Page 30 of Power Play

“Whatcha need?”

Janice licked her lips and folded her hands together like she was saying a quick prayer to whomever she prayed to.

“It’s okay, Janice,” I said with a laugh. “Just tell me how much you need.”

“I don’t need money,” she said. “I mean, I do, but I don’t want your money.”

I tilted my head and the microwave went off. I pulled out my bowl of food and dug in. The lamb chops really were good. I pulled a paper towel off the roll and wiped my mouth.

Wait. Wasn’t there sauce for these?

I opened the fridge and found a jar of the green stuff and pulled it out.

“So I’m not sure how much you remember from that spring we…dated?” I grinned. If she wanted to call it dating that was fine. But we never left this house. “But you remember my family and I are not tight.”

“Yep,” I said, biting into the lamb chop.

“I have this opportunity,” she said, carefully. “To take a job as a travel nurse-”

“A what now?”

“Travel nurse. I go to hospitals in other areas that are short staffed or are in an emergency situation. It’s a temporary gig, but the money is incredible.”

I needed some coffee, so I turned and fiddled with my little machine. The thing cost about a million dollars, but it made coffee that tasted like the time I went to Italy with Harrison in the off season a few years ago.

That coffee changed my life.

“Liam,” she said.

“Yeah. I’m listening. Sorry. Just need some caffeine.” I looked at her over my shoulder. “So, you’re leaving for a while. That’s cool. I can get along without you for a couple of months. Are you asking for some cash?”

“No, Liam.”

My coffee stopped brewing and I lifted my tiny cup for a sip.

“You sure you don’t want coffee, it’s really good?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I need help with Tess.”

“What do you need?” I put my coffee down.

“I need her to stay with you.”

“No problem,” I said. “For the rest of the afternoon? I can probably handle overnight. We’ll do a movie fest. We didn’t get a chance to finish that new Inside Out movie last week.”

She took a deep breath. “Actually, I was hoping for two weeks.”

I laughed. Oh, I laughed. I laughed until I choked. She reached for me like she was going to Heimlich me or some shit, but I put up my hand.

“That’s not funny, Janice. Did the guys put you up to this? Harrison? He would think this was funny… “ I looked up at her. I’d never seen Janice so serious. Not even when she was breaking things off with me. “Shit, you’re not joking.”

“Trust me, if there was anyone else...”

“Of course there is someone else,” I said. I mean, this was obvious. “Where’s her father?”

She avoided my gaze. Which now that I thought about it, she did every time I brought the dude up. The guy must truly be a deadbeat asshole.

Like my brother, I had very strong feelings when it came to family. It’s why it wrecked me so hard when Gayle pulled that shit about me being the father of her baby.

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