Again, Cher didn’t speak.

He gave her time.

She said nothing.

“Am I back to provin’ shit to you?” he pushed.

“No.” Her voice was strange in a way he’d never heard from Cher. It was almost timid. “I’m here for you to lay it on me what comes of that, Merry.”

Thank fuck.

That took a lot for her. He knew it.

And he was glad for it.

So as he drove, he lifted her hand and brushed her knuckles with his lips, feeling her fingers curl around his almost too tight as he did it.

He dropped their hands back to his thigh, glanced at her, and said, “Thanks, brown eyes.”

“Don’t mention it,” she muttered.

He looked back to the road.

“Am I gonna have to take this bitch down?” she asked.

A Cher and Mia catfight.

Mia didn’t stand a chance.

He grinned at the road.

“No.”

“Things could get dicey in the dressing room of the strip club, gorgeous. All those bitches stealin’ eye shadow and boyfriends and shit. It got ugly. So if she keeps sendin’ you pictures and givin’ you crap and you need me to take her out, you just call. I’m there for you.”

“Good to know you got my back.”

She’d been teasing.

She was absolutely not teasing when she stated, “You got mine, you get that back. Always, Merry.”

He lifted her hand and kissed it again.

Her fingers didn’t curl too tight that time, but they still held on.

When he had her hand to his thigh, she asked, “Is that it?”

“That’s it.”

“No high school girlfriend gonna come outta the woodwork that’s gotta be dealt with?”

“I didn’t have a high school girlfriend,” he told her.

“Oh,” she mumbled.

“I had seven.”

He heard her sigh before she kept mumbling, “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

He smiled at the road.

“Just to note,” she began, “you already know my boy is excited enough about us to send you text messages pretending to be me. But when I told Mom we were goin’ out, she did a grab-and-hold stupid girlie hop.”

Garrett started chuckling.

Cher kept talking.

“She called you the last good one standing.” She let that hang, then finished, “No pressure, though.”

He burst out laughing.

She squeezed his hand, then he smelled her perfume stronger before he sensed her closer, which was right before she touched her lips to the hinge of his jaw.

“Since we’re layin’ it out,” she whispered in his ear, “you should know, I love it when I make you laugh.”

He tightened his hand on the wheel as he felt a tightening in his crotch and the same in his chest.

“We’re too far from home now, honey,” he muttered. “Stop bein’ sweet and sit in your seat like a good girl.”

He felt her nose flick his ear before she did as told.

But she kept hold of his hand.

This was good since Garrett had no intention of letting her go.