Be Mine (Jackson Boys 2)

“Stacks?” That seemed to come out of nowhere.

The corner of her mouth flashes up. “Didn’t I tell you? I bought the bar last year. Well, Nick, Reese, and I did.”

“Reese?”

“He’s like my only friend since you left. You’ll love him, though, and so will Cass. Please come back to Dallas and help me,” Charlie pleads.

“I’ve never done any office work.” I hold up my hands. “These don’t type. They clean toilets, fold clothes at the mall, handle money, and pour beer. They don’t file and type and do other important stuff.”

“We both know you were running Stacks after working there only a few weeks. I bought it for so cheap because even the players stopped going there. And, for the rest of it, you can learn on the fly. It’s not like I know exactly what I’m doing. This is new to me, too.” Charlie shoves a planner toward me. “I’ve got the opportunity to move three players—two to the east coast and one on the west. I can make the travel work, but the research—I need someone I can trust. Who knows what my business is all about. All that person needs is a phone and an Internet connection, really.”

I give her a sharp look. “Did you come here to visit or offer me a job?”

“Both. Can’t it be both?” She reaches across the table and grabs my hands. “I miss you guys every day. I wish you were back in Dallas, just a knock away. This job would allow you to work at home, take care of Cass, and you could work at home, be with your mom, and you wouldn’t have to spend as much money on home care.”

I blink at the flood of words. “You’ve given this a lot of thought.”

“You have no idea,” she admits with a rueful smile. “I’ve been looking for someone to help me, but I didn’t know who I could trust. Tonight I was feeling sorry for myself. I was missing—” She cuts herself off with a shake. “I was deep into my feelings and then you appeared and I felt like it was a higher power bringing us together.”

“I…don’t know what to think.”

“I know. I’ve thrown a boulder at you. Take some time. There’s no need to give me an answer. At least not tonight.”

But we both know what my answer will be. Her smile is too bright to turn away from, and the future that she dangles in front of my eyes is too damn enticing. It might be the wrong decision, but I find that I can’t say no.

Chapter Eight

Lainey

I run nervous hands over my hair and double-check the bottle count. Are twenty-five bottles of Jack Daniels enough? Do I have enough olives? Do football players even eat olives? My mind goes blank.

“It’s going to be fine,” says Charlie. “You’ve got this.”

“Can you tell that to my stomach? There’s a whole mariachi band blaring ‘Volver, Volver’ down there.” I press a hand against my belly, but it does nothing to stop the roiling down there.

She grips my shoulder with her thin fingers and squeezes. “It’s perfect. You run this place in your sleep.”

I glance toward the door.

“Right. I’ve got this.” I take a deep breath. I’m not nervous for me, but for Charlie. She’s invested a lot in this place and put a shit ton of trust in me. The least I can do is make sure she earns back all her money.

“Oh, by the way, I need you to make a run to Houston tomorrow. One of my players is getting an aquarium installed and the only place that sells the kind of fish he wants is over at a specialty store in Houston. I’d do it, but remember the Spurs player I’m helping out? He’s thinking of buying a villa in Italy and wants me to come down and talk to him about his options.”

“Sure. I’ll have to get someone to watch Cassidy.” Charlie’s personal service business is really picking up. She wasn’t lying when she said she was busy.

“Don’t worry,” she says airily as she walks toward the end of the bar. “I’ve already got you a babysitter.”

The way she avoids looking at me makes me suspicious. “It is the first day of training camp today, right?”

“Yes.”

But her evasiveness clues me in. “You didn’t.”

She pretends the already spotless bar top needs another wipe down. “Reese is busy. He’s going to a horse show in Kentucky this week.”

“Charlie.”

“Lainey.”

I reach for my phone. “I’m going to call a service.”

“No, you’re not.” She pushes my hand down to my side. “Nick loves kids and he’s dying to see Cassidy again. Please don’t take this away from him.”

Charlie gives me her patented puppy dog stare, which I can’t turn down. She and Cass can make me do about any damn thing.