Page 62 of Live Love Steal
I straightened it out until I could see the numbers written on it. Twenty-five thousand.
“How much did you give her?”
Jackson’s mouth tilted up. He pulled out the flat check Sharon had handed back to him. I scanned the number. Two grand.
“She took ten grand.”
He dipped his head. “Never bet what you can’t win.”
“Who wants ice cream?” Bear asked, mostly for Noah’s sake.
“It’s too cold for ice cream, and the doctor says I shouldn’t have dairy.”
Bear looked at Noah like he had two heads. “No ice cream? What a quack. Sketch?”
Noah remembered last night better than I did. “He’s got a BRAT diet for a few days. Until he shows improvement, it’s no sugar, no greasy food, and definitely no dairy. Only bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast.”
While Bear worked that out in his head, Wolf wrapped an arm around me and indicated the club assembled around us. “Your girl called this morning. Told us where you’d be and when. You have her to thank for this. She said she’d be here if she could get out of the pitch, but…”
I counted heads. “Isobel did this?”
Wolf nodded slowly.
“Come on, man. Don’t lie. You did this.”
That got a shake of his head. “She called the junkyard, and Rocket thought it would be hilarious if he sent the call to Jackson. You know, for old time’s sake.”
A grin crept through my worries. Jackson had been the most notorious ladies’ man. He used his charm on everything with tits. Come to find out, he’d been keeping a secret family tucked away. And once they resurfaced, those breathy, sexily voiced phone calls to the junkyard ceased.
“I wonder whose idea the ten grand was?”
Wolf shrugged. “Somehow, I think it was Izzy’s.” He started to turn away, but snapped his fingers. “Almost forgot,” he tugged the check for two grand from my fingers. “We owe this.”
Right.
“Do you want me to take it?”
Wolf shook his head. “I’ll do it. You take the day off and get some sleep. You both look like you need it.”
But I needed one thing before that happened, “Hey, Wolf? Did you get Isobel’s number?”
The grim shake of his head flattened my hopes. I pulled Noah in close so we could leave. Win some, lose some.
15
The one - Isobel
Two months later…
The clock was moving too slowly. I’d only checked it for the twentieth time. It was only five minutes since I’d called, but this was…unorthodox, and important.
I’d asked Sketch and Noah to join me for Saturday dinner at my parents’ home. It hadn’t been my idea at all. But one too many missed oil changes, and Dad got suspicious.
At first, he thought I had been abusing my new-ish SUV that I’d bought as soon as I found a buyer for my Kia. But when he found out that someone else was working on his daughter’s car… you’d think I’d been caught cheating on him.
Mom set him straight and invited, no… demanded that I bring the new mechanic here for dinner. But there was no mechanic without his shadow. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. And they weren’t late, yet…
“Did I tell you Audrey’s dating an accountant now?”
