Page 63 of Live Love Steal
I paused in my last-minute fussing over a fruit board tray. “An accountant? Wow.”
My mom heard the notes of disbelief in my voice. “I know. Finally. No more drug dealers.”
I concentrated on stabbing the grapes, then the strawberries, on the little toothpick kabobs for Noah. Victor’s death made the news. A drug-related shooting, they called it. Suspects still at large, with no viable leads.
Audrey’s name got dragged into the press because her name was on Victor’s lease. That did not go over well with Dad, either. More than one family dinner was punctuated with, “I’m glad that no-account-criminal is dead.” But those words never passed my lips.
“She’s not bringing him, is she?” That would be fun… not. Me bringing the tattooed biker home, and Drey bringing a suited golden boy with a 401k, no doubt.
“I don’t think they’re there yet.” Mom’s stare made my neck itch.
“What?”
She dipped her head and sent me that look. The same one she used to use when I didn’t do my homework. “I know you sleep over there. I stopped by your apartment last week. There is a for lease sign in the window.”
Oh no. Busted.
“I’m an adult.” I stabbed another strawberry.
“Oh, I know that. But I wish you had said something.”
The guilt trip. “I’ve been busy.”
“Your promotion was two months ago.”
I smiled. The day after Jamie’s major botching of the pitch, and the big boss stepping in to replace me on the account, I was offered my former boss’s job. That late-night email from the hospital paid off. I now ran the division. And truly liked my job for a change. With the major shift, and getting Noah acclimated at Sketch’s, and the addition on the roof, no longer just a hole in the ceiling, life was looking up.
Mom took out some cheese and started to unwrap it. I fought the urge to vomit. “Noah can’t have cheese. They think his stomach issues might be lactose-related.” Which was kind of hard for him at first, because he loved pizza. Me? If I never saw another Italian dish with noodles or cheese, I’d be just fine.
She sent me a look I couldn’t figure out.
“What?”
Her eyes got a little misty. “Noah is your boyfriend’s son’s name?”
“Yes. He’s seven. He’s so sweet and so talented. You’re going to love him.” I did.
Her smile wavered. “I think I already do, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, your father may put the kibosh on all of this.” She wrapped up the cheese and helped me rinse off some veggies.
The doorbell rang, and I practically ran to the door from the kitchen.
But Dad beat me to it.
Noah and Sketch stood on my parents’ front porch. My dad was in-between us, so I couldn’t exactly run interference like I planned. Noah saw me and peeled off from his dad to run around my dad and give me a hug. “Izzy!”
We’d seen each other this morning. I hugged him anyway. The addition on the roof had two bedrooms, and Noah had claimed his room almost as soon as the paint dried, leaving us with the other one. But every morning, he crawled into bed with me and Sketch because… well, it was a thing. He’d grow out of it soon enough. And I’d learned that first day to not be naked for too long in that building, not with Sketch’s friends and Noah around.
Bear still gave me shit over that.
I introduced Dad to Noah and then Sketch.
As they shook hands, there was some sort of manly pissing contest going on. “You’re the man fixing my daughter’s car?” He twisted Sketch’s hand to look at the tattoos on the back.
“I am. You run that shop down off ’81. I delivered parts to you last August. The Studebaker you couldn’t find a head gasket for?”
Dad cussed. “Ain’t no one got that part. Thanks for finding a fabricator for me.”
Sketch grinned. “That fabricator? You’re looking at him.”
