Page 13 of Spring Surprise
Tobias
We’re three days in with filming the first segment of the TV show at the garage, and I’m past ready to start banging heads together. This isn’t going to work. Not only is the crew underfoot and slowing us down, but folks from town are also getting in the way, too. It’s gotten so bad we have to keep the bay doors closed to keep the public from strolling in. I can’t blame them, but I’ll be happy when the hype settles down.
“This isn’t going to work,” Jorie snarls, echoing my thoughts. “Where is Ezra?”Uh-oh. The shit is about to hit the fan. I share a wide-eyed glance with Manny but keep my mouth closed as she stomps for the office door. “If you follow me, I will not be responsible for where that camera ends up or the cost of the emergency room visit to remove it.” The cameraman isn’t as dumb as I thought. He wisely chooses not to follow her, although his expression is sour.
Instead, he joins the camera guy shadowing me.Fucking peachy.This has been the week from hell, and it’s only Wednesday. With all the questions we’re asked, running commentary we’re supposed to give, and the retakes, our ten-hour days are stretching past twelve, and it pisses me off.
Especially now that Neely’s and my situation has changed. I still can’t quite admit it’s a relationship, but there’s this constant urge to… I don’t know, hear her voice? Touch her skin? Inhale the berry-fresh sweetness of her hair? It scares the shit out of me but not in a way that makes any sense. Instead of running away, I obsess over when I can have her again. Spending time with her and little TJ has quickly become the highlight of my days. And the nights? God, the nights. Neely’s a craving I can’t deny.
My phone buzzes in the inner pocket of my coveralls, reminding me I’m working, but I haven’t been paying attention to the job or the guys with the cameras. Good thing I can practically do an oil change with my eyes closed.
I button up the Buick, answering a few questions and explaining each step as I make it, when the shop door leading to the offices opens, just before the door nearest the parking lot opens too. I give a howl of excitement and rush toward the woman with a smirk I know means trouble, but in the best way.
I envelope Jolie, Jorie’s twin sister, in a massive hug and swing her around. “You’re here!” I shout and lay a smacking kiss on her lips. Finally. Now Ezra can get his ass back in the shop instead of spending time wrangling the duties of office manager, owner, and mechanic. When I finally put her feet back on the floor, Manny’s glaring at me, and whoever came in the side door must have realized they need to go in through the office to pick up their vehicle.
It isn’t until after lunch that I realize I haven’t gotten any texts from Neely. When I check my phone, I see I have a missed call from Mason. Before I get out of my truck, I hit the call back button and wait for him to pick up.
“Toe Beans.” I roll my eyes. He’s never going to call me anything else.
“Hey, Mase.” After we deal with the pleasantries and insults, Mason gets down to business.
“Okay, Neely James. Age twenty-three. Blonde and blue-eyed. Five feet three inches tall. One hundred twenty pounds. Only daughter of the late Pierce-Paul and Addy James—they died in the midair collision a few years back, remember? And now heiress and CEO of the James Cyber Technologies empire. I guess she’s some kind of computer genius.”
“Holy shit. She never mentioned any of that.”
“You want the rest?”
“There’s more? Sure, give it to me.”
“Oh, hell yeah, brother, there’s more. Okay, here goes. Set up a surrogacy-type adoption a few weeks ago and has filed three police reports in the last two months. So, tell me if your girl has all this money and responsibility, why is she working as an exotic dancer in a strip club owned by a motorcycle club in Northern Georgia?”
“Are you shitting me?”Neely?I mean, yeah, the girl can dance, but a stripper for an MC? What else hasn’t she told me?
“Nope, not shitting. Goes by the stage name of Sugar Cookie. Folks were really tight-lipped about her. I even tried bribing a couple of the girls who worked with her for information, but other than admitting they knew her, nobody was willing to expand on who she is or where she’s been, for that matter.”
“I… What is she up to?” I ask more to myself than Mason, but he answers anyway.
“I don’t know, man, but word is Luca Gioberto’s been very interested in that club, too. Seems he’s missing a very important family member. The thing is, this Gioberto character hasn’t been seen around since your girl stopped dancing.”
What the fuck? Is it TJ he’s looking for? Is the boy even my son, like she claims? It’ll kill me if that kid isn’t mine… and what about Neely herself?
Chapter 14
Neely
I meet Manny’s scowling gaze and shake my head. No, I don’t want any attention drawn to me. I’m wearing my ratty old Nashville Sounds hoodie and a pair of leggings that have seen better days, while the woman Tobias is kissing looks like she just stepped out of a high-class office.
Switching TJ’s carrier to the other hand, I let the shop door close quietly, not that Tobias will notice, and stomp back to my car. My nose stings as I blink back tears and tuck TJ into the back seat. There is no way I’m going to cry over that jerk. I have no one to blame but myself.
I can’t say he didn’t warn me. He said it plain as day—he doesn’t do relationships. I’m the one who believed he changed his mind when we made lov… had sex the other night and every night since. Turns out I’m a fool.
The ride home… no, the ride to Tobias’s house passes in a blur. My thoughts are scattered, and I feel so… lost, but my son is wide awake and fussy. He’s probably picking up on the tension I can’t seem to get rid of, no matter how many calming breaths I take or stretches I do. After picking at a light dinner of leftovers, I give TJ his bath, and thankfully, he falls right to sleep. I almost forget to attach the little blue SIDS monitor to his foot and turn on the baby monitor so I can hear him if he wakes.
I can’t dance—Tobias’s place doesn’t have the room nor the pole for the type of exhausting workout I need right now—but I can grab my laptop and get to work figuring out the messes I left in Georgia so TJ and I can move our butts back home.
An hour or so later, the calm I’ve created by identifying the lumberjack asking questions about me dissipates like smoke through the pines as I hear Tobias’s truck pull up to the house. I send Sweet Baby and Diamond Girl an encrypted email regarding the information I’ve found on Mason Cree, a PI and bounty hunter based out of Nevada. What I don’t know is who hired him… yet. There have been no monetary deposits that can be connected to me other than a credit card charge to one of the two-star hotels in my hometown of Ridgetown, Georgia. It’s more than we had this morning.
When Tobias comes through the door, he gives me a look I can’t decipher. He heads straight upstairs, and I hear the shower kick on. No kiss. No invitation to join him. Nothing. I don’t know what to do with myself, so I sit on the sofa, rest my chin on my pulled-up knees, and wait.
