"I think I finally get it."

"Get what?" There was something about the look in his eyes, the confidence, the surety, that had me swallowing hard.

"You." And as he smiled, it was almost smug. "I get you, Oz. You're a little, Aren't you?"

If only I had known at the time just how much those few little words were going to change my life.

The Little Of Oz Series

/"So the broken boy returns?/" Unblinking, unsmiling, the same strict air of dominance that often cloaked Deacon surrounded his mother.

She was the bird and I was the prey. All-seeing, her eyes drew from me my every silent thought; it could have been paranoia, but something about the way that she was looking at me made it clear that she knew what had just happened between me and her son in the car.

It made me feel as though she knew of how my lips still tingled, brought to life beneath the fleeting touch of another. It made me feel that she knew of the way my heart was in my throat, every breath spreading the dominating pulse further around my body.

/"Mama,/" Deacon greeted softly as he swaggered over to the counter, dropping a kiss on her cheek. /"Isaac is going to be helping me out in the shop for the next couple of day, is that okay?/"

Dazed, but not altogether out of it, his words had me doing a double-take. /"I'm doing what now?/"

Chapter114