There was still some whiskey left in the bottle in Reece’s room, but he’d lingered after eating dinner, studying the bar before ducking behind it and having a beer. He wasn’t in a hard liquor mood, not like the other day, but he was declaring today the the kind of day that earned a beer at the end of it, watching the lights flicker for what felt like the millionth time. He hadn’t doubted the power system here, but with that storm raging outside, he was starting to think about it. The last thing any of them needed was to wind up in the dark.
For her part, Mojo was starting to see a benefit to the candles she’d stockpiled when she’d first met Wren. Granted, none of them were with her now as she moved into the cafeteria with a bright grin on her face. Mojo was, of course, fairly damp. Her hair clung to her scalp and cheeks as she moved, winding up the excess fabric of her shirt to wring it out uncaringly as she moved. When she spotted Reece she couldn’t help grinning a little, heading his way. “What, you hiding from the thunder?” she called.
“And you were playing in it?” Reece answered, not able to help the fact that he was matching her grin with his own. What was it with him and seeing this woman wet? It was definitely a sight for sore eyes, but at the same time he was almost sure it was going to get him into trouble. He hadn’t met a woman yet that hadn’t gotten him into trouble beyond his own mother. Even his sisters didn’t count as they were prone to blaming him for things growing up.
“Well yeah, it’s a storm,” Mojo shot back as if it should’ve been obvious. “And since I doubt we’re at risk for flooding or having this place blown over? Why not?” Which was her entire outlook, really; why not? It made life so much more fun when Mojo asked herself that, though if she thought on it too long she’d have to admit it was also what landed her in jail. “Got a plan there, Conner?” she asked as she headed over, “Gonna drink all the beer so it doesn’t go skunky if we lose power?”
“Minus getting sucked up like Dorothy I guess there isn’t much of a reason not to play in it,” Reece said with a shrug, but he hid his smile behind his beer. He wasn’t much for playing in storms, but maybe that was just him. “That was not my plan, but I like it as a plan. You want to help?”
Moving to the bar, Mojo slipped into a seat before starting to idly unknot her wet hair, switching between threading her fingers through it and picking apart thicker clumps. “I think tonight’s probably not the best night for me to get wrecked like that,” she admitted with a sigh of disappointment, “Or really, there’s no good night for it. Being shitfaced is how I started that slide in here, y’know? So... social beers, sure. One, maybe two.”
“There’s never a good night for me to get shit-faced,” Reece agreed before getting her a beer and setting it in front of her once he opened it. “I’d like to blame it for my slide, but all I think it did was speed things up.” He watched her tug at her hair, wanting to help, but not sure she’d react well to that.
Comparing his words to her own downfall made Mojo grimace for a second before she grabbed her beer, drowning the expression in a drink. “And yet here you are,” she noted with a grin, waving a hand at the bar around him. “I think you should probably blame your decision-making skills first, buddy.” She wasn’t malicious with it; they were all convicts after all, but Mojo never really stopped sniping with a smile on her face. “Of course, if you made good choices? You’d be in the library every day or something, which is just a waste when we’ve got a spread like this.”
He caught the grimace but only because he was watching her so closely. "I am the first person to point out that I have a habit of making bad decisions." He wasn't that worried about it either. It was a fact of his life. "I'm not the bookworm type anyway."
“Serious? I would’ve figured that growing up in Kentucky would mean you were eager for anything that’d change the scenery,” Mojo mused before taking another drink, idle with the work on her hair now. It was acquiring a wild, almost ratty look from how she separated it, and between that and the pallor in her skin she had a different quality, something most people found unappealing. “That’s kinda how it was for me, except in reverse?” she went on with a laugh, “Travelling everywhere and shit, you know? I could crack a book and know exactly where I was, driving around didn’t change that setting.”
Abandoning her playing with her hair had him leaning forward trying to fix it even if he wasn’t sure what he could do with it. “Guess I just wasn’t patient enough for it? I’ve read a few, but nothing seemed to really sink in with him.” He could understand though. “So why keep wandering if you didn’t like it?”
Mojo grinned a bit wider when Reece started leaning in, not sure where he was going with the move. She didn’t necessarily back away from it, she was just... aware. “Who said I didn’t like it?” she challenged, winking at him, “I loved travelling, you don’t even know what it’s like to wake up to the Rockies one morning and the ocean the next. To get some space from the anthill life in cities, then just... just go to one and surround yourself with life because you want to.”
Sighing a little before her next drink, Mojo eventually shrugged a shoulder, opting to actually answer his question. “But I kept travelling because I was with my dad, and that’s what we did. And I liked books because they gave some foundation when I wanted it, but if I wanted something else? All I had to do was flip ‘em shut. I’m a fan of absolute freedom, if you missed it Conner,” she teased, “Really I’m probably about as American as it gets. Except for baseball, that’s gayer than eight dudes blowing nine dudes.”
He tugged at her hair trying to fix it, but not really getting anywhere with it. “I never really...got that far from home.” Which probably said something about himself. “Absolute freedom. Never considered the concept.” At least not in the way she had. “I was always more of a basketball fan, but that’s the Kentucky in me.”
“Never?” Mojo balked as she let him toy with her hair, eyes darting between Reece’s hand and his face. “There was never a moment when you just wanted to drop everything and go? Like, it wouldn’t even matter where, just somewhere that wasn’t where you were?” she pressed curiously, “Why not? Give a girl some details here, so far I think all I know about you is where you’re from, what you got locked up for, and that you suck at holding your breath. And, y’know, that you never thought about dropping everything just to see what happened next.”
“Never got far. Often didn’t get even that far past the state line.” He kept working at her hair, almost distracted by it. “Depends on what you want to know. As for why I never left? I guess if I ever felt like that, the wanting to get out of town part, I never stayed gone longer than a weekend or so. Road trip to the beach or something like that.” Reece shrugged his shoulder then took a sip of his beer.
She knew what Reece was talking about, even if Mojo had never experienced it personally. She’d had plenty of friends with roots; most people had something in their lives to draw them into a routine. “Okay...” Mojo pondered with a curious grin hanging behind her bottle, “What’d you want to be when you were a little kid?” Random? Sure. But he’d made the offer.
That made Reece chuckle a little. “A lot of things. Anything that caught my attention. For a little while I wanted to be a bull rider, like in a rodeo. I was like nine and my dad took us to one of those. First time I got to go out with my older brothers. Basketball player, but I wasn’t quite tall enough, but then again I lived in Lexington, Kentucky. Every kid in that area grows up wanting to be a Wildcat.” Even those like him who topped out at 5’11” and weren’t really made for high school sports, let alone getting into college.
Mojo took that in with a small chuckle and another drink. It fit with her perspective of Reece; he was a physical guy, one who probably did well in a frantic situation but didn’t always think the best, long-term. “Okay, now... what was it like the first time you thought you were in love?” she asked next, filing away his first answer and pushing for another entirely random bit of insight.
The lights flickered again and Reece frowned watching them go out, waiting to answer for a moment before they flicked back on again. “First time I thought I was in love?” he echoed, taking a sip of his drink before answering. He knew the answer the moment she asked, but it was still one of those things he hesitated on. “High school. She was way out of my league, but I guess was looking to slum with a bad boy.”
“Right, those are details of it, but what was it like?” Mojo reiterated with a hint of curiosity in her smile. “What was her name, did you do anything stupid because of her, how’d you deal with it ending... all that fun stuff,” she requested before swigging down more beer, “C’mon, Conner, tell me a story.” Sure, it seemed like a lot of Reece’s way around others was just cool indifference, but Mojo was willing to bet some of it was due to bottling things up, too.
Reece took another swig of his beer, finishing it off and reaching for another. “Abigail. Abby. I did a lot of stupid stuff for her. Like...’borrowing’ my dad’s car to help her sneak out of her house at night, skipping classes, got in a fight or two. It was a very heated three months.” He sipped at his new beer after popping the top on it, thinking about what it had been like. He hadn’t ever felt like he really cared about someone that wasn’t family before that moment and there he was head over heels for a girl who had no business being with him. “When it ended I was...angry. Heartbroken. And I felt like an idiot.”
That was closer to what Mojo was looking to hear, something with more detail on Reece himself in those words. And unsurprisingly, Mojo knew that if she hadn’t pressed for it he wouldn’t have volunteered. “What’d you do?” she asked thoughtfully, “Just, like... get over it? Or did it push you towards something else that qualifies as stupid?” She’d never been heartbroken like that herself, never been in love, really the closest for Mojo had been her abandonment four years earlier.
“More than one thing stupid,” Reece said with a nod. “I think I started getting over it with taking out her best friend. Then I got in a fight with her new boyfriend.” He’d been a pain in her side for a good year after the fact. It wasn’t real love, he’d never been in real love, but it seemed like it at the time. “What about you? Ever been in love Mojo?”
“Not even close,” she answered with a wide grin and a tilt of her bottle, parting the expression around it as Mojo took a drink. “I moved around too much, y’know? Longest I’d stuck with anyone was Scott, and that wasn’t even half a year when the accident happened,” Mojo recalled somewhat wistfully, giving half a sigh, “But it wasn’t like it was a bad thing, either. Travelling that much, I learned pretty quick that there’s too many awesome people out there for me to call it good with one. Everyone’s got something good, I guess, and it’s a matter of whether they can see it for themselves or not? That does it for me the few times I’ve been close to being hooked, I like to see gratitude for what you’ve got.”
“I suppose I wasn’t really ever really close either, but had more than once that I thought I was. Always seems like after the fact I wonder why the hell I thought I was in the first place.” Reece shook his head and took a drink. Maybe he just wanted to be. Would have been a nice dream that wasn’t right for him. “Scott?”
Mojo nodded slightly, her levity dimmed by the question even if she’d brought the name up. “My boyfriend back in Denver, he died in the car crash,” she clarified, “I don’t talk about him a whole lot, I guess. Feels... I dunno, just weird. Like I know it hasn’t fully hit even if it’s been months since he died. That shit in the courtyard when Caroline fell? It brought a lot of it back, seeing her out there.” The broken quality of her limbs had been what did it.
“Sorry to hear that,” Reece said about her boyfriend, leaning on the bar more, letting out a sigh and rubbing a hand over his face. “I was in the same boat. Brought back old memories.”
She had a sad smile for Reece at that, shoulders bunching on either side as Mojo leaned against the bar with him. “You get to talk about them much?” she asked curiously, “Because I kinda doubted a male lockup would be really big on expressing yourself or your problems, y’know? And you were in a while...” He’d said five years-ish, she thought, which was a long time to keep memories like either of theirs locked up.
Something flickered across Reece’s face, more from the guilt he’d shoved deep inside for so long, but it didn’t quite surface as guilt. “No. Don’t talk about any of it much.” He took another sip of his drink, not looking at her. “Not much point to it. Can’t change it. What good is talking going to do?”
“It lets you not have a secret?” Mojo asked with a shrug. “I mean, maybe it’s just me, but it feels like having shit you don’t say weighs you down. You think about it at the wrong time or it bleeds into how you are with people. Shit, look at us right now, Fancy,” she pointed out with a smirk before Mojo drained her beer in long swallows just moments before the power dropped, surrounding them in darkness. “Case in fucking point,” Mojo spat in the sudden dark, “Got any of those matches handy?”
“It’s not a secret. What happened is a matter of public record or something,” Reece said shrugging his shoulders. “Not sure what I’d even say.” He looked at her then she wasn’t there and he was looking above him like the lights might turn on again. “Look at us how?” he asked as he dug into his pocket and pulled out the lighter they gave him, flicking that on. “Better than the matches.”
She squinted against the new light, looking away as her eyes adjusted, then back to Reece. “Nicely done, Prometheus. Or do you prefer Zippo?” Mojo asked, eyes flashing in the shadows as she slipped off her barstool. “C’mon, I’ve got candles. Candles I’ll gladly share in exchange for a smoke,” she offered as she lingered near the faint light.
Without much thought to it, Reece reached for her hand, if only to keep from losing her in the dark. “Either works,’ he said pulling her a few steps away from the bar. “Candles for a smoke...I think I can work with that.”
“I think you can work with a lot less,” Mojo joked as he led her through the cafeteria, dully fascinated by the way Reece’s lighter almost made the darkness seem layered around them. “And seriously now,” she went on, “Public record, you think that covers it? I’m pretty sure they don’t include notes about personal trauma related to your conviction.”
“That just makes me...what’s the word. Resourceful?” Reece countered, still holding on to her, but trying not to think too much into it. Or what the power being out meant for all of them. “I sat through a painfully long trial to hear just how badly I screwed up, just what it was I did wrong, and just how responsible I was for the deaths of my friends. What more do you think needs to be on record?” He didn’t want to think of it as a trauma, as much as trying to stop someone from dying was.
Quiet as they moved, Mojo didn’t have an answer right away. She thought maybe she knew how Reece felt, having been there for her boyfriend as he died, but at the same time? It was different, she knew it. “I don’t think anything else needs to be,” she said eventually, “But I do think there’s shit that comes from all of it that maybe you’ve never dwelled on or anything. Like... plans you made before they died, things you never got to finish, I guess. Gotta pick the fragments of the old life out before you can start a new one, right?”
Now it was Reece’s turn to be quiet, considering her question. He’d never been one to make much in the way of plans, and while what she said said made sense, he had a hard time coming up with an answer. “I suppose, no, that hasn’t been talked about. But I don’t know if I’d be able to offer much either. I’ve spent the past five years trying not to think about them.” Which was why he was so shut down about it. It was better than drowning in the guilt he felt.
“You think you could be okay in the outside, carrying that around?” she asked then, waiting a moment before Mojo popped the door of the cafeteria and looked out. The lighting out here wasn’t much better, but there was some low definition to the halls that went with the steady beat of rain pouring down. “I feel like I won’t even if I talk about it, but I guess it’s like... it’d be worse for me not saying something. Did that for a while growing up, it kinda sucks,” Mojo shared as she started down the walkway. Neither of their rooms was far, and thankfully there was cover overhead. As fun as it had been playing in the rain, it had also left a chill clinging to Mojo.
He followed after her, not doubting where she was leading him as he stayed close to the wall, trying to keep mostly dry. “I hadn’t thought about the outside much. Seemed too far away to get my hopes up.” Reece was listening to her though, despite not putting much stock in talking helping him out. “I think i've been doing that my whole life.”
“Oughta try, y’know, not doing that,” Mojo suggested, the humor ringing in her words as she stopped at her door. “Feels pretty good to know you can just vent, which you totally can if you ever need to. I like hearing about other peoples’ lives, even when they aren’t the best,” she added without insult. They were both prisoners, after all. Leaning a shoulder into her door, Mojo disengaged her hand from Reece’s and held it out patiently. “Lighter, please?”
Reece handed her the lighter, not quite sure he wanted to let go of her hand, but he didn’t protest. “I can vent to you? Why would you want to listen to that?” Did he even want to talk about it? He wasn’t sure. He hadn’t thought about it since it happened.
“Did you have a stroke right after I offered?” she quipped, plucking the lighter from Reece and popping her door open. “What you’ve lived and what I’ve lived are totally different, and I want to hear how and why and what it’s like; whether it bums you out or makes you laugh sometimes or whatever,” Mojo rambled, moving into the dark ahead of him. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll relate to some of it, maybe I’ll have some view you don’t. Shit, maybe I’ll have nothing. No way to know before it happens.”
Her steps had taken her away from him and in, and for a moment Mojo’s voice was the only way to place her. Then the lighter sparked again, the small flame revealing Mojo as she held it to a candle’s wick and doubled it. Snuffing the lighter, Mojo tossed it back Reece’s way as she brought the candle to meet another where it sat on her dresser, then a third. Bit by bit, she bathed her room in candle light, detailing an erratic placement of ten candles around her room. She’d melted them to her desk and dresser top for lack of holders, framing in her pilfered books and chess board, and once they were all lit? Mojo grinned a little, tugging open a drawer on her desk to produce a few more candles. “I figure you just might need these at some point,” she offered, something safe after the somber topics they’d been discussing.
Reece could have answered what she suggested, but the spark of light from the lighter caught his attention instead. He found himself just watching her instead, the way the light bounced off her features, the way, as she lit more of the candles, the room had a softer glow to it. Without being invited he found himself drawn more into her room, half by the way it looked, the collection of books and other items that she’d grabbed and half because it was her. Despite her dampness and the messy hair, the candlelight made her look more enchanting than usual. “Probably. If I go back upstairs.”
“Well you’re sure as shit not staying in here tonight,” Mojo pointed out with a wider grin returning to her as she moved towards Reece, candles in hand. “You’re a good dude and all? But yeah, no grief-banging after what we’ve been talking about.” And again, there wasn’t anything directly harsh in her tone or stance, just that frank honesty Mojo seemed to live by. She hoped he was used to it by now, because Reece wouldn’t be the first person to just not be willing to tolerate her quirks. “Not that I’m kicking you out yet, either. Just drawing the lines for once. When I don’t feel like it, shit gets messy for me really fast, and I’m honestly not missing that part of my old life too much.”
He was surprised she shot him down so quickly, but he wound up shrugging. “That because of Susanna?” he asked, sitting on her desk chair even if that was only half an invitation. He wasn’t entirely put off by her honesty, even if the rejection did sting a touch. He probably earned that though. Reece laughed slightly at himself, though it was a touch on the humorless side. “I think everything about my life is messy. I would be surprised if it wasn’t messy. If I could actually do something to keep it from being that.”
Head shaking at his question, Mojo stopped as she got close enough that she was looking down at Reece in his seat. “Not even a little because of her,” she assured him, offering over the candles, “For real, Conner? I’d hit that too, put in a good word for me, yeah?” She flashed a crooked smile, her free hand idly settling and tugging at the belt loops of Mojo’s jeans as she stood. “Serious though, I just... I know I’ve got plenty of my own shit to deal with. I want to do that before I start mixing it up with other peoples’ again. You don’t need it, you know?”
“I will do that, though I’m not sure you’re her type,” Reece said with a smirk. “As much as I would pay to see that.” He took the candles, but his eyes were on her hand tugging at her jeans and he found himself reaching with his free hand to tug at it as well, pulling her towards him. “What kind of shit do you have to deal with?” He didn’t know what he did and didn’t need, but he never was any good at sorting that out.
“Oh bullshit,” Mojo protested quickly, “I am everyone’s type.” She couldn’t feign severity for long before a laugh broke through, revealing just how much Mojo bought that idea. “And easy there, Fancy,” she added, reaching down to put a hand on Reece’s shoulder as he pulled her in, bracing herself shy of ending up in Reece’s lap. “I, since you’re so curious, have some... weird remnants from Scott. I’ll tell you that it involved genital mashups and leave it there, cool?” she ventured, doubting it would be. And sure, Meg had heard the story, but it was different to consider telling it to someone that Mojo might’ve ended up in bed with. In... pool, whatever, she thought.
“No I’m everyone’s type,” Reece countered, but it wasn’t the truth. He knew better. When she braced herself, he didn’t pull at her more, letting her stop where she was even if his hand stayed on her. “No, not cool. That doesn’t make sense.” And left him more than confused, which showed on his features in the candlelight.
Sighing at his insistence, Mojo reached down to Reece’s hand at her jeans, gentle and mindful as she removed it. It was harder, it seemed, to share this with him than with Meg; probably because there was attraction to consider. “I’m saying he died with me fucking him, okay?” she said in a lower voice, taking a step back from Reece as her arms folded across her stomach. “We were driving to a party, he kept trying to put a hand up my skirt instead of watching the road, and I told him I’d help keep his eyes dead ahead,” Mojo recalled, “So I climbed into his lap and started going. Then he went through the guardrail. And I.... shit, Reece, the last thing he did before he died was get inside me.” Maybe not the absolute last, but it was the last thing before the crash, and clearly it clung to Mojo.
He let her pull away even if he made a little face at it, but at least he didn’t fight it. When she explained his eyebrow went up more, not sure what to make of that. “Shit.” What to say was well beyond him which meant he was almost certain he’d say something he shouldn’t. “I get how that would fuck you up. And there is this crass, moronic part of me that’s thinking there are worse ways to die. I’ve seen people die worse ways.”
“Me too,” Mojo muttered in response, “Like the half hour after, when he bled out.” It was still too vivid in her mind how Scott had wept for help, but there’d been none, and Mojo had to quash the kneejerk reflex that told her to bury those memories under some heated contact with Reece. Those instincts were the problem, she couldn’t hide from what had happened under sensory overload. “Sorry,” Mojo apologized with a shrug, reaching up to untangle her hair again, “I just feel wrong when it comes to hooking up, and I shouldn’t have even made a move in the pool if I felt like this. Like, you know I’ll crack a joke at anything, yeah? But that... the idea that nailing me was literally to die for? Not funny, for once.”
He reached out, one hand on her hip as he pulled her closer, more to comfort to push something else. “Like half an hour worth of bleeding out. Familiar with that. Too familiar. In my mug shot there was blood on my hands and all over my clothes.” They’d used that picture at every turn to make him look like a killer. “No one said anything about hooking up. At least I didn’t just yet. It was in my head, but I get it.” It was a fucked up enough thing for him not to be mad. Though he wasn’t leaving, which was pretty sure was what he should be doing. Then again, he wasn’t exactly good at doing what he should be doing.
It still felt different to Mojo, like their pasts didn’t overlap as much as Reece might think, but she could see the effort on his part to console her. “No, I know you’re not pushing for it or anything,” she assured him, “But I figure that sooner or later you might want to, and it’s just better if you know now.” Otherwise, who knew what might happen? No one liked it when their bed-mate broke down in tears mid-coitus, and Mojo was hoping that wasn’t going to happen to her. Still, better safe than sorry. “You’re alright, you know? The shit that happened to you, the time you served, and you’re still a decent dude, Conner,” Mojo complimented softly, “I know you said you were done with Susanna or whatevs, but I hope you line someone else up. It’d do both of you some good, whoever she is.”
“So I know. I’ll keep it in mind.” He didn’t let go of her, holding on to her still. “I think my mom’s to blame for me being decent. That or I’m used to going unnoticed. Sort of fell back on that in prison and mostly just got by.” That and he was intimidating enough when he wanted to be that people didn’t fuck with him much. Then he’d been there for years and most people forgot he existed. Shaking his head a little he managed half a laugh. “I think Susanna is done with me. Or for the most part at least. As for me lining someone decent up, I’m guessing the chances of that happening are slim to none.”
“I think you’ll do just fine,” Mojo countered with a smirk, clapping Reece on the shoulder in mock-confidence. “How many other people in here have even started with two fine-ass ladies already? You mack,” she teased richly before slipping from Reece’s grip. They’d both shared a surprising amount, and there was only so much earnest time Mojo could ever stand before she fell back on humor. “And if you hit a dry spell for real? Come on by even if it’s just to chill with our clothes on. I’ll teach you chess,” Mojo offered with a chuckle, nodding to one side where the chessboard sat atop her dresser, pieces from both sides already in play.
Reece half laughed shaking his head, as he let her go but his eyes stayed on her. He wasn’t entirely sold on things being completely platonic between them, but he didn’t say it. Not yet. Maybe he’d just be there if her will betrayed her. “You want to teach me chess? You do realize I’m not really that bright right?”
Mojo laughed brighter at that, her smile stretching until her nose crinkled in amusement. “Dude, same boat as you on that one. No highschool for me, remember?” she pointed out, “But luckily for us, chess is less about smarts and more about wits. All you really need to learn is how the pieces move and you’re good to go. You might suck at it? But I do too, so whatever. My dad used to beat my ass at it every time; eventually I got good enough to cause what I call clusterfucks, which is when the board’s locked so any move starts making both players lose pieces left and right.” She rarely won, by her own words, but by now it was becoming apparent that Mojo didn’t pursue much of anything with the same goals as most people. “We could modify it to be strip-chess, if that makes it more appealing for you,” she added with a wink.
“You have more faith in me than I do, but sure. That sounds good. You can try and teach me something.” He grinned at her and nodded. “Yes. I would love that to happen, the strip-chess part, though I also think you’re going to wind up fully clothed with me in my shorts.”
“We’ll figure something out,” she assured Reece with another rich note of laughter. “There’s like twelve pieces, maybe we’ll just have to layer up. Besides, I think I’m the one who hasn’t gotten a full view yet.” Yeah, this could be a problem in the future if Mojo was going to keep being herself. Hopefully Reece could endure temptation. “Just call it motivation to learn faster, I think I even saw a book or two on it in the library. Which, I know going in there scares you?” Mojo teased, “But you’ve got options to weigh now.”
“I am not afraid of the library.” Reece rolled his eyes, then grinned anyway. “You got most of the view. Though any time you want to see the rest, you just ask. I think I can help you out there.” He wasn’t going to be good at resisting, but honestly? He didn’t care one way or another.
“I’m gonna hold you to that,” Mojo assured him with a smirk, deciding that she’d save it for the next time they were in public together. Just for fun. “Past that, though? I’ve armed you with light, so my good deed for the day is done. Go on, Conner,” she teased, nodding at the door, “Throw on an extra blanket and you’ll get through the night.” She knew that well, though in this instance it had a whole other aspect to it; a comfort of a different sort. It’d be a lonely night, no two ways about it, but that was better than trying to voice the mess that was her issues with the accident.
He got up as she essentially kicked him out, drifting a little closer to press a kiss against her cheek. “You know where to find me if you need something.” Reece didn’t want to go, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t going to go anywhere tonight. There was a smile there, even if it was a little fainter than usual.
He was right about that; Mojo’s fires had dimmed in the wake of everything she’d shared with him, leaving her feeling scattered. For once, she didn’t feel like company, more like some storm watching might catch her focus enough to still whatever had been stirred up. “I do, I’m glad it’s close,” she murmured in response, turning into the kiss slightly and reaching a hand up to Reece’s side. “And now that I know it’s never too late to knock? I just might.”
There was no stopping the reaction to run his thumb along her jaw, watching her eyes for a just a touch longer than he should have. In the end, Reece was always a sucker for a pretty face. “Already looking forward to it,” he told her, voice low, giving it a gruffer quality to it. “Stay dry.” He stayed closer for just a touch longer before pulling away, forcing himself to leave before he did more and broke whatever was left of his good manners. Five years in prison hadn’t made him a better person, that much was for sure, and with Susanna he’d already taken the edge off that five year wait, which meant he was better than trying to force something that wasn’t wanted. Or at least get himself out of the situation before he tried. Maybe he was learning something.
Watching him go, Mojo held back a sigh until Reece was properly out the door. If she looked back, the entire sequence of events leading to this moment was just baffling. From lockup to prison to here, and then to Reece and Susanna and everyone she’d met here? It all felt so unexpected, and her own reactions to any given part of it were just as much. Nothing was supposed to have gone this way... but it wasn’t going to keep her down. Not when every moment, however unexpected, somehow reaffirmed Mojo at the same time. Maybe both of them were learning something.