***
Later, spent and relishing every minute of the afterglow, Keegan, with Echo at his side, strolled into the kitchen.
He pulled to an abrupt stop when he saw Smith leaning against the counter. “How’d you get in?” He was sure he locked the door last night.
“I knocked, but you couldn’t have heard, so I used the key you keep hidden for me in the potted mum at the door.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Not long enough to hear you singing in the shower.” Smith looked at Echo and smiled. “Morning,” he said in tune with the gurgle of brewing coffee.
Keegan noticed a blush creeping up Echo’s neck. He found that cute, but hoped Smith wouldn’t notice.
“Good morning, Smith,” she said.
Smith pointed a finger at her and looked over her head at Keegan. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but she blushes.”
She smacked Smith on the arm. “So are you.”
“What?” He nabbed the toaster from the counter and examined his reflection at every angle. “Blushes are for horny thirteen-year-olds,” he mumbled more to himself, Keegan suspected, than anyone.
Echo winked at Keegan.
“I’m not.” Smith placed the toaster back in its place.
She shot him with her finger. “Gotcha.”
“Cute outfit,” he said, pointing to the hot pink leisure suit she wore.
“Keegan said it’s yours.”
Smith looked at Keegan. “It’s not mine, man. It’s…it’s…I can’t remember her name. That redhead with the bowed legs.” He turned to Echo. “Of course, I didn’t know they were bowed until she got out of — ”
Echo mimed a time-out. “Too much info.”
Smith smiling widely, obviously relieved to be able to shift the subject away from him, asked, “What’s on the agenda for today?” He bit into a chocolate doughnut and scratched the top of his head.
“Back to the alley. I’m thinking that’s where the demons’ portal is.”
Keegan’s blood chilled picturing Echo fighting demons. True, that’s what she did, what she was trained to do. That was before, though, when she didn’t have an attachment to a charge, to him. Love might make her careless. Love might make her feel invincible. He needed to protect her.
“I’m going with you,” he said firmly.
“Yeah, me, too,” Smith said.
Echo looked from Keegan to Smith, debating, perhaps, whether to argue. He knew the moment she relented – a quick jut of her chin, a whisper of a smile, and a blink of her eyes, and the decision was made.