So, obviously, buying a bunch of cream puffs, éclairs, mille-feuilles, and petit fours at half off because the customer who’d ordered them hadn’t picked them up, plus my extra twenty percent employee discount, was in order.

It had already been in order but it was currently more in order.

And luckily, due to my next paycheck being augmented, I could actually (mostly) afford it.

LeLane’s still was in the throes of the flu epidemic, but the two cashiers who’d first gone down were back, which meant I had two days off.

Two days off where I’d be moving stuff in, unpacking it, doing chores, and running errands.

I couldn’t wait to live in that house.

But I needed another day off.

Or three.

I was dead on my feet.

Or, more aptly, dead on my behind on a stool at Chaos.

I was also faking it. I was getting to know these people, and if they got one whiff I was struggling, they’d kidnap me, take me to the nearest luxury hotel, lock me in a room, and only disturb me to send up a massage therapist and, maybe, a skin technician.

“Babe, this is cool,” Tack said, and I focused on him to see him tipping his head to the bar laden with pastries but he was looking at me. “Unnecessary but cool.”

I pinned a bright smile on my face as I contradicted, “Necessary and the least I could do.”

He grinned.

Boz, with a ring of chocolate stuck in the long whiskers around his mouth, declared, “Never stepped foot in that store. Thought they were up their own asses. They got éclairs like this, I’m goin’ every day.”

Bonus, I’d bought LeLane’s a new customer.

He shoved the second half of his fourth éclair in his mouth and I turned my bright smile to him.

“Shee-it! What the fuck?” I heard hooted by Hound (who was at the other end of the bar, annihilating the petit fours).

After that I heard a catcall and a low whistle.

And finally, Boz shouted, “Fuck me. Joke cleans up good!”

That made me grin genuinely though I didn’t understand the reaction to Joker since I hadn’t seen him yet. Still, any promise of Joker in my vicinity would make me grin and do it genuinely.

Joker had told me he had something to do that morning and would come and get me around nine thirty. I told him I had something to bring to the Compound so I’d meet him there.

Now he was there.

And that made me happy.

Until he came into view.

That made me freeze.

It was him. I knew it was. I could see his eyes. The color of his hair. His usual faded jeans, tee, and leather jacket.

I could also see his face.

All of it.

He’d shaved.