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have been as effective. Shit, I had to do something. Slowly, ever so slowly, my hands descended. The overwhelming need to comfort him far outweighed any threat of litigation. Heat kissed the palms of my hands. He felt feverish, perspiration slickening the hard contours of his shoulders and the thick column of his neck. My hands glided over him, doing their best to soothe.
    It was disturbingly nice, being needed by him, being this close to him.
    “It’s okay.” My fingers threaded into his thick dark hair. So soft. No wonder they hadn’t wanted me touching him, now that I’d started, I couldn’t seem to stop. I should have been ashamed of myself, feeling the poor man up at such a time. But he’d been the one to initiate contact. He’d grabbed hold of me seeking comfort and apparently, when it came to him, I had a scary amount to give.
    “What am I gonna say?” he asked, voice muffled against me. “How can I make a fucking speech?”
    “You say what she meant to you. They’ll understand.”
    He snorted.
    “No, really. Just talk from your heart.”
    He took a shuddering breath, resting his forehead against me. “To top it off, she called.”
    “She?” I gave the top of his head a sharp look. Damn it, he had seemed okay. Certainly not delusional. “Who called you?”
    “Mom.”
    “Oh.” This couldn’t be good news. Better than him imagining phone calls from the recently deceased, but still. “What’d she want?”
    “Same fucking thing she always wants. Money.” His voice was harsh and low. So low that I had to strain to hear him. “Warned her to stay away.”
    “She’s in town?”
    A nod. “Threatened to crash the funeral. Told her I’d have her fucking arrested if she did.”
    Hell, the woman sounded like a nightmare.
    “Davie doesn’t know,” he said. “That’s the way it stays.”
    “All right.” I don’t know how wise that was, but it wasn’t my choice to make. “I won’t tell him.”
    His shoulders hitched beneath my hands, his misery surrounding us like an impenetrable shell. Nothing else existed.
    “You’re going to be okay.” I bowed my head and hunched over, sheltering him with my body. My heart ached and emotional detachment was a dream. The compulsion to give to him was too strong. He was usually such a maddening man, so thoughtless and rude. Anger, however, made my job easier. When he behaved like an ass I could remain indifferent for the most part. These dangerous new feelings running through me, however, were soft and sappy, warm and weepy. No way could I afford to care this much.
    Crap.
    What the hell was happening to me?
    He gripped my rounded hips and turned his face up to me, unguarded for once. All of his usual sharp edges were dulled by pain and if anything it just made his beauty more obvious. I licked my suddenly dry lips. Fingers tensed and tightened against me and his forehead bunched as he scowled at the damp patch on the front of my blouse. “Sorry ’bout that.”
    “Not a problem.”
    He let go and my legs wobbled, weak at the loss.
    Intimacy fled and awkwardness rushed right in like a tidal wave. I could almost feel his walls slamming back into place. Mine were slower, weaker, damn them. Someone, somewhere along the line, had swapped my titanium for tinfoil leaving me wide open and exposed. It was all his fault. For a moment he’d actually stepped down from his self-imposed pedestal. He’d been real with me, shown me his fears, and I’d just sort of mumbled some vaguely comforting shit. Honestly, I couldn’t even remember what anymore. Little wonder he’d closed up on me again.
    Also, we were unnaturally close, positioned as we were. There were mere inches between us. Jimmy gave me a brief embarrassed look to enforce the fact, just in case I hadn’t noticed. Obviously he regretted this. I mean, he’d cried on the hired help, for Christ’s sake.
    “I’ll get your clothes,” I said, grasping at the first useful idea to enter my head.
    Blindly, I