He grinned then his hand went down.

My eyes closed slowly and my lips parted.

“You want the day to go away, baby?” he asked quietly, his fingers moving magically.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

Suddenly his hand was gone but his arms were around me and water splashed everywhere as he pulled me straight out of the tub. He put me on my feet in front of him, my wet body tight to his, his arms wrapped around.

“Brock!” I cried, fingers curved around his biceps.

“Food, rest, hang with the boys until they go to sleep then I’ll make your day go away.”

“Okay, fine but you got the bathroom all wet and you all wet,” I informed him.

“I got dry clothes and the floor’s tile, sweetness. It’s not a big deal. What is a big deal is I can’t keep an eye on you and a finger on the pulse of your state of mind and my boys with you hidin’ in the bathroom, turnin’ yourself into a prune.”

“I’m fine.”

“You had a shit day.”

“I know but I’ll survive.”

He shook his head. “My job is not to help you survive, Tess. It’s to make it safe and sweet when you walk through my door. Now, my woman is not goin’ to bed hungry because my ex-wife is a cunt and her ex-husband is a motherfucking dickhead. She’s gonna eat. She’s gonna curl close to me. She’s gonna show my boys she’s okay. And then we’re gonna go to bed and I’m gonna make her day go away. Yeah?”

That sounded like a good plan. Actually a great plan. Actually, I should have thought of it myself.

So, of course, I agreed and I did that by saying, “Yeah.”

He smiled, dropped his head, and kissed me lightly.

Then he said, “See you downstairs.”

He was at the bathroom door and I had a towel held up in front of me when I called his name and he turned back.

“Vance said you were the reason he was there tonight.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed.

“You didn’t tell me you’d—” I started but he interrupted me, his brows drawing together.

“Yeah, I did, Tess. I said the bakery is on radar.”

I stared at him.

Then I told him, “I thought you meant by the cops.”

“Cops. Lee’s boys. Fuck, I even called Hawk fuckin’ Delgado and asked him to keep his ear to the ground and his eyes open.”