way of spiraling, of becoming everyone?s annoyance if they weren?t handled promptly.

The sound of the man?s voice told her she hadn?t been far off. Tests within tests. Grace smiled just a little, using her comb in tandem with the shears to give Silas a top quality haircut in the most traditional style. She worked smoothly and without interruption, efficient and precise. Rotating around to the side of his head, she pondered the concept of chess.

?I don?t know,? she mused. ?I can?t speak for how often he plays it, but he seems like the type to come out on top--eventually--no matter what game you throw at him.? There was something to be said for the man?s dogged determination. Maybe he wasn?t the most complex person ever, but did he really need to be? Josh seemed to get his aims accomplished -- acquiring the girlfriend, handling Jasper, even getting her a phone despite how much pain he was in -- no matter how ambitious.

He asked her how she was getting on, and Grace worked on trimming the hair just over his ear. ?Oh, Camp?s great,? she said it almost nonchalantly, but there was a note of sincere warmth there. ?But what?s not to love? Family, security, a good job, m?able to be useful around the Camp--? she could have been referring to the haircuts, but she could also just as easily be referring to handling Kate for Jenny, or taking care of Josh while he was injured, ?--and Josh too. I feel pretty fortunate to be here.?

?Fortunate is good, we have a lot to offer. Not everyone sees that right from the get go.? Maybe he was referring to Kate, or the Kates which had come before. He watched Grace occasionally from the corner of his eye, or head on when the moment allowed. Silas didn?t stare, his style was to be offhand, to be falsely casual.

?I like you for the boy. You?re smart, you?re capable, you know what to say.? Silas said with a smile as he looked at her, ?Fine qualities in a woman. You?re no Jenny, though, that?s a woman who is of her own class.? He chuckled, ?No offense, you?re still new here. But I was thinking,? his head tilted for her shears, to make the angle easier, ?I was thinking that you had a wasted potential. That you could be doing more. Does that sound like something to you??

You know what to say. Grace had a feeling it was this quality more than any other he approved of, but she didn?t say so. She continued on at her work, maintaining that same air of faux casual intimacy, chatting like they were old friends just passing the time. The truth of it was a whole lot deeper than that and both knew that the other knew it. Maybe Grace didn?t like to play chess either, but that didn?t mean she didn?t know how.

She took the compliment and its subsequent put down in stride. ?Force of nature, that one,? Grace said of Jenny, sounding genuinely impressed. ?You?re right though, I?m new. Everyone has their part to play.?

The little stylist took a moment to ponder an answer to his latest question as she moved around the other side, brushing the hair at his temples back with her comb before attending to the fine trimming that needed to be done. This had the mark of another test on it, and she needed a few seconds to come up with an answer she thought he was looking for. ?...Depends,? she said carefully, at last. ?I rather feel that Josh is my first priority, and my place is at his side, but there are a lot of hours in the day he might be busy.? It was her way of saying that she was open to hearing what he had to say, but her loyalty to Josh was very well marked and she wouldn?t work against him.

?You have a very fine mouth about you. Josh must be pleased.? Silas looked at her and then sighed, long and slow, ?and I know of your losses, and they are not small. Some people fold and become less when they are tried. Others become more. I believe you?re the sort of woman that has become more.?

Sonny was brought to life with the gesture of his hand. He brought back to Silas the cup of coffee, smiling in a half hearted way. The man reached for it, pushing aside the plastic cape so that he could take a swallow before continuing.

?You see, in politics, there is never any rest. Josh is busy, he?s a good soldier.? Silas was not saying that he was a good leader. It was a kind omission before he continued, ?I wanted the boy to make a deposit and pick up on his own. He?s been very comfortable with Sonny and Ezra and Michael. Someone who gets too codependent ends up dying.?

?But,? he said with a pause, checking his watch, ?I suspect he?ll be back soon. He?s a clever boy.? Or a dead boy.

Her smile was tight but it looked genuine enough. She knew better than to answer questions about her mouth and whether or not Josh was pleased with it, but the lift of her brows seemed to say well, I haven?t had any complaints. She had reached the front of him by that point, and paused in her ministrations as he spoke of her losses.

Twice so far, her life had been marked with unspeakable tragedy, and both times she?d only narrowly escaped through fate, circumstance and maybe good fortune. Her skinny shoulders rose and fell in a narrow shrug. ?Tragedy comes for everyone sooner or later,? she said quietly. ?You either keep moving or it drags you under.?

She stepped out of the way while he drank his coffee, then moved back when he was finished. Grace listened in silence, then raised her scissors to the edge of his beard. ?He?ll be back,? she said it confidently, as though it could end no other way. She smiled. ?You?ll want to keep still for this next bit.?

?Silas,? The door said the name when it was opened. There was Josh, a line of blood at the corner of his mouth, a bag in one hand. With a grunt he tossed it to his Uncle?s feet. It wasn?t much, it wasn?t the sort of money anyone ever went to go die over. His voice was rocky, breaking over the flesh of his healing lungs, ?Is that all??

Uncle never broke, he never faltered. All he ever did was smile at Josh?s return. Sonny put down his mug, but hesitated until Silas waved him on to approach. The ox slung Josh?s arm over his shoulders, feeling the weight of his childhood friend slump weakly against him.

?Oh, well, you know. Some lessons have to be learned the hard way.? He was looking at Grace.

?Hi Baby,? Grace said it softly, looking over her shoulder at him with a warm smile of greeting. Her scissors were poised mid-air just inches from Silas? lower lip, and though the sight of the blood at Josh?s mouth may have caused her wide eyes to widen further, she didn?t say anything about it, and neither did she put those scissors to the use she was suddenly envisioning in her mind.

Swallowing roughly, she turned her attention to Silas, stepped around the bag of money that had also landed at her feet and went back to trimming his mustache. She wouldn?t acknowledge that Josh looked hurt in front of his uncle, but at least she could give Sonny a minute to check him over and see how bad it was.

?Let?s grab a beer,? Sonny said to him, looking at Silas longways to get permission.

?Hey babe,? he cut to Grace, but his eyes went to Sonny when their arms locked like that.

?Drinking this early? That seems a bit reckless. Go ahead, though, and have fun.? Silas waved his hand, under the plastic cape. It looked like a lewd motion that couldn?t be understood, half veiled because of the pseudo cloth.

?Sure, if it turns into a party, we?ll send you the invite.? Josh was keeping her out of it. He hadn?t looked at her much since he entered, he hadn?t fed her lines or opportunity, but what he had seemed to catch was the white of her eyes, the pause of her scissors. No. This was life, and life never gave a man a break. He stepped out like a three-legged race with Sonny. The door yawned like hollow metal, and it was just the two of them.

?What you need to know about men,? Silas began, looking at her through the reflection of the small, kitchen window. It distorted her image, but not so much that he couldn?t meet her blurry eye-contact, ?--is that they need to be challenged in order to survive. If you make life easy? They will be lazy, they will do nothing and they will **** around the whole day. Josh needs to be busy.?

Grace didn?t turn to look at them again, but she kept an ear on their movements until they?d departed. She waited, her glittery green eyes on Silas as he imparted his words of wisdom, her scissors at the ready. When he was finished, she nodded, her tone light. ?I?ll keep that in mind, just in case I ever find myself in a position to be telling any men what to do.? She flashed him a playful smile and then gently touched his chin with a single fingertip. ?Lift your chin for me??

She was quick and precise in grooming the older man?s beard, her mind focused mostly on Josh. Seemed like the ribs had only just barely healed and now he was hurt again already? She had heard more than seen the way Sonny had supported him on the way out, the subtle shift in weight as Sonny more or less held him upright. She was worried, but she also made a point to make a perfect mask of calm on her face, keeping her thoughts concealed.

?Not about you ever telling them, just about you knowing how things work. Josh needs to be busy,? Silas nodded like he was speaking from a book, then his chin jutted up at her command, ?That boy has a hard head. If he?s smart with it then he won?t have to want for much.?

Silas wasn?t looking at her, the angle was too severe to allow for proper eye contact. He continued to speak, ?And what are you wanting for??

The job would have gone easier -- or at least more quickly -- with clippers. But Grace had a point to prove, or at least it felt that way, regarding her precision and skill. She did it the old fashioned way, with comb and scissors and a calculating eye, all the while maintaining the conversation he insisted on carrying. Most men shut up when she stretched their throats like this, all too aware of the razor sharp metal blades that moved like lightning against the Adam?s apple, but it seemed that Silas, too, had a point to prove.

Tests within tests. It was a dance but it was also a game of chicken. She kept at her task, determined not to cut him. ?Oh, the same thing any woman wants,? answered Grace, without batting a lash or letting herself be interrupted in her task. ?A family...eventually.?

?You know you?re a good girl, but you?re not gonna be his girl. I hope you?re not misunderstanding that.? He spoke like two people. The first was someone who was bringing unwanted news to a family, as if expressing that a loved one they had hoped to see had, instead, just died in battle. The second person he sounded like was a cynical harbinger, reminding her that what would be would be, and that the innards of a calf did not predict it would be her.

Cole was an ****, but he was right.

Josh was a soldier, but he was still hers. For now.

Her scissors didn?t slip, much as she may have wanted them to. She didn?t falter or flinch. If there was a flush of color at her throat, Grace would swear it was because the room was warm, that it was the flurry of activity and the heat put off by the coffee maker. Her shrug was nonchalant, her face a mask of perfect decorum as she stepped away from him at last. ?I said eventually. You?re done.?

?Good,? the cape was given a tug, small leaves of hair jumping to the ground in a slow float, ?don?t forget to finish the job.?

Maybe Josh wasn?t a Hollywood heartthrob, but it was easy to see why people found him attractive when he smiled like that. Grace watched him at his work, and of course she was at least a little bit curious what he was doing, but then he gave her that smile and called her closer, and she found herself smiling back.

Twisting to get her knees underneath her, she did as he asked, crossing the short distance to him on the mattress as the pile of blankets fell away from her at last. Balancing one hand on the bed, she transferred herself into his lap, wrapping short little legs loosely around the back of his hips as she settled there. Her exchanges with two different men, one considerably more intimidating that then other, still weighed heavy on her shoulders, but there were no hidden cameras, no one to show off for. Josh?s actions, his desire to see her, to have her sit with him, seemed genuine. There was that at least to say for it.

?Yeah,? nodded Grace, answering his question. ?I told Cole to quit fighting you. That there would come a day that he would either stand with you or he...wouldn?t.?

One thing he had was a set of eyes that he used, and he knew her little smile. When it broke happily, when it broke with ease. Maybe she knew it, maybe she didn?t, but he?d known since he stepped in that room that she had some sort of thought she was withholding from him. Grace didn?t have a terrible poker face, it wasn?t about that. What it was about was the fact that he knew that the little things mattered. The devil was in the details.

?Cole gives crap to everyone he suspects could be a problem, and none to the people in charge.? That really left Josh with only one option-- he had to be in a place to run things over Cole. As it was? Josh and Cole were in the same position in camp. They were both runners, they both handled the deals and brought in the money.

?Don?t worry about him, worry about me,? it was flirty, not foreboding.

Grace started to say something and then didn?t, letting the thought die on her lips. Josh had a set of eyes on him and so did Grace. Any survivor of an abusive situation learns to be hyper vigilant about their surroundings, and the subtle shifts in the people who took up space in their proximity; there hadn?t been enough time yet for her to have dropped that skill. The man had made it overwhelmingly clear that he wasn?t interested in her insight, so she held her tongue and didn?t argue.

That was another skill the little lady had mastered, though she didn?t like it much: keeping her mouth shut.

It was altogether another matter when he broached the subject that was most immediately on her mind anyway. Vividly green eyes studied his face, the part of her lips thoughtful. ?Do you really want me?? She asked suddenly, and it could have been flirty, but it was also perfectly serious.

?You?re about five minutes from fucked, yeah, I?d say I want you,? it was a harsh joke, it wasn?t something he should have said to her, but with the guys. That was how men spoke when they boasted their abilities. It wasn?t how you spoke to a half-vulnerable, half-flirting woman who straddled your lap.

?What is it? You?ve got something there,? he pointed at her eyes and then his hand dropped down at her hip, ?Something that?s not being said. You can?t let a fucker like Cole get to you cause he just has too much motive for anything he says to be real.? He was either being subtly playful, or just adjusting his weight when his hips pushed up into hers, briefly.

It was coarse, but Grace was accustomed to coarse. The sudden exhale through her nose was not quite a laugh, but it was close enough to count. It did something to alleviate the stress she felt in any event, so it wasn?t as far off the mark as it could have been. She shook her head, one shoulder lifting in a shrug when he questioned her about it. She wasn?t surprised that he?d picked up on her distress-- she hadn?t exactly tried to hide it.

Before she could answer, he went on, and this time Grace did smile, though it wasn?t the one she?d given him earlier. ?S?not Cole. I expected Cole to be an asshole and he came through with flying colors.? The girl rolled her eyes, which showed rather plainly how much she thought of Cole, but then she was back to shrugging thoughtfully. ?No, it?s just? we were both of us kind of pushed into this, and like? I know I asked you what you wanted before anything really happened with us but?? She frowned. ?You?re like the one man here who hasn?t said anything about my past. Does it bother you??

?Not Cole?? That was some minor surprise to him, though he leaned forward to kiss her collarbones and shoulders as she spoke. With the frown and the question he pulled back, leaning his back against the wall at the head of her bed, ?Sometimes, but I don?t have time to fuck around with fragile, pretty flowers. You?re still here, still standing, you?re pushing through the shit you went through and that?s the sort of person I need.? Mac needed someone who didn?t let being hurt be an excuse.

One of his hands pushed up her back, under the stretchy tank top. He looked up at her, ?I don?t have to babysit you, and I?m getting real tired of treating people gentle.?

Her brows shifted upwards, but the flicker of light in her oversized eyes indicated amusement. ?Oh, so now I?m not pretty, either?? She teased him lightly with a shake of her head. Josh?s assessment was interesting, and it didn?t match at all the conclusions that most people came to when they looked at her. She had been through some unimaginable losses, but the young MacIntosh apparently saw the steel it had put into her spine, where everyone else only ever saw the heaping of hurts and bruises. There was something oddly liberating about it, and Grace took a deep breath, trying to release the tension she felt on the exhale.

?That?s reassuring. It?s just?? She lifted her hands, looking him in the face as she brought them up, running her nails lightly over the sides of his head. There was no sense dancing around it, so she put it plainly. ?Silas. He pushed us together in the first place, and today he informed me that we have an expiration date. That I?m ?? she lifted one hand away, gesturing vaguely with it. ?...basically just a bed warmer or whatever until the appropriate girl for you comes along.?

?Silas will test you every fuckin? minute of the day. What he says and what the fuck he means is something you make of on your own,? his eyebrows raised just slightly then as he looked at her. Maybe the man with the bruised ribs and the cut lip knew something about what Silas said and did, how there were hundreds of tests that no one could ever win. Josh wasn?t telling her that it was or wasn?t true-- that part didn?t matter. Not to him, and not in this explanation.

?Hey,? he cleared his throat looking at her, ?you can give yourself cancer trying to wrap your head around him. Truth is? Just gotta be you, do what you do and don?t play out scenarios that aren?t happening and haven?t happened. You?ll get all anxious about everything and it?ll show.? Anxious wasn?t good. Anxious looked fragile, it looked unreliable and like the person was too malleable. Though, Josh hadn?t been this comforting with her before. Maybe she had just hit upon a topic he had known, something he lived with all the time and didn?t get to talk about.

?I don?t really care about Silas,? she said when he?d finished, and the hand that had been in his hair drifted down the side of his neck onto his shoulder. ?I know he was just...pushing me around to prove that he could. An? I even know -- logically -- that it?s probably good that he does, in his way? He?s not a man to waste time on making chess pieces of people who don?t matter.? Josh was comforting her, and in her way she was also comforting him. You matter. He uses people as pawns to test you because how you do matters. Her thumb moved gently over his collarbone.

?What I care about is you, Josh. Whatever our reasons for getting together, I...like you. And I?m not some...irrational, insecure girl asking for airy promises or pretty words. I just...need to know that--now--you?re with me because you want to be.? She paused. ?And that whatever happens with us happens because of us, not him.?

?I?m with you ?cause I want to be.? both of his hands dropped to the sides of her waist, giving it a squeeze, ?Now get out of these clothes.? There?s his smile, the one with the catch in it. The one that someone would know from a mile away, and it was all hers. The parts that bled, the parts that were bruised, and the parts that were strong and strangely compelling. Even Rachel, with the long legs, had initially had eyes for him. There was something people saw in him though he never really was their perfect little moviestar.

Grace was a pretty little face in town, it didn?t take a scientist to know that a few eyes had tried to catch her, to see if there was a give in the armor. Silas wasn?t the only one that was testing. Josh knew, because of the rumors, that she?d been made of steel.

She was a little surprised to find herself embraced--much less kissed--after what she?d done, but pleasantly so. Pressing her mouth to his lightly, Grace gave Josh what he wanted again: she rolled onto her side, pillowed her head in the soft depression between his chest and shoulder, her body pressing flush into his side as one hand skated across his belly to hold him. Kissing his chest gently, she settled in beside him, held close in his arm.

They were a pair of battle weary survivors, seeking safe haven in each other?s arms. Was that what love was? Being able to feel safe together? Knowing that you could close your eyes and rest, confident that the person beside you would be there in the morning, would still be the same person when you woke up? Maybe so. It damn sure wasn?t nothing, however strange or artificial their circumstances might otherwise have been. Taking a deep breath, Grace let it out again, slowly, a cool rush of air across his chest. Maybe it wasn?t Heaven, but that didn?t make it bad. Sometimes ?not bad? could be practically perfect.

*****

When he dreamed, he hoped for a lot of things that would never come true. The worst was when he saw his Dad. He didn?t know if dreaming about him made the reality of who he was seem far away, or if it was a reminder that something was missing.

What he missed the most was the way it felt to be his father?s son. Half of that had been his identity. He was Josh?s boy. He looked just like his daddy. They had the same smile, the same impatience. They wore the same hat. Sometimes, when he dreamed and saw his father, it felt like he had wanted it all his life. Sometimes, it was a nightmare, and he woke up just to find relief.

That night, his father had asked him a question.

?Boy,? he breathed out the smoke of his cigarette. His father?s shoulders were broader than his, but he wasn?t as tall as Josh would become when he grew up. His father adjusted his hat before he spoke, ?You know what the most important thing in life is?? He tapped his cigarette.

Josh thought he heard a faucet running so fiercely that the sink was overflowing. Somewhere, water was beginning to pour, to threaten damage and one hell of a clean up. He was eight, he felt it in how tiny his body was. He cleared his throat, but didn?t say anything. What was the most important?

?This,? his father put his cigarette out on the table top, ?what we do, moment by moment, day by day. Are you fucking around with it??

Josh opened his eyes to feel the morning, sucking in a breath and flipping his head, catching the sight of Grace curled up against him. At first, he wasn?t sure where he was, but as the rush of the dream passed, recognition for all the items around him returned. He was there, with her, in that trailer which was incidentally a private one they shared. He cleared his throat and opted to kiss her on the forehead.

In the grayish space between full consciousness and full sleep, Grace was caught in the outer edges of a dream herself. That kiss was like a beacon in the dark, a powerful magnet that drew her the rest of the way out of it. Wide green eyes peeling open, she reached for him instinctively, pulled herself closer into him as though she could hide herself in his frame.

It was the way a drowning person clung to a flotation device, the way someone in the desert might hug a water thermos. She pressed her face into his chest for a long moment, her breath shallow until she forced it to calm. On an exhale, she said his name. ?Josh.?

?Hey,? his voice still sounded like morning, the tone tired and soft. Grace planted herself in close to him and he met it with the squeeze of one arm, ?Everything?s fine. You?re here with me.?

That was the closest Josh had ever come to talking about Jasper, about the rumors or what he thought had or hadn?t happened. First thing in the morning, tired and still sore, he knew what it was like to wake up and feel empty, to feel like a wound was new. Sometimes you just needed a few minutes to let it pass, to know that time had passed and there were scabs and scars instead of active bleeding.

He didn?t believe he could save her from everything and that it would all be fine, he just believed she needed to hear it. They all fucking needed to hear it.

You?re here with me. His voice was the anchor she needed to drag herself out of the lake of fire nightmarescape. The press of his limbs, the reassuring solidity of his chest, the steady thrum of his heartbeat against her ear, they were the breadcrumb trail Grace followed back to consciousness, to the present moment, to now.

Taking a shaky breath and letting it out again, the diminutive girl shook her head, clearing her mind. ?Sorry,? she apologized in a soft whisper, though her hold on his frame hadn?t yet relented. ?It?s...I have these stupid dreams, sometimes.? Grappling with the daunting task of figuring out the balance between explaining herself enough and not giving him a bunch of details he wasn?t interested in. ?I...um.? Relinquishing her hold on him at last, she pulled her arm back, rubbing at her eye childishly. ?How...how did you sleep??

?Just a dream. Think about something else,? His arm was around her, holding her there with one more squeeze before it was a relaxed weight down her shoulder and side. He breathed in deep to stretch his chest, coughing afterward, but the cough had become less. There was no sound of swearing, though it must have still hurt. There was still a ways to go from him.

He hadn?t seemed to move at all in his sleep, a small contrast to the first time she had been over with him. She asked him about his sleep and he cleared his throat, ?Better since Sonny?s ass wasn?t there to keep me awake.? He ran his tongue over the fuzz on his teeth, feeling a slippery white layer in the back of his mouth. With a frown his head turned, trying to find a clock he could read, ?I need to brush my teeth and--? he was going to say go on a run, but he hadn?t been able to do that, ?stretch, or something.?

Grace was already thinking about something else; she was thinking about how Henry had reacted to these fire dreams with derision. If Josh?s tone was dismissive, it was dismissive only of the dream itself--his hold on her tiny frame had not relented until after her tightly coiled muscles relaxed, and even now he still held her, if loosely.

Rolling onto her belly, she leaned slightly over him, planting a grateful kiss on his chest. Her stomach made a rumbling sound, and she realized suddenly that she?d gone to bed with him without having dinner. The poor thing was pretty much starving. ?There?s one of those toothbrush three-packs in the bathroom that isn?t open yet,? she said, transferring her weight to one elbow so she could reach across him for her phone. Swiping her thumb across the screen, the clock on its face told her that it was just after eight thirty in the morning. Plenty of time still before she had to get to work. ?What do you want for breakfast??

?What are my choices?? He yawned, turning his head away from her and then looking back in her direction. The smell of his skin was a warm scent, like hers except for a heavier musk that spelled out a worn out day he had before. He cleaned himself simply with a dial soap bar and occasionally used a mint based lotion for his face, though it didn?t do much to soften his five o?clock shadow.

?Yeah, I need to move around a little. Feels like someone put lead in my veins or something,? he sat up from her, slowly, grunting when he was finally upright enough to swing his feet off the side of the bed and stand up. His shoulders hung forward like a boxer, but it was likely slightly more comfortable than straight upright. Not that it was good for his healing, it was just the easier thing to do first thing in the morning. Josh wasn?t struck first by the need to eat, but the need to piss and walk away the ache sleep brought him was dominating. He shuffled around a bit, almost missing the bathroom door and then he stepped in. Apparently, he was not entirely awake yet.

When Josh sat up, Grace shifted back onto her back. Stretching, she ran a mental inventory of the contents of her fridge, balling a fist against a yawn. The sharp edges of the dream were gradually receding, replaced as they were by the regular mundane tasks of waking up and getting the day started. ?Um.. I know there are eggs. Pretty sure I have bacon. Might have everything I need for pancakes??

Planting her hands flat on the mattress, the girl pushed herself upright at last, casting a quick glance around the bed for the pajamas she?d started out in. Locating her tanktop, she plucked it from the twist of sheets and pulled it on again, then tugged her little shorts back on afterwards. Shifting onto her knees, Grace snagged his boxers from where they?d been discarded at the foot of the bed, and turned to look at him just in time to see him walk past the bathroom door and double back again. She added ?make coffee? as a new top priority.

He still had that early twenties lean, coupled with the fact that he kept himself active. Half of why he jogged, though he didn?t think about it, was stress control. There wasn?t anything to think about other than your breathing and where you would take your next step. Then, with your energy spent you either hit that second active high or you could lay back, feeling at ease and sated. What Josh knew was that there were a few guys in the crew, guys like Cole, who put in an effort to have their punches hurt when they landed.

He wasn?t sure why brushing his teeth made him feel better, as if his whole body had been wiped down and he was more awake. He fished in one of the drawers and tugged out a toothbrush from the pack and then squirted the paste on it and started. Not-mint. That wasn?t the flavor he was expecting but once he turned the tube over and saw that it was cinnamon, the surprise of it was gone.

Josh finished brushing his teeth like he was polishing knives for war. They weren?t perfect, the bottom row had the crooked ones and it seemed that his canines were turned, just a bit, which was probably part of why his smile had that hook in it. The toothbrush was left in the cup next to hers and when he emerged. He looked for the boxers and saw them laid out on the bed.