“Yeah.” I nodded. “Well, getting paid for it, anyway. Yolanda got me the job. I don’t think it would have occurred to me that I could beat people up for a living.”
“You were living on the streets for a while there, weren’t you?”
“For a bit,” I said with another shrug. I swallowed hard and stared out the window.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Stacy said. “I spent quite a bit of time living out of my car back in the day.”
“Oh yeah?”
“When my husband walked out, I didn’t have a job. No education, no experience—I thought I would always be a housewife. I couldn’t pay for the house anymore, and he was just gone, so I took the kids to live with my parents in the country while I looked for work here. It was a while before I found something that would let me actually pay for a place. Dordy took a chance on me, just like he did with you.”
“Whatever pays the rent, huh?”
“Oh, I like what I do well enough,” she said. “My kids are all grown and moved off now, but you lot make good substitutes. My kids stayed with my parents for some time while I was working things out. They deserved better than I could give them then.”
I nodded, and Stacy turned the last corner and parked in front of the apartment building. I jumped out and lifted the bookcase from the back seat.
“Pie in the sky blue! Sky blue!” Krazy Katie started screaming from the fire escape.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
“Ignore her,” I said to Stacy. “She’s a nut.”
I gently placed the bookshelf down on the walkway and turned to thank Stacy for the ride.
“Don’t you worry about it,” she said. “It was my pleasure.”
“It made the trek home a lot easier,” I said with a smile. “I’ll see ya tomorrow night.”
I turned to pick up the bookcase and drag it up the stairs, but she stopped me.
“Oh, and Liam, dear?” Stacy reached her arm out the window as she called back to me. I walked back to the car and leaned against the roof with one hand. “You deserve better, too, you know.”
She patted my arm and then drove away with me standing there in the street and watching her go. I let out anoth
er big sigh, picked up the bookcase, and headed inside.
I had to move the stand that held the television over a bit to make room for the bookcase along the wall. Once it was situated, I opened up the first box of books and tried to arrange them in some kind of order on the shelves. Most of the books were fiction—a few classics, a couple of romance novels, Terry Pratchett, and some Stephen King. It was kind of a weird combination, but none of it really looked like crap.
Well, except for the romances.
There was some non-fiction mixed in—all stuff for her classes or whatever. I put those on the bottom shelf since they were bigger books and the bottom shelf was a little taller than the other two. For the most part, I just arranged them by size.
I sat back when they were all on there and admired my work. With the books on it, it really didn’t look too bad. The paint made all the difference, and I was going to have to thank Stacy for it again.
I was just standing up and dusting off the top of the shelf when I heard the door open and Tria come in. She noticed the bookshelf immediately, and her eyes widened in surprise.
“Where did you get that?” she asked.
“Around,” I said with a shrug. I couldn’t help but smile as she walked over and inspected it. “It’s not very pretty or anything, but at least you don’t have to dig around in those boxes anymore.”
“It’s perfect, Liam!” she exclaimed.
Before I knew what was happening, she had turned and thrown her arms around my neck. A moment later, I felt the light press of her lips against my cheek, and I was relatively sure all the organs in my body had turned to liquid and congregated in my feet.
“Thank you so much,” she said softly as she pulled away. Her cheeks had flushed, and I found myself clenching my fists to stop myself from jumping her right there and fucking her on the floor. My tongue felt thick, and it was hard to take in a breath. I could still feel the coolness of the moisture her mouth had left against my skin.
“No problem,” I finally managed to say after swallowing a few times.