Page 68 of Made For Me

“I have no idea,” I whisper to him before yelling back, “In here.” I look over at my uncle Max, who is sitting watching the game with a beer in his hand, hiding the smile on his face. After dinner the men decided they would come over and help me hang my television. It made sense to just watch the game here instead of at my parents’ house.

“I know that tone”—Michael just chuckles—“someone is in trouble.”

“That tone,” Dylan says, shaking his head. “That tone is one step after someone is in trouble.” He uses his hand in the air for me to see exactly how high.

“Can’t be that bad,” Cooper says from beside them. “She didn’t call him a motherfucker.”

“Can’t be that bad, she came home.” Wilson laughs at his own joke before drinking a sip of water.

The minute she peeks her head into the media room, I can tell she’s pissed and I’m not the only one. “Don’t say anything,” my father whispers to me. “Actually, just say no or yes.” I look over at him confused. “Just deny, deny, deny.”

“Hey, baby,” I say to her softly and she just shakes her head.

“Don’t you ‘hey, baby’ me, Chase Grant.” She folds her arms over her chest and cocks her hip and even when she’s mad my whole body lights up for her. “Is there something that you need to tell me?”

“It’s a trick question,” Cooper warns, not making eye contact with Julia. Instead, he just looks at the television screen now playing a commercial.

“Don’t answer,” Dylan mumbles, pretending to look around the room.

“Hey, honey, look how nice the television is,” Max says to her and she ignores him.

“What happened?” I finally kick in and my father moans from beside me. His head goes back as he looks at the ceiling.

“Never ask what happened.” He shakes his head. “Rookie mistake.”

“I just got off the phone with my lawyer,” she states, looking at me, then at Max and my father, who is now pretending that he is reading the ingredients of the beer in his hand.

“Okay,” I say, still not sure why she’s all bent out of shape. She was fine when she left to go visit the girls forty minutes ago. “Wait, why are you calling a lawyer?” I ask, confused as fuck now. I sit up on the couch.

“I called him because I never got his bill,” she says, and all the men just shake their heads including me.

“Yeah.” I knew this was coming. I mean, in reality I was hoping she would forget all about it, but pick your battles. Or as my mother says, wait until the second shoe drops. News flash, it just dropped.

“Yeah,” she repeats. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Pretend your chest hurts,” Michael mumbles as he puts his hand to his chest. “I think something we ate is bad.”

“You, zip it.” She points at Michael, who pretends to zip his lips and throw away the key. “Did you pay my lawyer bill?”

“Yes.” I laugh and see the glare back. “But this was like a while ago.”

“What?” she shrieks, throwing up her hand. “Why would you do that?”

“Well, because you’re his woman,” Max now says likeduh. “If he wasn’t paying it, I would have.”

“Just like that?” she says, and she looks at each guy who just looks at her.

“Just like that,” Michael confirms. “It is what it is. He’s your man, what did you expect for him to do?” he asks her.

“I expected to pay the bill myself since it was my court case.” She points at herself.

“That’s not how it was ever going to happen,” Dylan says and Wilson just agrees with him.

“Julia.” My father looks at her. “Honey, we take care of our women.”

“And when they don’t listen, we kidnap them,” Max says to my father.

“I didn’t kidnap her.” He smirks. “I tied her to the bed with handcuffs.” Michael and Dylan roll their lips, trying not to laugh. “She loved every minute of that.”

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