Page 21 of Alice & Meg

“Wrecker mentioned that King had a stroke, but I honestly can’t see any deficits that you’re talking about.” I smiled softly.

Meg laughed. “That’s because you haven’t watched him button his shirt or fix the screw on my sunglasses.”

“Fine motor skills are hard but doable,” Lennox explained. “He is going to be more than fine during the seminar.”

“He gets brain fog, too, Lennox,” Meg sighed and looked out the window.

“I thought that hadn’t happened in a while.” Lennox tipped her head to the side. “Is something happening, and you’re not telling us?”

Meg shook her head. “No, no,” she sighed. “I mean, it’s not as bad as it was right after the stroke, but sometimes he forgets things and whatnot.”

I raised my hand. “I forget things all of the time, and Wrecker says I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a hammer. So if teeny tiny screws and forgetting things now and then are King’s deficits, I would say he’s doing pretty damn good.”

“I know.” Meg plastered a smile on her face. “I know he’s going to be fine, and I’m worrying over nothing, but I still would like to be there for the seminar in case he needs me.”

I turned back in my seat and cranked up the SUV. “Say no more, girlfriend. I say we do a bonsai run to the outlet mall and then head back to the convention.”

“I don’t mean to ruin your guy’s plans. You can just drop me back off at the hotel. I don’t mean to be a downer.”

Nikki scoffed. “As if. We watch King’s seminar, head back to the room to make banana bread, and then maybe we can hit the pool before dinner. Sounds like a damn good day to me. And besides, Pipe will like it if I don’t max out the credit card at the outlet mall.”

I shifted the SUV into reverse and headed across the street to the mall. “Sounds like a good plan to me. Maybe we can pick up some lunch for the guys on the way back,” I suggested.

“Honestly,” Meg called. “Just take me ba–.”

“Nope!” I shouted. “You aren’t going anywhere, woman. You’re stuck with Nikki and me for the rest of the weekend, so you should just accept it for what it is and stop fighting it.” My eyes connected with Meg’s in the mirror. “Okay?”

She nodded and smiled warmly. “Okay.”

Chapter Eight

Meg

“Steady, steady,” I whispered.

“I don’t know what you were worrying about, girl. Your guy is crushing it up there.” Alice elbowed me. “I mean, I don’t want to say anything bad, but there is no way in hell that type of pinstriping is coming out of our garage.”

I watched closely as Lo effortlessly pinstriped a fender that had magically appeared, and Alice was right, Lo was killing it.

He wiped his brow with his hand, and I grasped Alice’s hand.

“Girl,” Alice laughed. “Take a breath. The man is allowed to wipe his forehead.”

“I told you not to worry,” Jonas said from behind me. “Dad is the best in the Midwest.”

“Whole country,” Wrecker corrected him. “I’m pretty sure he’s cementing that in the books as we speak.”

I was gathered off to the side of the ballroom with Lennox, Jonas, Alice, Wrecker, and Nikki surrounding me. Lo had called Pipe up to assist him, and I could tell Pipe was having the time of his life.

And yeah, they had moved Lo’s seminar into the huge ass ballroom because there were so many people trying to get into the small conference room they had first set him up in that they had shifted the whole thing to the ballroom.

That was my Lo.

Even when he was freaking out on the inside, he was killing it.

“I don’t think I have seen Pipe smile this much in years,” Nikki laughed.

Alice bumped her. “You know he loves you, babe.”

---