“Devon,” I said, still in a bit of shock.

“That I am,” he replied, smiling sweetly. “What brings you ladies my way? I like your hair, by the way. You look like a sexy pixie.”

Before leaving, I’d had Tricia, my hairdresser, fix the butcher job left by the doctors. Indeed, she had given me a hot pixie bob, long in the front and nearly nonexistent in the back. I liked it, too, but I was happy Phil hadn’t seen me before we’d left. He would’ve had a conniption at the loss of my too long hair.

“Where are your men?” he asked, looking around as if Phil and X would pop up any second.

Alys gasped, and the blood drained from my face.

“You haven’t heard?” I asked him.

Devon’s features turned highly concerned. “Heard what? I’ve been in Tibet since February.”

Alys and I just stared at him, unable to say a word.

He cocked an eyebrow at us. “What happened?”

“You didn’t hear about the bus accident in Canada…” I wasn’t asking.

Looking alarmed now, he asked, “What fucking bus accident?”

The bartender came over, and Alys sniffled, ordering us shots of Jäger. Devon declined. He didn’t drink hard liquor.

“Kenna,” he insisted in a warning tone.

We told him about Flipper’s broken arm and ribs and Jason’s mangled face, which had healed beautifully. He was still a knockout, maybe even more so now. Then, I told him about Phil’s busted body.

“X didn’t make it.” My voice shook.

Next to me, Alys whimpered softly, covering her face with her hands.

“What?” Devon breathed.

“There’s more,” I said.

I explained what Phil had done to himself afterward.

“Where is he?” Devon asked quietly.

“Gentle Oak Rehab Center in Colorado,” I whispered, not wanting anyone else in the lounge to hear.

Devon nodded.

“The guys are there with him. I’ve been banished. I wasn’t able to fix him, so we’re being punished with forced separation,” I complained bitterly.

“I’m guessing he didn’t take that well.”

“No. But…he really needs to do this, and I would have just been in the way.” I sighed. “I know it’s for the best.”

“It’s not forever,” he said in an attempt to console me.

“I hope not.”

Devon gave me a hug, and then he got up and pulled Alys into his arms. Unable to hold back any longer, she broke down into sobs, and he rocked her back and forth.

“It’s going to be all right, Alys,” he murmured to her.

The look in his eyes spoke of knowing such a thing firsthand. While he did have a powerful aura about him, a spiritual-awakening sort of glow, his eyes still lingered with the pain of losing someone he’d loved. Brigid had damaged him.

“Where are you ladies headed?” he asked me, not releasing Alys.

I couldn’t tell him. He was under no obligation to keep it from Phil. The only people who knew where we were going were our parents and Connor.

“Somewhere we can try to pull our lives out of this mess we’re in,” said Alys.

Devon nodded. “I know the feeling.”

“Where are you headed?” I asked.

“I was going home to Ireland to see my parents.”

Warmth blossomed in my chest. I had the feeling his plans had changed, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

“We should head to our gate, Alys,” I said.

We finished our drinks, and then Alys and I hugged Devon good-bye and went our separate ways.

“He’s not going to Ireland now, is he?” Alys whispered.

“I think he’s booking a flight to Colorado,” I replied.

“After this last flight, I’m going to need ten weeks just to recover from flying,” groaned Alys.

Phil

After the first uneventful evening of hanging with my new paid friends, the real work began. Tatiana woke me up before the damn sunrise and had me doing floor stretches and shit like that, working out my range of motion. Doing it made me think of my Baby Girl, how I used to watch her, amazed by the shit her body could do.

Kenna had tried to get me to do yoga, wanting to add it to the routine she’d worked out to help me, but I’d been an ass and said it was for pussies. Thinking about that caused a tidal wave of shame to crash through me. A pussy was the last thing my Baby Girl was. She had to be the strongest, bravest person I knew.

While on my back with my legs in the air, I remembered that Connor did yoga every day, and that cat was fuckin’ buff. He had to be as strong as I’d been before the accident. He had amazing control, and his energy levels were off the charts.

It’s time I seriously start doin’ this shit. When I get my Baby Girl back, I’ll do it with her.

Tatiana decided it would be a good idea to stretch out my lower back, so she made me do this move where my waist got twisted to the side and my knee shoved across my body, pinching my junk between my thighs.

“Augh!” I cried out.

“Your pelvis?” she asked, cool as a cucumber.

“My nuts!”

Her lips twitched, and she eased back, so I could adjust myself. Then, she pulled the move again, practically spreading herself out over me. Her tits were on my ribs, her hand holding on to my shoulder. It was a bit of unnecessary contact.

“My fiancée is a doctor of therapeutic medicine,” I mentioned in an offhanded sort of way.

“Really?”

“Uh-huh. I’ve gotten some awesome treatments from her. She does acupuncture, too. She had her own clinic before it got blown up. After that, she worked with drug addicts, detoxing and doing pain-relief treatments without using more drugs. Mostly heroin junkies who shouldn’t be on shit like morphine.”

Tatiana sat back and switched to the other side. This time, she kept her tits to herself. “It must upset her greatly to have you here for something she worked so hard with.”

“I ain’t an addict,” I snapped. “I went off on a bender after my best friend was killed. There’s a fuckin’ difference.”

“So, why isn’t she helping you now?”

“Because…I wouldn’t listen to her,” I admitted.

She loved me enough to let me go. Again. All I want is to be with her, and all she wants…is for me to be well. Healthy.

Fuck! I’m such a selfish douche bag!

“So, she just gave up on you?”

This woman was seriously starting to piss me right the fuck off.

And there she goes with the tits again!

Kenna had stretched the fuck outta me on several occasions, doing these exact moves, and she had always been professional even though I’d always had a raging hard-on whenever she touched me. Suddenly, my respect for my woman magnified a hundred-fold. She respected herself and her profession too much to taint her practice, even with the man she’d fuck like a freak after-hours.

When our session ended and Tatiana’s boobs were finally out of my face, I had a shrinking session with David. Gustav had made me a strawberry smoothie to take with me.

“How was the physio this morning?” David asked.

I sat down and set my crutches aside. “I want someone else—a dude who won’t take every opportunity to push his tits on me and ask mean questions about my fiancée,” I said, just throwing it out there.

Giving me a surprised look, he nodded. “All right. Were you sexually harassed by Tatiana?”

“I felt uncomfortable. I thought I was here to get help, not felt up.”

“Do you want to file a complaint?”

“No. I just want someone else, someone who will really help me learn yoga. My brother-in-law does it, and he’s in amazin’ shape. Connor—the giant fuckin’ ginger?”

David nodded again. “Would you want him to join you in your yoga sessions?”

“Dirty fuckin’ hippie would love that.”

“What about you? Would you want that?”

“Yeah, sure. I want someone who’s as good at it as he and my fiancée are.”

“What’s your fiancée’s name?”