Page 27 of The Job

“I found this beautiful scarf for Jenny that I know she’s going to love,” she continues happily, “oh and in that bookstore, I was telling you about, I found a signed first edition of one of Rich’s favorite books. So of course I had to get it for him.”

“My dad?” Jensen asks.

“Yeah, of course; who else would I be talking about,” Mom replies teasingly and then carries on. “Oh, and we found a cheeseshop, and they had some really interesting combinations, so I am bringing some home, and I thought we would all have a cheese and wine night. Obviously, you boys won’t be having the wine, but you can definitely try the cheeses, we will make it into a whole thing, oh maybe we can make it into a themed thing,” she pauses and yells to my dad, “Marc, wouldn’t that be good? We could make it into a thirties theme or something and get everyone to dress up.”

“Yes dear,” Dad replies, sounding amused, “that sounds great. Why don’t you call Jenny and Lily, I’m sure that they would love to help you plan that.”

“You’re just saying that so that you don’t have to help me plan,” Mom replies.

“I would never,” Dad replies with fake incredulity, and it makes both my mom and me laugh.

“You so would,” she replies. “But as it turns out, I would much rather plan the party with Jenny and Lily than I would with you anyway.”

“See, really, I’m thinking of you.” Dad replies, and I can just picture his grin.

“You are not,” Mom replies. “Oh, we could do chutneys and things as well.”

“Yes, that actually sounds quite nice,” Dad replies.

I wince. He has definitely opened himself up for a retort from my mom phrasing it like that.

Right on cue she says, “Oh? You sound surprised, do you not usually like my party ideas?”

She pretends she is offended like this quite often and every time she does it my dad falls for it and then they both end up giggling like teenagers. I am incredibly lucky to have parents that really truly love each other like they do.

Predictably, my dad immediately starts to grovel, “Kat, you know that’s not what I meant. I love your parties.”

“Do you think they are even aware that we’re still here?” Jensen stage whispers out of the side of his mouth.

I shake my head and chuckle, “Probably not. But we all know that if I hang up on her, I face a fallout of epic proportions.”

The guys all wince, and I am relatively glad that the target that we are following is still driving and hasn’t tried to pull over yet. I just hope that he carries on for as long as it takes my mom to remember that I am still here. If past experience is anything to go by, then it hopefully won’t take her too much longer to remember. Although Dad is usually the one that reminds her that I’m here, and he is currently preoccupied with groveling to my mother, so he may not remember for a while yet.

I start to get twitchy.

We have been traveling for a fair amount of time now and this road is so quiet, especially at this time that we are really risking him realizing that we are following him. If he hasn’t already.

The only way we will know for certain is if he pulls over and waits for us to pass, which is a dangerous way to check if someone is following you, but is pretty much his only option out here since it’s not like you can drive in a circle like you would in a town or city.

“Kat,” I hear Dad say, having listened to them burst out laughing, “Cash is still on the phone.”

“Oh merda,” she curses in Italian, “Cash, honey, I am so sorry. I saw an opportunity to wind your father up and I took it.”

“That’s okay mom,” I reply, and then add, “it really is getting late now though, I think the guys want to watch a film and you were supposed to be going dancing.”

“Oh, you’re right,” she replies, “night baby, love you.”

“Night!” my dad yells.

“Night, guys, love you.”

With that they both finally hang up the phone and just in time to.

Trick’s eyebrows raise, “Well, that was good timing; he’s literally just made a turn.”

“Slow down a minute and I’ll see if I can find it on maps and see what’s down there, we don’t want to be turning into a private driveway,” I say, my fingers already doing the task.

Chapter Seventeen

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