Trouble in Miami (Trouble, Tennessee 4)

“Slim, maybe, but it doesn’t matter. We’ll land in Miami and head to Key West and that will be the last we see of Mr. Jones.”

“Jones hell,” Allister said, thinking of something. He tugged his phone from his pocket and took a few quick snapshots. Mr. Jones hurriedly left his seat, pursuing the lavatory then with his head down. “What I thought, motherfucker.”

“I know you aren’t talking to me,” Harley said, nodding at Allister’s phone. “Tell me you aren’t sending that back to Trouble.”

“Damn right I am,” Allister said. “We need to find out who this fellow really is.”

“I’m seated in the back,” Draegan told him. “Go talk to Ellie. Give her a kiss, cop a feel, or get your fingers wet, whatever it is you do to calm yourself down.”

“Then march your ass back up front and settle down. If you don’t, I’m never traveling with you again, man,” Harley said.

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” Allister pushed him aside. “Grief.”

As soon as the rest of his path cleared, he made a beeline to Ellie and flopped down in Mr. Jones’s spot.

“I wondered how long it would take you,” she said, looking straight ahead.

“You saw me coming,” Allister remarked, doing the same.

“Allister I’m not doing this right now.”

“You’re not doing what, Ellie?”

“Watching you make an ass out of yourself,” Ellie replied calmly.

Allister blew out a rough breath and whispered at her ear, “Trust me. As soon as this plane is in the air, you’ll wish you hadn’t said that.”

“What are you going to do, Allister? Spank me?” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh you are so fucking spanked,” he muttered, turning around and trying to spy that son of a bitch who was clearly putting his moves on Allister’s woman.

Ellie turned sideways and crossed one leg over the other. She grabbed hold of his bicep and squeezed. “I love you. You know I’ve loved you since before I knew I loved you. Now let that be enough.”

“There’s something wrong with him.” Why the hell couldn’t she see it, too?

“Really?” She framed his face with her hands. “Allister. Listen to yourself. You sound like a jealous teenage boyfriend.”

“She’s right.” The older woman next to her never opened her eyes. “It’s sexy and all but eventually, it will run a woman off. Is that what you want?”

Allister was half-tempted to tell the biddy to mind her own business, but he’d always been taught to respect his elders. “Anyway, Ellie—”

“Anyway, Sir,” the old woman continued, lifting her head away from the pillow then. “You have two choices. You can cause a scene and take your chances.” She let her glasses slide down her nose. “And that’s not the better option, young man.” She sat a little taller. “Or you can go back up there to the front of the plane, flirt with the little redhead beside you, and let everyone enjoy their trip to Miami.

“Personally, I love seeing punches thrown. My Edwin was quite the fighter in his day. I always loved stirring trouble.” She gave Ellie a pointed stare and then swung her gaze back to Allister. “Go on now. Be a good husband or boyfriend or little thing on the side.” She laughed and then slowly lifted a red handbag from the floor. “If anything happens back here, I’ll knock the fella over his head and yell for help.”

Ellie pressed her lips together. Clearly amused, Ellie didn’t have a jealous bone in her body so she probably didn’t hear the flirting suggestion. Even if she had, it wouldn’t matter. The redhead didn’t hold a candle to Ellie.

“All right,” Allister said, conceding for Ellie as much as the woman who reminded him too much of his deceased grandmother. “Keep an eye on her.”

“I will.”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” he said, grinning at the old woman. “Ellie, keep this firecracker in line. She’s a dangerous sort of person.”

“She could learn a thing or two from me, young man,” the woman stated proudly.

“I’ll bet.”

Chapter Six