“Stall them,” Skylar yelled to Tink and Jessie as she hiked up her skirts and dashed out of sight.
Jessie looked at Tink with wide eyes. “What do we do?”
Tink shook her hands in the air, trying to think, then her eyes landed on a glass on the kitchen bar top. Jessie followed the line of her eyes. The next thing she new, Tink was grabbing up the glass and smashing it against the floor in front of the back door.
“What are you doing?” Jessie shrieked.
“You’ll see. Quick, grab the broom and dustpan,” she hissed in a whisper to Jessie, pointing to the tiny utility closet.
The door started to open and Tink grabbed it, stopping it from swinging open.
Shades stuck his head around the door, with a frown.
“We’re sweeping up a broken glass, could you wait outside for just a minute?” Tink asked him with a sweet smile.
“Sure thing, Tink.” Shades backed out, and she slammed the door, leaning against it with a relieved look at Jessie. Both girls struggled to muffle their laughter and high-fived each other.
It was the slowest clean up job on record.
Skylar came out of the bathroom, hopping on one foot as she struggled to slip her shoes back on, while Sherry dashed up the stairs with the garment bag to hide it under the bed.
Then they all looked at each other and burst out laughing, which got frowns from both Shades and Ghost as they walked in.
“What’s so funny?” Shades asked.
“Nothing,” Skylar replied.
His eyes narrowed. “You’re up to something.”
She rolled her eyes. “You really want to hear about Tink’s time of the month?”
That shut him up. “Uh, no, not really.”
The guys walked over to the living room and switched on the game, while Tink gave Skylar the look of death for throwing her under the bus like that as a diversion.
“My time of the month,” she hissed under her breath as the girl’s moved into the kitchen. Skylar tried to hide her grin as she grabbed a package of ground beef from the refrigerator, ignoring her.
“Who wants burgers on the grill?”
Two hours later, after they’d grilled out and ate, Ghost stood from the chair he’d been leaning back in out on the deck.
Jessie sipped her drink, studying him. He was still pissed at her. He was being civil, but the anger simmered just under the surface. And she knew it would take time for him to let that go. He had every right to be mad at her. She’d lied to him, misled him, not just about what happened in Sturgis, but about Kyle, too. And perhaps worst of all was what those lies represented in his eyes. That she didn’t trust him. And that was the biggest wound of all to him.
She had a lot of work to do to rebuild his trust.
“You ready to go?”
She nodded, standing. And then her eyes went to Skylar and Shades. “Thank you for dinner.”
“Our pleasure,” Shades replied, and she knew he sensed the tension between her and Ghost. And he knew she was the cause of it. The look in his eyes told her so. He didn’t like his brother being hurt or made a fool. But he’d stay out of it, letting Ghost handle his own business however he saw fit.
“Let’s go,” Ghost said to her.
Shades stood and embraced his brother, slapping him on the back.
“Thanks, man,” Ghost told him.
“You’re welcome. Anytime, bro.”