Page 41 of JoJo

“Can you toss me a shirt?”

He threw his shirt from last night at me and I put it on quickly before someone got word to the prospect that he was needed in Steel’s room. I had just tugged it down to my hips that were still covered by the sheets when a knock sounded on the door. “Come in,” I yelled out since Steel was still shaving.

“Hey, someone said Steel needed me,” the kid announced after poking his head in the door and not bothering to come any further.

“You might want to come on in for a minute. He’s shaving, but he’ll be right out.” The kid stepped in and then bounced back and forth from the balls of his feet to the heels as he waited. He kept glancing at the door nervously as he did.

“Why so nervous?” Steel asked as he came back out of the bathroom freshly shaved.

“Sorry, I just have a lot to do this morning since there was a party.”

“You know we don’t tolerate lying,” Steel reminded him. The kid blanched.

“I know. I really do have a lot to get done.” Steel squared his shoulders and the kid wasn’t stupid enough not to take notice. “Not that whatever you’re wanting me to do isn’t important,” he tacked on.

“Did you lose something this morning?”

The kid’s shoulders slumped and I watched as Spike slipped inside the room, standing just behind the kid. “JD,” he said causing the boy to jump.

“Spike,” the kid managed to get out without a stutter, which seemed like a miracle.

“Lose something this morning, JD?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“We found this one when she came barging in Steel’s room trying to tell his pregnant wife that she’s been sleeping with him here several nights a week.” Spike held his cell phone out, no doubt to show him a picture the brothers would be circulating of Bunny so all the men would know she was off limits. Steel moved over to the nightstand that was on his side of the bed and opened it while Spike was talking. He reached in and pulled something out, handing it to me before he turned back to the two men in the doorway.

“My wife is pregnant,” he told JD as I glanced down to see what he had handed me. It was a root beer flavored Dum Dums. I unwrapped it and popped it into my mouth as he continued speaking. “When she wakes up in the morning, she isn’t feeling particularly well these days. Imagine how a scene like what happened this morning makes her feel.”

The kid turned sorrowful eyes to me before returning his attention to Steel. “I didn’t realize she was still here. I sent her ass packing last night after I caught her trying to hook up with one of the brothers. I thought she came to be with me,” he lamented.

“Let me guess,” I started to say, but it came out somewhat garbled so I popped the sucker out of my mouth. “She was the popular chick in high school who wouldn’t give you the time of day?”

“Oh, she gave me the time of day,” he told me with a waggle of his eyebrows. “She would just never do it in public.”

I rolled my eyes. “Then she’s not worth an ounce of your time or thought. Hell, an ounce of thought,” I said as I snickered. “That’s about all that woman has to offer.”

Spike guffawed behind the boy and Steel just laughed. “Be nice, babe.”

“I don’t have to be nice to people who intrude on my space and try to lie to my face,” I told him before popping the sucker back in my mouth and leaning back. I don’t know why, but the flavor was soothing to me and kept the queasiness in my belly at bay.

“I’m really sorry, JoJo. If I had known she was still here I would have made sure that never happened.”

“Why was she still here and you were unaware?” Spike asked.

“I told you I sent her on her way last night after seeing her offering Quickshot a blowjob,” he told them and immediately my hackles went up, because Quickshot belonged to my best friend, Keys. He must have seen my reaction, because JD was quick to tack on the rest. “He didn’t take her up on it. He told me to get her away from him, and I did. I took her outside and told her to get gone. I didn’t realize she was here still until this morning when I saw her go by with one of the Tallahassee guys that’s in town.”

“Okay, enough,” Steel sighed out. “Can you go deal with this shit somewhere else? I need to get Jo out of here before they start cooking down there.”

“Sure,” Spike agreed before glancing my way. “You gonna be okay?”

I waved him off with a smile. “I’m fine. Just growing a little Steel over here and he’s just as much a pain in the ass as his father already.” I winked as I said it and Spike laughed, then stilled and turned to look back between both Steel and myself.

“You already know it’s a boy?”

Steel laughed. “She thinks she knows,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a girl.”

“Never go against a mom’s intuition,” JD told him. “They know crazy things sometimes.”

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