Page 52 of Grumpy Sunshine

Her eyes widened.

I pulled out a stack of cash from my pocket, then put it on the table.

“What…” She looked at the money.“You didn’t donate it all?”

“I kept some,” I admitted.“Because I felt like you could use some of it to pay for your car to get fixed.And split some with your sister.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it.“That’s very sweet but…”

“But you’re keeping it,” I pointed out.“It’s not much.Five thousand dollars.It’s enough to get you both a little of what you need.”

“It’s not much?”She laughed as she looked at it.“Newsflash, Chevy, but that’s the kind of money I could live off for the next year.”

“Then do it,” I returned.

“I can’t…” she hesitated some more.

I stood up and braced my hands on the table, using my size to intimidate her.“Either you keep it, or I go get more of it and keep dropping it off until you figure out that I’m not playing around.”

She snapped her mouth shut.

I grinned at her and took my final slice of pizza and headed to the door.“See you tomorrow at work, Whirlwind.”

I had the door wide open, and I was swinging it shut behind me when I popped my head back through and said, “Oh, and Aella?”

She looked up, eyes wide.“Yeah?”

“Enjoy your A/C.”

Her mouth fell open in shock, and she started to look around as if she could see the cold air now coming out of the vents.

I didn’t wait for her to reply as I headed out to my bike.

I did, however, send out another text to Apollo and ask him to look into their bank accounts.

It would be a lot easier if I could just dump some cash into her account and she didn’t know where it came from.

Thirteen

Honestly, I love every single some of you.

—Aella’s secret thoughts

AELLA

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, wondering if I was crazy for what I was about to do.

I shouldn’t be here, dropping this money off, but I’d spent the entire night thinking about it, and I just couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t take this money.

It felt…wrong.

Like I’d taken it and shouldn’t have.

It was why I was walking up to Chevy’s bike seconds later and touching his saddlebags.

No one else would be crazy enough to do what I was about to do.

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