A few days pass and we don’t hear much from Mitch or the Mason police in general.

Cora is slowly coming back to herself. We spend most of our time together, going to eat around Mason, walking through the nature preserve, and watching old movies together. At night, I make her feel alive again, get her nice and exhausted so she can fall asleep in my arms.

Neither of us talks about me leaving. The case is finished, we both know what happened now, but I’m still here, still in town. Cora could go back to her apartment, but instead we both stay in my crappy little motel room, although the staff isn’t exactly happy to have me around considering the damage to their other room.

Saturday comes, and I get a call from my captain. “Haven’t heard a word from you,” he says to me.

“Sorry about that.” I lean up against the railing outside of our room. “This case has been tricky.”

“I made some calls.” I feel a chill run down my spine. “I know they made arrests.”

I clench my jaw. “That’s not all there is.”

“What, you still cleaning up their fucking mess, son? Come back and do your damn job.”

I think fast. I can’t explain to him that I want to stay because I’m falling for Cora. I couldn’t possibly explain that to him, and frankly, it’s not a good excuse. He’d fire my ass in a second.

“Her mother’s still missing,” I say quickly. “We’re trying to find her.”

That’s only half a lie. Cora got a call from her mom the day after she went missing, right after we caught Kristi and Jaxson. She said that she’s okay, but she’s taking some time to herself. Cora said she sounded drunk, which wasn’t a surprise. Her mom didn’t bother to say where she was.

He groans. “What the hell did you get yourself into?”

“It’s complicated here,” I admit.

“Damn small towns. You know, out here in the city, shit’s simple. Gangs are clear, they kill each other, we clean it up and arrest some of them. We have a way of life, a balance. But out there, it’s the damn Wild West still.”

I can’t say I disagree, although there’s not really a balance in the city, either. The gangs still do whatever they want and we’re left trying to chase them down after it’s all over.

“Just a few more days, sir,” I say to him. “Please. I’ll be back and work all the shit cases, if that’s what it’ll take.”

“You’ll work those shit cases, all right. And you’ll fucking close them. Got it?”

“Got it,” I say.

“I want you back here Tuesday morning. No fucking later.”

“Understood, sir.”

He hangs up the phone without another word. I sigh to myself, shaking my head. I don’t know why I bothered buying that time, it’s just a few more days to get even more attached to Cora before I have to go back home.

I just can’t help myself. I go back into the room and she looks up at me, her smile so bright and genuine. I don’t think anyone’s ever smiled like that at me in my whole life, and it feels os damn good. Cora wants to be around me, wants to be near me all the time, and I love it.

More than that, I want to be around her. She makes me laugh, makes me smile, makes me feel good. She’s smart and funny and real, a genuine person, good to the core. Despite all the shit that’s happened to her, she’s still strong and optimistic, and that’s the best trait imaginable.

“Who was that?” she asks.

“Nobody.” I sit down at the end of the bed. I can tell she knows I’m lying, but she doesn’t push.

“What are we doing today?” she asks.

“I was thinking…” I grab the remote and turn the TV off. “Let’s go find your mom.”

She raises an eyebrow. “What if my mom doesn’t want to be found?”

“We’ll do it anyway.”

She hesitates. “I’ve tried this before. Didn’t end well.”

“You didn’t have me before.”

“True.” She can’t help but smile. “Where have you been all my life?”

“Here for most of it.” I grin back at her. “Remember that?”

“I remember,” she says softly. “You know, I had such a crush on you.”

“I can’t blame you. I mean, I am awesome.”

She laughs and pushes me, and I pull her over toward me. I kiss her softly and she looks up at me with that same expression, and suddenly I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. The idea of leaving her drives me insane, but I’d lose my job if I stay. I have nothing here, no reason to stay.

“Come on,” I say. “Let’s drag your mom out of whatever hole she’s dug for herself.”

Cora sighs. “Fine. I think I know where she is, too.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“Because I didn’t want to go after her. She’s… unpleasant when she’s on a bender.”

I stand up and flex a little. “I’ll make her be pleasant, or else.”

She laughs and gets out of bed. “My hero.” She kisses me on the cheek and we head out together, holding hands.

* * *

We stop at three bars before we finally find her mom’s car. It’s parked behind this beat-up place called the Irish Rover. It looks like it was probably nice thirty years ago, but neglect has really let it go to seed. There are two other cars in the parking lot, and I’m guessing this is the only bar in the area willing to serve her this early.

“You sure you want to do this?” Cora asks me.

“I’m sure. Come on, we have to help her.”

Cora sighs, but doesn’t argue. We climb out of my car and head over toward the bar.

I go in first. The inside is dimly lit and is supposed to look like an Irish pub, but really it just looks like a sad and lonely shrine to drinking. The floors are sticky, everything is old and grungy, and a few older regulars are stacked up at the bar, heads down, not talking much to each other.

Cora’s mom is sitting at the end of the bar, leaning in toward an older man with a thick beard. He’s talking and she’s got this smile on her face that basically telegraphs her desire to get fucked sideways. The guy seems oblivious though, and as we get closer, I realize that he’s talking about motorcycles.

Cora’s mom looks up as we approach, and her whole demeanor changes. The guy doesn’t notice this, either. Cora stays behind me as we approach.

“What are you doing here?” she snaps. “Got some more gang members looking to kill me?”

The bearded guy looks up, surprised. He mumbles something and gets up, walking away from the conversation. That doesn’t surprise me. The guy probably survives by avoiding confrontation, and he can probably smell the fight coming in the air.

“I’m sorry that happened,” I say to her. “I couldn’t have known.”

“No? I think you’re a damn liar.”

“Mom,” Cora says, stepping up beside me. “It’s true. He was almost killed, just like us.”

“I don’t believe you. Girl, I can see how obsessed you are with him, don’t you see it? He’s got you wrapped around his fingers.”

Cora shrinks back from her mother, but I won’t let her bully me. “Mrs. Lewis, please,” I say.

“Call me fucking Salina, okay?” she says to me. “You’re a grown man, out getting folks killed.”

“Nobody got killed,” I say softly. “All thanks to you.”

She scoffs at that. “Just hit the fucker and ran away. I didn’t save anyone.”

“Mom, you saved me,” Cora says. “If you hadn’t done that, Jaxson would have killed me.”

“It was brave, Salina,” I say.

“Fuck brave.” She swallows her wine in a single gulp. “I don’t need fucking brave.”

“Doesn’t matter. When the time came, you did what you had to do,” I tell her seriously.

“And then I ran.” She meets my gaze. I can tell she’s a little drunk, but not so drunk that she doesn’t know what she’s saying. “I hit that guy and I ran, leaving my daughter behind.”

It shouldn’t surprise me, but the pain in her voice digs down deep. Cora steps closer to her. “Mom, it’s okay,” she says.

“It’s not okay. I’m a failure. Don’t you see that? I’m a drunk and I almost left my baby to die.” She looks down at the bar. “You’re all I got left, Cora.”

“Mom.” She walks over to her mother and wraps her arms around her. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I leave them like that. I move halfway down the bar, giving them some space, and order a soda. One of the locals gives me a toothy smile but I don’t smile back, and that ends the potential conversation.

Looks like Cora completely misunderstood her mother. She probably assumed that her mother was just going to get angry at us for trying to pull her out of her drinking, but that’s not even it. Her mother was ashamed for running that day, for leaving Cora behind, but she doesn’t need to be. She saved Cora’s life, and although she didn’t stay behind, she still did something hard. I don’t blame her one bit for running. Your mind doesn’t work right when it’s under stress like that, and it takes real training to be able to keep yourself cool in a life-threatening situation.

After a little while, and halfway through my soda, Cora comes walking over. “I think she’s ready,” she says.

“Good.” I smile at her. “You did a good job.”

“It wasn’t like the other times,” she says softly. “I think… I think she actually wants to get better. I mean, she has nothing left.”

“We can help her.” I stand up. “Did you research any meetings?”

She nods. “There’s one tonight.”

“Good. Let’s get her home, get her some sleep, and then make sure she goes.”

Cora takes my hand and squeezes it. “You’re good to me, you know?”

I shake my head. “Just doing what anyone would do.”

“No, really. I know you should have gone back home by now.” I go to say something, but she talks over me. “I know you’re leaving eventually. I’m just happy you’ve been here for as long as you have… for helping me the way you did…”

I pull her close against me and kiss her softly. I don’t say anything, because there’s nothing to say. We both know I have to go, and that’s the worst thing about all this.

I pay for Cora’s mom’s drinks, and the three of us leave. Cora sits in the back seat of the car with her mom, and the two of them talk softly while I drive back to her mom’s place. We’ll get her to sleep and hopefully get her to an AA meeting as soon as possible.

After that, my mission here is over. I’ll have nothing holding me here, nothing that I’m trying to solve or fix. There will only be Cora, and I’m afraid of what that means. If I decide to stay, I’ll be admitting something to myself, something that I didn’t know I could admit.

I’ll be admitting that I’m not the Lovemaker anymore, that I’m not just out to fuck and have a good time. I’ll be admitting that I want something serious, something serious enough that I’d sacrifice for it.

That’s what scares me the most. If I want Cora enough to sacrifice, that means she’ll have the power to hurt me. I don’t know if this relationship is just a product of the stress of our situation, and if it’ll survive beyond this. But then again, I know her from way before any of this happened, back when we were kids. And even back then, I knew she was special. Atticus kept everyone away from his younger sister, but we all saw her. We all knew her.

I knew her best of all, and I wanted her most of all. I just don’t know if that’s going to be enough to get us past everything, or if we’re just doomed to fail.