“He’s on his way,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he said.

“He can’t watch me dance, Auggie,” I told him. “He can’t see me dance.”

“Hey,” he said then grabbed my neck on either side “Hey, hey, hey,” he repeated, and I knew why.

The damned tears were building in my eyes.

“My boy thinks you’re the shit, babe,” he said.

Another “babe.”

Yeesh.

I didn’t have it in me to get into that.

Mag was on his way and he was going to see me dance.

“I gotta get out of my head, you know, to do it,” I shared. “I gotta be like, a different Evie in order to be able to go out there. I’m not like Lottie. She’s talented and she’s proud of her abilities, of her body, she understands the world where this exists. She puts things in boxes. She uses them to get what she wants and she’s at one with that. I’m not…that’s not me.”

“I can get that,” he replied.

“I won’t be able to get out of my head if Danny’s watching.”

He kept his hands on me even as he straightened and declared, “I’ll stay.”

I shook my head. “No, no, no. You spent all day with me. You need to go home or do something you want to do.”

“I’ll stay, look after you, drive you to Mag’s after.”

“Auggie, I can’t ask you to—”

“Evan, he’s going to keep it in check, for you. But he’s gonna like watchin’ you dance for a bunch of horny assholes about as much as you’re gonna like him watchin’ you dance for a bunch of horny assholes. I’ll stay.”

“No. Seriously. I wouldn’t feel right if—”

“You know, Duke called Hawk last night.”

Uh-oh.

I wasn’t sure that was good.

I closed my mouth.

“Now, Hawk was there when Mag talked to your brother. So, Hawk gets an earful about how your ma talked to you. And so, Mo, Boone, Axl and me get a call to haul our asses to the office last night. We get there and Hawk is pissed.”

Oh man.

I hadn’t met Hawk yet, but by virtue of his name, and him commanding a crew of commandos, I had a feeling him being pissed was not a good thing.

“He’s got a daughter, you with me?” Auggie asked.

I nodded.

“He also had another daughter, who, while he was deployed, got shot in a drive-by shooting. His wife had a brother who was bad news. His wife refused to give up on that brother. She got shot too. Neither of them survived.”

“Ohmigod,” I breathed.

Poor Hawk.

“So, to say he’s not down with you getting shit on is an understatement. Before, he was resigned to one of his boys getting tied up in some messy shit. Now we’re under orders to handle it.”

Which meant now, even a man I’d never met was looking out for me.

“And the list of people I owe keeps getting longer,” I mumbled.

“You know, that’s what those assholes put in your head and you got it stuck so deep in there, you don’t see you don’t live that life. You gonna make Gert pay you back for taking care of her? You expect Bobbie to do something for your brother in exchange for Legos?”

“Of course not.”

“Then shut it down about owing shit, Evan. This is what people do in life, that is, if they’re worth dick. Sometimes you give. Sometimes you get. The measure of a person is how gracious they can be when they’re in the position they have to receive.”

“You know, you’re actually more annoying when you’re being nice,” I told him.

He smiled, wide and white, then folded me in his arms and gave me a tight, brotherly hug complete with a kiss on the side of my head.

Then he let me go and shoved me toward the door to the dressing room and said, “Go. Get ready. I’ll explain things to Mag.”

I moved to the door to do as he said, but turned at it and called, “Auggie.”

He already had his phone to his ear, but he turned his head to me.

“Thank you.”

He jerked up his chin and then said, “Mag? Yeah. Evie and I had a chat and she’s not at the place where she’s down with you bein’ here while she dances. I’m on her tonight. I’ll bring her to you after.” A pause and then, “No, yeah, really, brother. Evie needs this and I got her. Okay?”

His attention focused on me and he nodded.

“Cool, Mag,” he said. “I’ll call when we’re on our way to your place.”

I heaved out a breath, mouthed “thank you” to him again, and then pushed in the door.

My shoulder was practically dislocated when I was yanked inside.

“What in the holy hell-blazin’ fuck?”

I blinked at Ryn, another dancer, who was scowling at me.

A half second after, I saw I was surrounded by Ryn, Pepper and Hattie, with Lottie behind them, arms crossed on her chest, foot out, a smug look on her face.

She’d instigated an ambush.

“Uh, hello, Evan?” Ryn called my attention back to her. “I’ve cozied up to you in a fake lesbionic, tip-inducing wonder scene more times than I can count, and you don’t pick up the phone and call when your brother lands you in deep shit?”

“I mean, seriously,” Hattie said then looked at the other two girls. “We look out for each other. Am I right? Sisterhood.”

“You’re right,” Ryn replied.

“Breaking this down,” Pepper entered the three-way conversation that just happened to involve four people. “We’re hurt you hung with the Rock Chicks and let them clean up your pad and you didn’t call on us.”

They were hurt?

I liked them.

I knew they liked me.

But when I needed help and I didn’t call, they were hurt?

Wow.

“Well, I didn’t really—” I began to share that was not at my instigation, or my choice, but that was as far as I got.

“It’s us from now on,” Ryn declared. “The Dream Team. The Rock Chicks are cool and all, but we’re next gen.”

“So, you know, Lottie says there’s more stuff to go through and you have to sift through some of it, so we’re gonna go do that tomorrow.” Pepper flipped a hand at the three of them, as well as me. “All of us. We’ll meet at your place at noon. I’m bringing lunch. And tonight has been declared a benefit for the rejuvenation of Evie’s pad. All the dancers are giving you their tips. Even Carla and Dominique.”

I opened my mouth.

“No,” Hattie said quietly, and that was Hattie. She was gorgeous and she could dance almost as good as Lottie. In fact, she’d studied dancing for years and wanted to go professional, but life, as it was wont to do, got in the way. But offstage, she was quiet. Even timid. “Don’t, Evie. And you know why.”

I did.

My life wasn’t the only life that had a mess in it somewhere, either on the surface, or buried deep.

I’d taken all their backs before.

Including Carla and Dominique.

“You should know,” I said to Pepper, who I knew Lottie was in the throes of fixing up with Auggie. “Auggie’s out there. He’s on duty to look after me tonight.”