But Judge could have handled it by himself.
Imogen was matchmaking, maybe Duncan too, and possibly they’d pulled Tom in on it.
He just wished they’d thought it through.
“I could ask them if I can do it alone,” he offered.
Her brows dipped. “I can concentrate, Judge.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
What he meant dawned on her and she nodded.
But she said, “They trust me to look after Dad.”
“He’s a grown man. He can look after himself.”
“What I mean is the entire family, as well as Dad. Look out for the whole. We don’t…The Pierce-Swans don’t do anything without someone at their back.”
“Do you mean without Chloe at their back?”
“Sometimes,” she hedged.
He shook his body on hers, which meant shaking hers.
“Okay, a lot of the time,” she allowed. “Still, Mom’s out, or she’s not quite, but she still is. So it’s me.”
“I’ll do the grunt work.”
She shot him an arch look. “You were going to do that before.”
He chuckled then gave her a quick kiss before he elaborated. “What I mean is, I’ll shield you as best as I can.”
At that, her mouth actually dropped open.
And at that, Judge officially got pissed.
“You mean to tell me, no one has ever shielded you?”
She clamped her mouth shut then used it to lie, “Of course they have.”
“Only Szabo?”
She had to think about that one.
To put a fine point on it, she had to think about the lie she’d tell to get him not to be ticked about the fact that some dude who wasn’t even blood, lived in another state and had jetted around the globe for most of his adult life, but was now very dead, was the only one who was at her back.
“Don’t even try to lie about it,” he growled.
She defended them. “Everybody has a lot on their plate.”
“And you don’t?”
She shut up.
“Doesn’t matter,” he bit off, knifing up from her and pulling her with him. When they were toe to toe beside the couch, he said, “I’m taking lead. Not,” he said his last sharply, also lifting a finger to touch it to her lips when she opened them to speak, “taking over. We’re in this together. But I’m lead. I’m buffer between Duncan and Tom. I’ll do the grunt work and the comms, which I’ll split between the two of them. They won’t be in a meeting together. It’s my program anyway. You make sure the Pierce-Swans are covered, give your dad moral support when needed, but the heavy lifting will be on me.”
“You double up on meetings, that’s twice as much work for you.”
“If I need to talk to your dad, I have to come to Phoenix. Is that an issue for you?”
She got a smug look on her face. “Bien sûr que non.”
“And that means no?”
She nodded.
“You like me,” he teased.
“You like me,” she returned.
“Yeah,” he whispered. “I do.”
Her face got soft.
He kissed her again.
With regret, he ended it and ordered, “Now, go up and get my coat.”
“Hmm,” was her weird reply. It was followed by a lie. “I took it to the dry cleaners.”
Judge started laughing. “What is it with you and that coat?”
She gave a slight shrug. “It smells like you.”
He stopped laughing.
And then he leaned so far into her, when he kissed her again, they were back on the couch.
In the end, he had to text Rix to say he’d be an hour later than he expected.
Rix said not to bother, Zeke was now his.
He went over to his buddy’s house to get his dog anyway.
Incidentally, he left Chloe’s place without his coat.
Chapter 12
The Bequeathal
Chloe
The next morning, once I’d parked behind my store, I could barely wait to pull my phone out of my bag because a string of texts had come in while I was driving.
And I knew they were from Judge.
Like a little girl ripping into her presents Christmas morning, I yanked my phone out and saw Santa gave me what I wanted.
They were from Judge.
They included:
Wednesday, regardless of all that salted meat, don’t plan to cook.
And then, We’ll order pizza.
And then, Best weekend this year so far, honey.
The first made me laugh because of his reference to the meat.
The second made me crave the prosciutto and date pizza from Federal. It also made me wonder if Judge would like that, because I could have it waiting for him when he got to my house on Wednesday (or whatever pizza he wanted…from Federal).
The last made me laugh, because we were only two weekends into the year.
Still, his point was made.
Because I agreed.
Last weekend was the best I’d had in a long time.
These texts all came after last night’s, Home. And performed the miracle of convincing Rix to hand over my dog.
To which I’d been in such a Judge Haze, I’d not hesitated to reply, Good. Give him pets for me and tell him Auntie Coco looks forward to meeting him.