Page 52 of Love Finds Home

“Of course.”

“You’d make her talk to you, get it all out, and then you’d put a plan together to solve her issue.”

“Your point?”

“My point,Andrew, is that you can’t see those things with your sister. You love her, you want good things for her, you want to be there when she tells you she needs something. But you are not going to be proactive to her needs because she’s removed from your immediate bubble.”

“Still makes me sound like an asshole,” he grumbles.

Joker, who hasn’t had anything to say on the subject so far, raises his brow at me, a smirk on his face. “Well, Mr. Smarty-pants, why don’t you go up those stairs and see if Elle needs you…for anything.”

I shoot him a glare, but not nearly as fierce as the one Tiny gives him.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Tiny stands, towering over the two of us.

“Sit down, you over protective fool,” Joker warns him. “I mean, if Ranger here knows so much about your sister, maybe he needs to step in and be her rescuer.”

“You made it sound like,” he looks around the room and lowers his voice, “sex.”

“If that’s what she needs, would it offend you to have one of your best friends be the person she gets it from?”

Again, Tiny opens his mouth and snaps it closed. I continue to glare at Joker.

“What?” He looks at me. “Isn’t it good to know that your friends don’t think you’re degenerate enough to keep away from their sisters?” He laughs.

“If I had a sister, I’d let you bang her.”

Tiny stands again, pacing back and forth. “No one should be banging my sister! She’s innocent!”

That causes Joker and I to laugh out loud. Even removing the aforementioned banging from the situation, Elle is not innocent and hasn’t been in a very long time.

“Sit down,” we both tell him, still laughing.

He does, plopping into the chair and letting out a breath. “Is she okay?” he asks me.

“How the fuck should I know?”

“She’s your tenant.”

“And? I can tell you she’s paid me six months of rent in advance. I can tell you she comes and goes as she needs and she talks to Barbie when she’s down here. That’s about it.”

Joker gives me a look. You know the one. Big hairy eyeball calling me an idiot look.

“If you hear anything?” Tiny asks, leaving off the real part of his question.

“Dude, I’m not her fucking babysitter. She’s a big girl.”

“What’s going on with the special assignment?” Joker asks, sitting in the client chair and changing the subject.

“Boring as always. No new news. Still don’t know who the woman is.”

“What woman?” Tiny asks, wanting in on the conversation.

We tell him about following Keith and his weird ass dates with the unnamed woman.

“What could that puss stain on society be doing that’s so interesting?” he asks.

“That’s just it. We don’t know, but our guts are telling us there’s something there,” I explain to Tiny.

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