Page 42 of JoJo

I couldn’t help smiling at the kid. He may have fucked up by not making sure Bunny was actually gone last night, but he was still young and learning. “You have redeemed yourself, JD.”

“Uh, thanks,” he muttered as Spike pushed him back out of the room.

“What do you have planned today?” Steel asked me as the door shut behind JD and Spike.

“I’m going to see MiMi and Grant.

“Okay, well let’s go get you home so you can get ready then. I’m headed to the garage for a bit this morning. I stood and took the baggy sweat pants that Steel handed me, admiring him a bit more, because he had noticed that even though I hadn’t gained much, if any weight yet, my pants were still rather uncomfortable for me. What little weight I had gained seemed to be in my boobs and butt, and let’s just say when your butt starts spreading out jeans become uncomfortable real quick. I smiled at him and he just continued getting ready.

I sometimes wondered how what I once thought of as a curse had turned out so well. I’d probably never have dated Steel. He hated women – or at least one in particular. I hated men – at least the ones who were trying to force me to have them in my life as some crazy validation for being able to run my business. We couldn’t have made a worse couple if we tried. Yet, underneath all that, I think I found the perfect man. He was sweet, attentive, and he knew his way around a garage. My eyes started swimming in unshed tears just about the same time Steel turned around.

“Babe,” he called out and then he wrapped me in his arms for a big hug and kissed me on the head before helping me into the sweat pants. “Please, tell me that shit going down this morning isn’t what has you in tears? I’ll hunt that bitch down and bring her back so you can bitch slap her if I need to. Will that make you feel better?”

That did it. I went from tears over his thoughtfulness to laughing at him. “I don’t care about that desperate woman’s silly games.”

“What had you crying then?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Hormones?” My answer was too vague apparently, because he lifted my chin so that I was looking him in the eye. “You’re so thoughtful,” I admitted. First the Dum Dums, and my favorite flavor. Then the,” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. Instead I indicated my pants.

“Babe,” he smiled down at me. “I love you. Let’s get going.”

So, we got going. After I wiped the tears away though, because I wasn’t about to give the assholes in his clubhouse ammunition. They already called me Pixie half the time because I was so tiny. I definitely didn’t need them coming up with some crybaby nickname for me too.

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