Page 72 of Finding Hope

The dangerous kind.

Tina’s penetrating gaze has my eyes flipping up. “I don’t think the worst. It’s okay. I mean, if we all judged on that night alone, then you’d probably have reason to think I carry STD’s by the bucket load. I’m not a whore that does the walk of shame every night, and he’s not a complete asshole that disrespects women all the time. I won’t be running him down with my car, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Grinning, she wipes a napkin across her lips. “I might’ve been a little worried about that. He copped a lot of shit for what he did to you.”

“He did?” I frown in disbelief. “Why? You guys didn’t know me.”

She shrugs. “But we knew Jack. And no matter what, that’s not how you treat people. That’s especially not how you treat women. It doesn’t matter whether we know you or not, what he did was wrong.”

Nodding, I say nothing more as Evie wanders back out of the parlor. Standing to go our separate ways, I take Jack’s letter from my pocket and grab a pen from my bag.

Scribbling my response, I draw a big flourishing tick next to the ‘No.’ But to lessen the rejection, I draw a smiley face right next to it.

Holding it out, I grin at Evie. “Can you give this to your Uncle Jack?”

Smiling mischievously, she tucks it away in her pocket. “Sure thing, Miss T.”

19

JACK

SIGNS

Holding the crinkled letter in my hands, the paper soft from folding and refolding, I frown at my smugly beaming niece. “Why are you so happy? It says no, dummy!”

“But she said yes to my face.”

“But the letter says no!” I push her face away. “So really, you screwed up.”

The sting at the back of my head is expected, but the jab to my kidney is a tidy little surprise. “Don’t say that to my daughter, jerk. And don’t ask her to hit on women for you again.” Turning and walking backwards to keep me in her sight, Tina grins. “Though it does my heart good to see you hitting on women the old-fashioned way.”

“The old-fashioned way?”

She nods. “Yeah, you know… respectfully.”

“We had an ice-cream date,” Smalls announces before I can respond. “With Miss T.”

“You did?”

“Yep! Mr. Maxwell was asking her outagain,” she rolls her eyes, “so I jumped in and told her we had a date.”

“Atta girl.” I press a kiss to my favorite niece’s hair. “You saved the day, Bug.”

“I sure did. I don’t know why he keeps bothering her. She doesn’t like him.”

“He’s such a dick.”

“That’s what I said!”

I choke and push her back. “Evie! Who’d you say that to?”

“To Miss T.”

Laughing, I pull her in and squish her face against my chest. “Jesus, Evelyn. You can’t say that to your teacher!”

“Yeah, that’s what she said. She told me off.”

Part of me wants to laugh that Britt told my niece off; both those girls are sassy as hell. A standoff would be entertaining. But then another part of me frowns that Britt was defending Brad. The second half wins and has my bottom lip coming between my teeth while I think.

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