Page 69 of Stone
Dottie narrowed her eyes. “These men are the best men I know. I will not allow anyone to come here and criticize them.” She paused, then looked at Juliana. “Except you and Charley, of course. When that one starts to annoy the shit out of you”—she nodded to Simon—“you are always welcome to come bitch to me.”
“Hey,” Simon protested.
Juliana smiled. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Dottie snorted. “It will happen. You will still love him, but he will, at times, annoy the crap out of you.”
A jolt of panic shot through her like a live wire at Dottie’s use of the wordlove. Her mind went blank with shock before logic filtered back in. She had nothing to worry about;Dottiehad used the word, not her, not Simon.
She managed to roll her eyes as if she hadn’t just had a mini-heart attack. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “Are you staying for lunch, Professor?” she asked, turning to the man.
He grunted, his go-to form of communication apparently, then mumbled. “I don’t eat meat, but I could do with some watermelon and pasta salad.”
A chorus of disbelieving comments followed that pronouncement, but Juliana slipped her arm around Dottie and led her out, Sherman trotting along behind them. “What can I do to help?” she asked as Viper’s laugh echoed down the hall.
“Does he really not eat meat?” Dottie asked.
Juliana bit back a smile. Interesting that that’s what the woman focused on. “I only met him a couple of hours ago, but he doesn’t strike me as the joking kind. You don’t have to do anything extra for him, though. You heard him say he’d be fine with watermelon and pasta salad.”
Dottie harrumphed, then peeled away as they entered the kitchen. Juliana suspected she’d head straight to the fridge to see what alternatives she could provide. She may not have liked his opinion of the Falcons, but she wasn’t about to let someone go hungry on her watch.
“I’m going to take Sherman outside and see if Mantis needs anything,” she called out. Dottie waved her off, already opening the walk-in fridge.
She wasn’t sure what to expect when she walked out the door—almost the entire club had been at dinner, but now it was the middle of a workday.
Sherman darted toward the edge of the woods, stopping sporadically to sniff the grass between here and there. Scipio was on the phone not far from where he headed. To her right, Juan and Lovell played a game of horseshoes. Mantis stood at the grill, tongs in one hand and his other arm draped over Charley’s shoulder.
Both smiled when they spotted her.
“Hey, Juliana,” Charley said, slipping out from under Mantis and walking toward her. “How are you?”
Juliana smiled, darting a look at Sherman to make sure he wasn’t running off before she answered. “In the grand scheme of things, I’m fine.” Charley gave her a sympathetic look, then wrapped her in a quick hug. A hug Juliana hadn’t known she needed.
“Is that the famous Sherman?” Charley asked with a nod to the dog trotting over to Scipio with a stick. “Noah was telling me about him.” They watched Scipio take the stick and chuck it across the grassy area. Sherman took off after it. “Heisa big boy, isn’t he?” she added.
“He’s normal size now, but since he’s only six months old, yeah, he’s going to be a big boy,” Juliana answered.
Charley chuckled. “Hence the name.”
Juliana inclined her head as Sherman brought the stick back to Scipio. She and Charley fell into casual chitchat as others prepared lunch, covering everything from the new boutique in town to the library’s fall schedule, to what books they were reading. Charley threw in a few questions about Simon as if testing whether she’d feel comfortable talking about him. Living with her aunt and uncle had taught her to say as little as possible—especially about anything private—but she had nothing to hide and wasn’t part of their world anymore. Instead, she enjoyed sharing with Charley how they’d met and everything they’d been thrown into the past few days. Charley would hold her tongue on the things that mattered—she was a Warwick, but she was also Mantis’s girlfriend, which made her like a sister to Simon.
They were laughing at the tug-of-war game between Scipio and Sherman when she felt fingertips at her back. Despite knowing whose they were, she startled. Simon stepped closer,sliding his arms around her waist and steadying her body by pulling it against his.
“It’s good for him to stretch his legs,” he said, dropping a kiss on her neck before nodding to Sherman, who now raced around the yard with half the stick in his mouth. Scipio stood, phone still to his ear, holding the other half.
“Lunch is ready,” Dottie called. A few minutes later, they were all seated at a long picnic table. Interestingly, Griswold had refused to sit until Dottie sat. Which proved even more interesting when Simon had whispered to her that she didn’t usually eat with them. He assured her that she was always invited, but while Dottie liked to cook for the masses, she preferred to eat in peace. And since the guys always cleaned up, she often either ran errands after getting food on the table or retired to her own cabin.
Finally, after a bit of posturing, everyone dug in. Juliana opted for a cheeseburger before loading up on watermelon and a small helping of pasta salad. When the tray of buns made its way to the professor, he grabbed a hamburger bun. Juliana glanced at his plate to see a grilled portobello mushroom with melted cheese on it.
“So what’s the update?” Juan asked before taking a bite of his brat.
Juliana had her own mouth full of food so looked to the guys to answer. Simon nodded to Viper, who took the lead and updated everyone. Simon’s and Monk’s gazes darted to Philly when Viper mentioned Agent Parks, but he didn’t acknowledge either and remained focused on shoving his burger into his mouth at an alarming rate. Juliana’s stomach cramped watching him.
“At the end of the day, we have a shit ton of evidence supporting our theory that Gregor has been blackmailing Lowery to support certain zoning laws that give him adevelopment advantage, then Gregor allows local drug dealers to use the sites for their business while his projects are ongoing and blackmails Polinsky to have his officers look the other way,” Viper wrapped up.
“But no proof,” Lovell said, refilling his glass of lemonade before offering some to Dottie.
“No proof,” Simon said. “Not yet. We also don’t know if Lowery is paying off commissioners on behalf of Gregor to ensure his projects get green-lighted, or where Polinsky is getting the money to pay off his officers.”
