Page 35 of Bet On Me, Daddy

“Okay, timeout.” Holding her hands up in a T formation, Tara pinned them each with a stern look before pointing a finger at Lottie. “This isn’t about you, Charlotte, so why don’t you let Ruby explain before you decide to get your feelings hurt.”

Pink blossomed on Lottie’s cheeks. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good girl. Ruby?”

Taking that as her cue to continue, Ruby sighed. “It’s going to sound stupid when I say it out loud.”

“That’s okay. There’s no judgment here.” The statement was delivered firmly, with another pointed look for Lottie who rolled her eyes and held her hands up in surrender.

“Yes, yes, no judgment. Sheesh.”

“He’s come into the coffee shop where I work a couple times now. And today he came in, and we flirted a bit, and when he paid he left me a tip. Like areally bigfucking tip.”

Lottie wasn’t quite able to hide the confusion on her face. “That… bastard?”

“I told you it was going to sound stupid,” Ruby grumbled.

“How did the tip make you feel?”

Ruby glanced over at Tara, who was watching her with her head tilted slightly to the side. “You sound like my therapist.”

“Therapist, bartender. Tomato, tomahto,” Tara said with a grin.

“Well, Dr. Tara, it made me feel… angry. After I got done having a panic attack over it.” A glance up showed they were both still watching, waiting. “I dated a guy who used to do stuff like that. He’d throw his money around to try and like, buy my compliance, I guess. It… ended really badly.”

“Oh honey.” Shifting back into concerned friend mode, Lottie leaned in. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Mostly. More confused than anything now.”

“Why confused?” Tara asked.

“Because I still really fucking like him.” There. That wasn’t so difficult to admit. “And I was really looking forward to seeing him tonight until he started flashing his money around. Now I just… ugh. I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, the way I see it, you’ve got two options.” Tara held up a finger. “One, you tell him where he can stuff his great big wads of cash and you refuse to have anything to do with him again.”

That was the option she’d been leaning toward for most of the day. But the more time she had to think about it, the less it appealed. “What’s option number two?”

Tara held up a second finger, accompanied by a raise of her brow. “Grow the fuck up and talk to him. I’m not saying you have to dump your trauma all over him, but just tell him that it makes you uncomfortable and ask him politely but firmly not to shower you with money.”

“What if he doesn’t listen?”

“Then he isn’t half the man I’ve always known him to be and he doesn’t deserve you.”

Some of the jagged pieces inside her slid back into place and Ruby nodded. “Right. I deserve someone who listens to me and respects me.”

“Damn right you do.”

Okay. She had a plan, and she could breathe again. “So I guess now I just have to keep myself occupied until he actually shows up.”

“Oh, that reminds me!” Lottie’s expression turned sheepish. “I was actually coming over here to tell you that Beckett won’t be around until later. Daddy is on his way to grab some takeout and then he’s heading over to have dinner with him and Ice and I think Holden.”

Alarm bells rang in Ruby’s head. “Is Beckett okay?”

“Daddy shut me down when I tried to ask what was going on.” Brows furrowed, Lottie pouted, looking rather put out that she’d been denied the gossip. “He would have told me if it was a 9-1-1 type situation, though, so I assume he’s not hurt or anything.”

“If you hear anything, you’ll tell me?”

With another of those sympathetic smiles, Lottie patted Ruby’s hand. “The second I hear something, you’ll be the first to know.”

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