Page 47 of The C*ck Down the Block

“Do it, do it, do it. Rachel is going to die, and then her buzzy little worker bees will... oh, shoot, don’t they just, like, go find a new queen?” Lu stood up and raised her arm to the sky like she was holding a sword aloft in some kind of fantasy novel. “I shall rise as the new queen and free all the workers to live their happy little lives without tyranny.”

“You’re so weird.” I quickly tapped out my reply to Marie, gushing with thanks and a promise to call her when I got off work to coordinate, and then a second to the reunion committee with the subject line: Amazing Update!

Lulu grabbed her phone and replied immediately with a hell yeah, and I got several other excited replies right away too. But of course, silence from Rachel and her minions, Lacey and Amanda.

Oh, no, wait. Lacey replied, and strangely voted yes. She even said she was excited. With her affirmative, I had enough of a majority to go for it.

“Ooh, Lacey is gonna catch hell for that later. Trouble in the ranks of the Queen Bees.” Lulu swigged down the last gulp of her latte. “Delicious tea.”

Tea indeed. “I gotta run, don’t want Karter to catch me getting back from lunch late.”

Right when I got back to the library, a new message from Chris pinged.

Hey, call me?

I had all of one minute before I had to go work the front desk for the next two hours. I typed back quickly as I walked up the stairs from where the staff offices were in the basement.

About to be on desk. But I can go hide in the bathroom for one min if it’s an emergency.

He sent a laughing emoji and then a reply that I didn’t really know what to do with.

No. But I’ve got some bad news.

Bad news as in he was breaking up with me? No, silly. Ridiculous. He wouldn’t have sent a laughy face. And we hadn’t even decided we were officially together. And no one texted to say they had bad news and then broke up with you. Right?

BAD NEWS

CHRIS

My agent made me a lot of money, but I was ready to murder him at the moment. “God dammit, Maguire, can’t we push it to next week?”

I’d fucked up. The commercial I was slated to star in was the same fucking weekend as Trixie’s reunion. I hadn’t even thought to check when I told her I would go with her. Of course I was going to go with her. But I didn’t like breaking professional commitments.

The best Maguire had been able to finagle was for me to leave today, shoot this week, and be back in time for the fundraiser on Friday. Which meant I’d spend the whole week away from Trixie. And then training camp started right after that, and I’d barely have time to sleep, much less make my girl feel special, wanted, needed, and all the other things a smart boyfriend did at the beginning of a relationship.

I was not fucking letting Trix slip though my hands by not being available for a month just when I’d finally... won her heart? No, I wasn’t sure I’d gotten that far with her. But I had plans to. Which was why I was pacing Everett’s living room while he and Declan watched me like I was either a predator about to start foaming at the mouth or a dumbass.

“During training camp? You don’t want that.” He was right, the fucker. “They weren’t even happy you can’t film this weekend. It’s now, or the deal is gonna go south.”

Damn it all to hell. I glanced over at Declan. “Hey, man, go be in this car commercial for me.”

He gave me the finger and shook his head. “No. I don’t even fit in their cars.”

True. He was bigger than most sports cars. It was what made him one of the greatest defensive linemen in the league. That, and how flat out scary he was to opposing quarterbacks. Dude was mean when he wanted to be.

Like now.

“Ev?”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes while laughing like this was the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard. “They don’t want a wide receiver, man, they want the quarterback.”

Shit. I’d made the commitment and I was going to have to go. Because I didn’t go back on my word. It was just the shittiest of timing.

“Fine. I’ll call the jet crew. But they weren’t expecting this so it’ll probably take them a few hours to get it ready.” Which would give me time to explain to Trix, and maybe even talk her into going with me. Surely she had some vacation time.

Shit. I’d take care of her if she’d let me. She never needed to work a day in her life again if she didn’t want to. But I knew how she loved her job, and she’d never want to quit to be a kept woman.

“I already called them. They’re ready to leave now,” Maguire said. “I’m in the car on my way to the airfield in Broomfield. We take off in an hour.”

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