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My skin tingled from his touch, warming, and the energy Benji had siphoned off rushed back to me.

“Missy, you heard me. What are you doing here? You no longer live here, and before you get all theatrical just like your mother, you’re the one that made that decision. You don’t show up and your grandfather and I have nothing else to assume except that you’re done with us. You upped and ran away, just like Missy all over again.”

My mother’s name was not Missy. My grandma called everyone that name, everyone she considered a hindrance.

Ignoring her for the time being, I asked Lee softly, “What are you doing here?”

He skewered my grandma with a look before responding to me, trying to keep his voice under control, “Are you kidding me? You didn’t go to work. Didn’t take a genius to figure out you might’ve come here for clothes. That is why you’re here, right?” He took a step closer to me, but he didn’t lower his voice. “You have things to get in there?”

He knew.

I didn’t know how he knew, but he knew somehow that I couldn’t go in there, that I wasn’t wanted. He knew these people were supposed to love me and take care of me, but they didn’t want to. They didn’t want me.

He knew and the shame was swiftly rising inside of me, taking over everything.

He’d see that and he’d see what they saw and then he wouldn’t want me either.

His hand squeezed mine. He turned his back on my approaching grandma and rested his forehead to mine. “I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours, but I can take a guess. If you think I’m going to leave, you are out of your mind.”

A strangled laugh escaped me.

He continued in a low tone, “I don’t like the look on that woman. I don’t want you to step foot in that house. I don’t care what they say, what you say, this is not a good place for you.”

“They don’t want me in there.” My voice cracked, coming out in a whisper.

More shame rose in me.

“Good,” he said swiftly.

He started to turn away, facing my grandma. I held him in place. He needed to know. He couldn’t take on this fight for me if he didn’t know. “They don’t want me.”

He cupped the side of my face. “I do.”

“I’m homeless. They kicked me out.”

His eyes grew fierce, but soft at the same time. They were blazing. “My parents left me too.” His fingers entwined with mine. “You don’t have to stay in my bed. You don’t have to even stay ‘with’ me or ‘with’ Cassian. There are no expectations. Course, I’d love for you to stay with me, sleep in my bed, but I’m just saying that you don’t have to. I have rooms. I have a house. I have no parents. You’re not homeless. You can move in with me and stay as long as you want and need to. Okay? There’s no strings. Just a home.”

My heart skipped a beat. “If I still want the strings?”

“They’re yours. I have a huge fucking house and you need a home so it’s there for you. No matter if you find things out about me and decide you want nothing to do with me.” Too. It was unspoken, but it was there.

This was the connection I felt between us.

Both of us. Him and me. We didn’t have people who loved us, not the ones who were supposed to love us.

Emotion swept through me. I was trying to fight back more tears, and he saw my lip quivering.

“Missy!” My grandma's harsh voice cracked. She’d finally arrived and she had her cane with her. She lifted it up. “I’m talking to you.”

She swung.

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“No!” I yelled.

Lee held his hand out.

Benji poofed so he was between my grandma and Lee. His back was to us. He was glaring at my grandma, his tiny little hands in fists.