Page 102 of The Renegade Billionaire
And he’s not wrong.
Perhaps Madison isn’t the only matchmaker in Happiness.
“Why the helldo I have to sit in the middle?” Grey grumbles as he faces off with Pops at the passenger side door of my truck.
“Because I said, and I’m not too old to whoop your ass. Now get in the truck,” Pops says sternly.
“Whoop my ass?” Grey scratches the side of his head. It takes a lot to stump him, but Pops is proving to be a worthy opponent.
“I said what I said. The sooner you learn you won’t get your way acting a fool, the happier you’ll be here in Happiness.”
Grey leans down into the truck to stare at me with wild eyes. “Why is it every time I talk to him it’s one giant mind fuck?”
I shrug and start the engine. “He’s had a lot of years to perfect it. Just get in. I want to check on Sage.”
He curses under his breath but slides in. “Are you fucking kidding me? I have to straddle this thing?”
“It’s a gearshift,” Pops says, following him inside.
“I know what it is.”
I glance down at Grey’s legs and burst out laughing. He’s practically resting his chin on his knees in here.
“Just go,” he barks. “How the fuck does a brand-new car just die in the driveway?”
He had a new Mercedes delivered a few days ago, but when Pops starts whistling, I think I know why it wouldn’t start, and I keep forgetting to talk to him about it, even if it is funny to see Grey this way.
Reaching over his legs, I put the truck in reverse.
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fuck me and my life.”
“Don’t be such a crybaby.” Pops pats his knee and chuckles. “Ace said you needed to loosen up. You just haven’t found anyone who can go toe-to-toe with you yet. But you will.”
“No. I won’t. How long until we get there?”
“Ten minutes,” I say.
Grey presses his lips together into a thin line, and Pops whistles a melody I can’t place. When I give Grey a sideways glance, his eyes are closed, and I think he’s praying for patience.
Just one big happy family.
By the time I pull into the Chug, Grey has moved on to the breathing exercises Ace made us learn as teenagers.
“Look at that. Busy place today,” Pops muses.
“Get. Out.”
Grey hasn’t even opened his eyes yet, so I elbow him in the side. “You need to relax, okay? This place is…different. You’ll see.”
“What the boy said.” Pops opens the door and slowly exits the truck.
“I have a billion-dollar company to run. I don’t have time to.” He scans the building in front of us. “Seriously Braxton, I want to be in and out of here in five minutes. We can leave Sage if he’s having fun, and we’ll snatch him out of there if even one person is looking at him funny.”
I bite my cheek to keep from laughing and lie to my best friend. “Fine. Let’s go.”
There’s no chance in hell we’ll be out of here in one hour, let alone five minutes, but lying to him is the only way to get him to move.
Exiting the truck, I head straight for the front door, knowing that he’ll follow, then I roll my neck from side to side on the way because there’s no telling what kind of chaos we’ll find in here today. Pops stands waiting for us at the top of the stairs.
