Page 5 of Grumpy Sunshine

Because that was the thing.

She had to have been let in.

I know my lock was a standard issue apartment lock, but my landlord, my sister, and I were the only ones with a key.

Maureen’s cheeks reddened.“She said that she had bones for your dogs.”

“She gave them bones all right,” I grumbled.“But I don’t have any dogs, so she just left those bones on the ground next to my door.What was it that I specifically told you when I moved in?”

She looked angry.“She’s your mother.”

“She’s a goddamn con woman that steals my rent every time she comes into the apartment!”I cried out.“I told you that for a reason!Now I can’t pay rent because you allowed someone to break into my home.”

Maureen’s eyes narrowed.“You still owe rent.”

“I’ll pay rent,” I said.“But only when I get it back from my mother.”

“That’ll be today?”she asked.“If you don’t pay by the end of the day, you’ll be evicted.”

“You won’t evict me,” I challenged.“Want to know why?”

The older woman narrowed her eyes and said, “Why?”

“Because I’ll beat the shit out of you if you do.”I turned toward the door but stopped in the doorway and looked back over my shoulder.“I don’t like you.I know you don’t like me.But we both know that you need my money.I pay in cash, and you pocket it without paying taxes.I don’t care what you do with the money after I give it to you.But if you ever let my mother back into my apartment again, I’m going to do something you won’t like.”

Maureen crossed her arms over her chest.“I don’t have to let you live here.”

“And I can turn you into the city of Dallas for these living conditions, your tax evasion, and that pot business you have going on up in the top floors.But I won’t.”I turned and left, knowing she wouldn’t kick me out.

Hell, I could probably live there for free if I wanted, but I paid my way.

No matter what.

Two

May everything I say confuse you until you learn to mind your own business.

—Chevy to Cutter

CHEVY

I was still laughing the next day at the way her shoe came off and she took off after it.

Aella Cowan, better known as Whirlwind in my head.

A smile was on my face when I pulled up to the hospital and shut my bike off.

I usually tried to park far away to get some steps in before my shift.

I’d be spending the next twelve hours on my ass next to a patient, and I seriously questioned my life choices sometimes.

I hated being so sedentary.

In fact, when I’d first decided that anesthesia was my path, I’d done so when I was in the military and working in battle zones that was non-stop, constant action.

Now, when I was working for a living as a civilian, I sort of hated how boring it was.

Parking my motorcycle across the street from Whirlwind’s red Ford Mustang, I studied it for long moments.

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