Angie giggled and looked up into my eyes, ignoring the fact that her daughter was now trying to rip her hair out.
“Thank you,” I whispered to her.
“For what?” she whispered right back.
“For everything,” I answered. “I wouldn’t be here without you.”
Her face turned troubled. “You really wouldn’t. You’d probably be better off not involved in all the shit Troy likes to put me through.”
I was shaking my head before she could finish.
“I would’ve been there,” I told her. “I was working the courage up. Eventually I’d have gone for it, whether you’d given me the in or not.”
Her mouth kicked up in a small smile.
“But that’s what I want to talk to you about,” I said carefully. “I want you to go file a restraining order.”
Her eyes widened.
“I tried to do that and they said I couldn’t without proper proof.”
I waved her off.
“You have proof,” I told her. “Go talk to Luke. He’s going to be waiting for you.”
“Luke?”
I nodded.
“The one that you saw last night. The blonde that was really large that you were staring at with those dreamy eyes,” I informed her.
Her face blushed.
“I was looking at his graying hair, not dreamy like or anything. But just looking.”
“Uh-huh,” I snorted. “I also want you to go talk to a lawyer.”
She was already shaking her head.
“The lawyer is my brother in law,” I told her before she could protest. “He’s aware of what’s going on from my part in it, and he’s willing to do this for free. A: because I asked him to. B: because he takes some pro-bono cases occasionally since he can claim on his taxes that he gave free legal advice, and they give him a tax break.”
She pursed her lips.
“I told him you couldn’t pay him. I also told him I wouldn’t be paying him because I liked getting between your leg…” she slapped her hand over my mouth.
“You’re too smart for your own good,” she muttered darkly.
She looked so freakin’ cute when she was mad.
And the fact that her daughter was pulling all her hair out of her bun, scattering her curly mass of hair all over her head, made it even cuter.
“Tomorrow morning, on the way home, I’m going to run by the daycare and sign her up.” I pressed one kiss on the tip of her nose, and she sighed. “I’ll see you later.”
She pursed her lips.
“Yeah.”
I patted her ass. “Don’t forget to call me tonight.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Yeah,” I told her. “I’m going to be a man like that. So sue me.”
I’d originally told her when we first started this dance that I didn’t like talking on the phone. It’d been a comment about being on the phone in general when I’d had the hospital asking me questions about my insurance.
When I’d finished the call, I’d told her that I hated phone calls, and wished that everyone would just switch over to text messaging or emails.
Now, she loved pointing out every little thing that contradicted my earlier words.
“Go to work, big boy.” She pushed me lightly.
I stepped back, and Elise took Angie’s hair with us.
Angie squawked, and I hastily disentangled Angie’s hair from Elise’s fist.
“Naughty girl,” I cooed to her.
Elise patted my face, still fascinated that I’d shaved it.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, little girl,” I pressed a kiss against her forehead. “Don’t give your momma too much trouble.”
Angie snorted and took Elise from my arms.
“Say bye-bye!” Angie waved Elise’s hand.
I’d just made it out the door, halfway to the truck, when Elise did just that.
“Bye-Bye!”
My mouth dropped open and I turned.
“Did you just say bye-bye?”
I turned my hand and rewarded Elise’s words with another wave, which she promptly returned.
“Damn.”
I left without another word, and the whole damn way to the station I had a huge ass smile on my face.
A cheesy one at that.
Chapter 17
Moist.
-Because at least one person you know hates the word.
Angie
“They’re not that bad, I promise,” Bowe tugged my hand, and I had no other choice but to get out of the car or be dragged out.
And nobody wanted to see me fall on my face; well, the exception being the woman and man that were currently watching me through the parted blinds of their living room.
“They were really mad at me for taking you home,” I told him. “And they really didn’t like that you allowed me to stay with you when you’d just been hurt, and not them.”
“Swear, they’re awesome parents.”
I looked at him skeptically.
“They really don’t like that I brought all that trouble into your life,” I pointed out. “Which they told me.”
His brows lifted.
I nodded my head.
“They found out that you were in the hospital because of me and wanted me removed from your room,” I expounded. “Though, they never accomplished it because I refused to leave, and I knew your doctor.”
“How’d they find that out?” he stopped and turned to look at me.
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You’re a firefighter,” I told him. “You were injured in the line of duty. Seriously, what’d you think the media was going to do with that?”
He shrugged.
“Two hours, that’s all we’re here for, then we’re headed to the Speedway.” He patted my hand.
I tossed him a glare.
“Swear it won’t be that bad.”
Yeah, it was worse.
It was terrible.
His parents hated me.
In fact, I’d definitely be on the top of their ‘I don’t like’ list if they had one.
At first it wasn’t too terrible.
It was a routine ‘meeting of the parents.’
We’d said the pleasantries, sat down, chatted for a small amount of time while his mother, Gianna, finished dinner, and I had a beer with Bowe and Marcus, his father.
Except, apparently, ladies didn’t drink.
The first sip of beer I’d taken, Marcus had stared at me like I’d just stabbed a rabbit in front of him.
At the second sip, I was fairly sure I’d stolen his prized beer from his secret stash.
After the third sip, I handed the beer off to an oblivious Bowe.
When I’d offered to help Gianna in the kitchen, on my way back from the restroom, she’d given me the stink eye and told me she ‘liked doing everything herself.’
Then dinner had been even worse.
There were two things in all of the world that I really didn’t like eating. One was liver, because who the hell liked liver?
Growing up poor pretty much ensured that a person ate whatever there was to eat without protest. A hungry belly didn’t care what it was fed, and I found that true mostly into my adult life.
I did not like spaghetti.
That’d been a staple in our house when I was younger.
Filling, semi nutritious, and cheap to make.
My mom had fixed spaghetti so many times that I could literally go my entire freakin’ life without ever having it again and it’d be too soon.
And, apparently, when one didn’t eat a proud Italian woman’s cooking, then you were offering a grievous insult.
I’d choked half the meal down, and had pushed my plate away because I literally couldn’t stomach to eat any more.
Which led us to now, as we were walking outside.
“I’d like you to come back to dinner next week,” Gianna was saying. “It’s going to be just us with the Terrences.”
&nb
sp; “Angie and I will have to see what we’re doing next week. We will definitely have Alec’s kids next week, though, since we had to trade off babysitting services so Angie could go to the race tonight with me.”
“Or you could just come yourself,” Gianna suggested. “Let Angie stay home with the kids. I’m sure she has some studying to do.”
It all deteriorated after that, and I hadn’t said a word since we’d left his parents’ house five minutes before.
“She’s not normally that bad,” Bowe murmured, breaking the silence.
I shrugged, choosing not to reply to that.
“I’ll have a word with her.”
I shrugged again.
He sighed.
“My mom’s a proud Italian woman, and the fact that she wasn’t able to take care of me broke her heart,” Bowe started. “I know she’s not been the easiest to get along with, but she’ll come around.”
I looked down at my hands.
“I don’t like being around people like that, Bowe,” I whispered softly. “People like that make bad memories come back, and I don’t really want to have to go through that. I definitely don’t want my daughter to have to experience their dislike for me, either.”
He pulled to a stop not even ninety seconds later and I was unsure where to go from there.
Bowe, though, knew exactly what to say to put my nerves at rest.
“My parents were awesome parents, until we lost my sister,” he looked out the window, keeping his eyes straight ahead as he spoke. “I honestly don’t know what happened with them since then. They’re scared to lose their only other child because of his dangerous job, and then you show up, and you’re the only one I want to stay with after they’ve had the scare of their lives. You have to cut them some slack.”
I closed my eyes in defeat.
“And they’ll come around. I swear to you. They’ll come around. And I have a secret weapon.” He turned his face to mine, a grin a mile wide splitting his face.
“What’s that?” I waited.
“Elise.”
I smiled then.
Yeah, Elise was a good ice breaker. She was so stinkin’ cute that it would be hard to deny her.
“Don’t you think that’ll be too hard on them?” I asked worriedly.
He shook his head.
“They miss my niece,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean they don’t have room in their heart for more baby kisses. And I’ll prove it to you tomorrow. Trust me.”
I nodded once.
“You’re the boss.”
His grin morphed into a leer.
“I like it when you say my name like that.”
I got out of the car laughing, and continued to enjoy myself for the rest of the night.
***
“Hello,” I held out my hand.
The man that’d just raced Bowe took my hand.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” he said, his deep voice making my arms break out in goosebumps.
I smiled politely. “Bowe’s obviously been telling you a lot more about me than me about you.”
The man, Jack, grinned. “Is that so?”
Bowe snorted.
“Jack had a background check ran on you,” Bowe said. “He’s trying to find out everything he can about Troy and that includes looking into your background.”
That last part he added before I could lose my shit.
I immediately backed down, and Jack’s smile—which had previously been small—widened at the indignation that had crossed over my face.
“So what did you learn?” I snapped.
Jack’s amused smile fled.
“That you’ve had a hard life and that Troy made it harder.” Jack’s eyes were penetrating. “I’m not going to let him dig those claws in any deeper, darlin’. I’m going to find something on him and whoever’s working to help him get out of his shit. And when I do, Troy’s going down.”
And for some reason, I one hundred percent believed him.
I knew he’d follow through on his word, and I couldn’t say I was sorry that Jack was going to do it any way he thought he needed to. Even if he accidentally hurt Troy in the process.
I looked down at my hands that were twisting together with nerves.
“I’m nervous,” I admitted. “I’m scared. And I’m honestly worried that all this is going to come back to bite me in the ass.”
Something beeped on the loud speaker, and I took my eyes away from my hands to glance at the crowd around me.
The Lonestar Speedway had recently been revamped.
I’d never been to it before it’d been revamped, but the ‘improved’ speedway was quite scary, so I was sure the previous version of the speedway was likely terrifying.
Jack’s big body crowded me, and I looked up to see him grabbing a hold of his wife’s hand, moving even closer to me.
“The race is about to start,” he indicated the asphalt area down below.
“What do they race?” I asked as I walked on one side of Jack, and Winter walked on the other.
“Some race for pink slips,” Jack started.
I held my hand up. “What do you mean? Pink slips?”
“Titles. Sometimes they race and the winner gets the loser’s car title.” he explained.
I nodded for him to continue.
“Others, like Bowe, are just racing for bragging rights. He doesn’t want to lose his car if he doesn’t win; most drivers don’t.” Jack pointed to a couple of seats that were near the top.
I sat down, and Winter pushed past her husband to sit directly next to me, leaving him the seat on the end.
I smiled at her and looked forward, wondering how I’d made a new friend so fast.
I hadn’t even tried!
But Winter was easy to like.
The moment Bowe knew we’d hit it off—which was over a freakin’ package of M&M’s—he left me with Jack, who wasn’t racing until much later in the night, and headed to his car.
His car which had magically appeared. I suspected my brother had a lot to do with that, though.
Not that he’d told me he was going to be here.
“Your brother has twins?” Winter asked, leaning her head against her husband’s shoulder as she did.
I nodded my head. “Yes. They have another child who’s nearly three, too. They’re quite busy.”
Winter snorted.
“I’m sure they are. One at a time is hard enough. I couldn’t imagine two,” she admitted.
Jack grumbled something that I couldn’t quite hear, but Winter did, and laughed.
“He thinks our children were spawned from the devil sometimes,” she explained his remark. “Not that I can deny that. I feel the same way, sometimes.”
The conversation was flowing well when I happened to look to my right.
And then I saw her.
What. The. Fuck.
It was the long dark hair like my own that first caught my attention.
Then my eyes moved down until I took in her attire, and my brain nearly short circuited.
“No, she didn’t,” I muttered, standing up.
Without waiting for the permission to move, which I wasn’t sure if I did or did not need to have, I started to make my way down the stadium bleachers.
I got all the way to the bottom and started to move left, stopping in front of a bunch of high school students that were dressed in even less than my target.
“Ariel Soco!” I screeched. “What in the hell do you think you are wearing?”
My sister’s head snapped in my direction, and she stared.
I was just thinking she was going to come in my direction when she suddenly turned on her heels and fled, her short skirt riding up her ass as she did.
“Move!” I barked at the other sluttily-dressed teenagers.
The girls moved, the men, not so much.
But the barked ‘Move!’ from Jack behind me had them hastily tripping over themselves to get out of my way.
&nbs
p; “Thanks,” I muttered.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that they were at my back.
Bowe had charged the man with my safety.
Safety that he swore was in question now that Troy had threatened me two nights before.
Shaking with anger at my sister, I ran after her.
I caught her easily.
Then again, that was the benefit of not wearing shoes you could barely walk in, let alone run.
I caught her before she could get to the stairs, and the first thing I did was grab hold of her tube top and yank it back up.
“Are you fucking insane?” I asked her. “What would our mother do if she caught you dressed like this?”
“Momma is busy watching your kid all the time,” she snapped angrily. “How would she know that she has another kid that dresses questionably?”
I gritted my teeth from the retort that threatened to pour out of my mouth, and instead looked at her like she’d disappointed me.
Which I knew from experience would break her little heart.
And it worked.
Her face softened.
“I didn’t mean that,” she admitted. “And what are you doing here?”
I looked at her, really looked at her, and saw the sadness she was trying to hide.
“What happened?” I asked.
A huff of annoyance sounded from the woman whose view of the track we were blocking, and I gestured for Ariel to continue down the steps.
“Talk,” I ordered, once we were in a relatively quiet place.
Jack and Winter had stopped about five feet away from us, both of them watching whatever was happening on the track.
I heard what sounded like motors revving up, but they weren’t your regular sound of motors. These were much fiercer and grumpier sounding than any I’d ever heard.
In all the time that Bowe’s car had been at my brother’s shop, never once had I heard it started up.
If it sounded like that, I could see why he’d never started it.
The noise would’ve been deafening and would have likely drawn noise complaints.
Alec was in the heart of the city, and many businesses surrounded him on all sides.
He probably only started it up after-hours when nobody was there to complain.
“Dad called me,” she said simply when I looked at her with raised brows.
Put Out (Kilgore Fire Book 5) Page 13