Page 5 of Spring Surprise
“Whatever.” She glances uneasily into the back seat and heaves a weighted sigh. Then, like all women seem to be able to do, she straightens her shoulders, snatches the keys out of the ignition, and hops out of the car.
“You know, Sugar, you could be nicer. Haven’t you ever heard ‘you catch more flies with honey’?” She tosses me a startled look but then hands me more sass.
“Bees. You catch more bees with honey. Flies are attracted to shit.” This time, she’s the one to close the door in my face.
Well, she has me there. When she pulls open the door behind her and gathers our… her son from the back seat, I can’t resist pushing a little harder as I climb out of her vehicle. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here? I’ll go easy on you, scout’s honor.” I give her my most sincere smile.
“Pfft. You were never a scout, Tobias James.”
Now, how does she know that? I watch her until her cute little ass disappears through the front doors of the resort before I pull out my phone.
My friend, Brady, is a traveling doctor in the local hospital system. I’m not sure what his rotation is, so I text him what I need, and he can get back to me when he has a free minute. He owes me a favor, and I’d like to keep this discreet if at all possible. As nosy as I am, I don’t want the town gossips all up in my business and my mom catching wind of this shit storm until I have all the facts straight. I then text Manny to come pick me up.
While I wait, I watch the resort’s doors and place a phone call to another retired Ranger buddy, Mason Cree. It’s picked up on the second ring. “Toe Beans, what’s up?”
“Hey, Mase, I need a favor.” I should have thought to go through her glove box for Neely’s vehicle registration and insurance papers while she was napping. “I need everything you can dig up on a woman named Neely James.”
“James, huh? Did you get married and forget to invite me to the wedding?”
“Not yet, but she did show up claiming I’m the father of her baby.”
“Holy shit, man! Are you?”
“Maybe.”
“Enough said. Send me the info. I’ll hopefully be wrapping up a case within the next two weeks, and then I’m heading home. Can you wait that long, or do you need it sooner? I know of a few people who can be discreet if you do.”
“No. I’ll wait for now. If you get too caught up, we can call in someone else.”
“Sounds good. You want her bra and panty sizes, too?” Mason’s big laugh booms through the phone’s speaker. Besides being a bounty hunter and PI, he thinks he’s a comedian.
“Sure, why not? We’ll see if you’re still as good as you think you are.” I hand him a ration of shit back.
“Oh, brother. I am good. Talk to you in a few.”
“Yup.”
Chapter 5
Neely
If my hands weren’t full rolling a luggage cart and carrying my son, I’d be face-palming myself. I knew going into this that Tobais was tenacious, but less than twenty-four hours after meeting him, he’s already driving me crazy.
You could torture me by tweezing my nether regions, but I will never admit I hoped I’d see him today, and holy cow does the man look good. What is it about work boots and faded jeans? And not jeans bought that way, but ones that have been worn so much they mold to a man’s thighs. I’m not even going to touch on the tight gray T-shirt he’s got on beneath that muted flannel.
I will also not be admitting I took a few extra minutes to… give myself some extra care in the shower this morning—or who the star of that shower scene was.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as I tap the fob to unlock my vehicle.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks at the same time, giving me the once over before reaching out and stealing my keys. Which, of course, I try to snatch back, but other than shaking his head, he ignores me by pulling luggage off the rack and stuffing it into the hatch of the Wrangler.
“Tobias, as pleasant as it is to deal with you on an empty stomach, I have shi… stuff to do today,” I toss over my shoulder as I get TJ situated in the back.
“Yeah? Me too. I’ll drive. Where are we headed first?”
“Tobi—”
“Don’t argue. You wanted me to meet TJ, now I want to hang out with you. Where to?” Once again, he pulls the passenger door open and waits for me to get with the program.
