The Truth

Loving her aggressiveness, I return the playful bite and then suck at her full lower lip. But her phone rings again, somehow more insistent with the repeat call. With a groan, she pulls away. “Someone better have been arrested or be dead.”

Remembering her own call to me, I chuckle to distract myself from my aching balls. “Or maybe drunk and needing a ride?”

It helps calm her, I think, and she gives me a smile that says pause. For now. “Touché.” She answers the phone, her voice tense but controlled. “Hello.” She’s quiet for a moment as she listens, and then she says, “Calm down, Ace. Tell me again. Slower.”

Pause.

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay, I’m on my way.” She hangs up and immediately starts apologizing. “I’m so sorry. I have to go. Ace’s daycare is flooding. Something about the dog bath drain?”

It’s her brother. And while my cock might be saying it doesn’t give two shits about a clogged bath drain, my decision is instant and simple. “Okay, let’s go.”

Tiffany freezes, utterly shocked. “What?”

“Let’s go,” I repeat, patting my back pocket to make sure my wallet’s still in there.

Still not moving, Tiffany asks blankly, “You’re going with me?”

“Of course,” I tell her. That she doesn’t assume I would go surprises me for some reason. I was there for her when she needed me, and if her brother needs help, I’ll help him too. If he’s important to Tiffany, he’s important to me. “Though I’m not sure what help I’ll be with a flood. I’m an expert at calling plumbers, not plumbing.”

Tiffany’s eyes are tight with worry for her brother, but I see the tiniest of smiles tilt up her lips when I grab her purse and hand it to her. “Okay.”

“And I’ll drive.” I snag my keys from the counter.

She laughs in a halfhearted way, her mind already out the door. “Scared of my driving?”

“The truth?” She flashes a weak glare my way, still herself even when she’s distracted. “Absolutely terrified.”

“Okay, but no grandpa out for a Sunday cruise shit,” she says. “We need to hurry.”

“Challenge accepted.”

I don’t make the engine scream, and no rubber gets laid down at each red light, but I push things quicker than normal, cruising at an average of fifteen over the speed limit the whole drive. It’s still not fast enough for the speed demon in my passenger seat. Despite the fact that she’s clicking on her phone, I can sense her foot pushing the imaginary gas pedal in the floorboard of the passenger seat.

“What are you doing on your phone?”

“You mentioned plumbers, so I’m planning for the worst-case scenario, just in case,” she says. Explaining further, she adds, “I’m researching local water damage companies to see who’s closest, has the highest ratings, and after-hours emergency services so we can call as soon as we get there if that’s what we need.”

“Efficient,” I compliment, touched at her taking my comment for good while noticing that she says ‘we’, not ‘Ace’, and remembering what Ricky and Billy told me about her taking everything onto her own strong shoulders.

She shrugs. “It’s what I do.”

“It is, isn’t it?” I muse. “Ricky told me that you solve everyone’s problems.”

Her eyes lift from her phone, and I can feel her studying me, probably seeing if I’m being hurtful or trying to make fun of her. I glance over, returning my eyes to the road just as quickly. Quietly, she confesses, “I do. Especially for Ace. He went through a really rough time a while back and needed some . . .” She pauses, searching for the word she wants. “Support. And then a big kick in the ass. I gave him both.”

I chuckle, surprised at her assessment of her brother’s needs. “I bet. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a good sister.”

“I’ve done that for Elle too,” Tiffany adds quickly, as if kicking her brother’s ass was a bad thing and she needs to justify it. “And Ricky. And Harper. That’s Ace’s fiancée. You probably saw her when we were wedding dress shopping.”

I nod, although I can’t put a name to a face yet. In that moment, I’d had complete tunnel vision and all I saw was Tiffany. “And me?”

She gives me a wary look and turns back to her phone. “Still to be determined.”

Sidestepping that declaration, I ask, “I probably don’t want to know what you’ve done for Elle, but Ricky?”

“Him and Miranda,” she replies easily, multi-tasking with her phone as she explains. “He was always sniffing around, flirting with her, though he’s ridiculously awful at it. That man’s idea of game is just . . . no. Hell to the no.” She smiles, remembering something I’m not privy to. “She thought he was interesting, but she wasn’t ready. She’s a single mom, doing the best she could. Especially when her kids were younger.” Her fingers freeze, the tapping sound from her phone going silent. “Elle and I didn’t help matters. We always got our work done and were just having fun, but now that I do what Miranda did, I recognize what a pain in her ass we must’ve been.” She shakes her head, rattling the past loose. “Anyway, I could tell when she started feeling a bit more ready, and that’s when I encouraged Ricky to go after her and really ask her out. It was so cute how excited she got. And now, she’s living her happily ever after.”