Page 107 of Break Out

I chuckled. “Far from it.”

Her eyes cast down at the counter and I sensed she had something else she wanted to ask. I waited her out.

“I have a question, and I don’t want you to think it’s coming from anywhere but me.”

I narrowed an eye at her. “That’s a strange start, but go ahead and shoot.”

“What happens if Raff decides he doesn’t want to prospect with your club? What if he wants to be part of the Riot?”

“Why don’t you want him to be part of my club?”

Her eyes closed for a moment. She opened them and shook her head. “It isn’t that I don’t want him to join your club, it’s that… ”

“What? It’s complicated? I don’t think it is.”

She lifted her chin. “For the most part you’re right, but if he joins the Lancers it’s going to cause a lot of… friction.”

“With his parents? He’s an adult.”

She sighed. “No, with Lex. Call me a romantic, but those two are peas in a pod and always have been until high school. This would… sever that beyond all hope.”

She had such a huge heart. “I feel for you, but it isn’t your business. And you might be surprised what people can overcome with an open mind and some understanding.”

Her head tilted. “Sounds like that comes from experience.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “To an extent.” Something struck me and I narrowed an eye at her. “Are you trying to distract me from waking Rafferty?”

She failed to bite back her smile. “I would never.”

I gave her a lopsided grin. “You better be this protective of our baby.”

She widened her eyes and she chuckled. “You say that now, but our baby is gonna want me to loosen up.”

“Good. Now, get out of here because I’m about to bang these pans together like cymbals in a marching band.”

She shook her head and went to the sliding glass door. “I’ll be out on the deck.”

Monday afternoon, Rafferty’s former boss, Brian Smith, stood in front of me, and his posture alone told me I wouldn’t like what he had to say. He stroked his sparse beard. “You’re already facing fines from code enforcement, so this won’t be what you want to hear—”

“Don’t tell me what I want to hear. What’s going to solve this problem and let us move forward?”

“The enclosure between the two structures can’t stand because of the code enforcement violations. Since it has to come down regardless, the easiest thing to do is get rid of one of those trailers and build a new building with enough room away from the first single-wide. Or, you could get rid of both trailers and start from scratch the whole way around, but that would be the most expensive option and it will take the longest, too.”

I dragged my hand down my face. Tie’s words from weeks ago came back to me again. Maybe he’d been right. We should get rid of this chapter and be done with it. How many times could we say they were snake-bit before we acknowledged this wasn’t a good fit?

Fuck.

“I’m sorry that’s not what you want to hear,” Brian said.

I let my lips tip up in a small smile. “It isn’t that, Mr. Smith. Honestly, I half expected you to say that, and if you hadn’t I’d be on alert. It’s been a long day and this Monday is only half done.”

He grinned and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. “I hear that. If you want to move forward with us, here’s my card. Either option is doable with my firm – though, if you start from scratch, that would be easiest.”

“Right,” I whispered with a slow nod.

He tipped his head toward the trailers. “If you decide to off-load both trailers, I might have someone interested.”

“Can they move them?”

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