Craving Rose (The Aces' Sons 5)

“You need us to come home?”

“If you can. I’ll figure somethin’ else out if that fucks with your plans too much,” I said quickly.

“Honey, the whole point is that we don’t make plans,” she said easily. “Howie, Jacob’s asking if we can come help with Kara for a while.”

She was quiet for a second.

“Should take us about two days to get there,” she said when she came back on the phone. “Will that work?”

“That works just fine.” I let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thanks, Ma.”

“Of course,” she said easily. “I’ve been wanting to meet your girlfriend, anyway.”

“Shit,” I muttered, making her laugh.

“I’m not that bad.”

“Nah, you’re not bad at all,” I replied jokingly.

“It’ll be great. Make sure you clear out that space for the RV, so we have someplace to park.” She grew quiet for a minute. “Never mind,” she said with a sigh. “Your dad says we’re going to get a camp spot.”

“I don’t mind if you guys park it at the house.”

“You’ll be doin’ your own thing,” my dad yelled so I could hear him. “We’ll take Kara for a bit and give ya some time alone with your woman.”

I grinned.

“Apparently, we’d be cramping your style,” my mom said ruefully.

“Either way,” I replied. “Can’t wait to see ya.”

“Me, either. Love you.”

“Love you. Dad, too.”

“I’ll tell him. Bye, son.”

I dropped the phone to my side and felt like a huge weight lifted off my chest. I had a lot of help with Kara, the club family was awesome that way, but there was nothing like having my parents in town.

“Yo, you gonna work today or what?” Will called from the garage. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re fuckin’ swamped.”

“I’m on my way,” I hollered. “Untwist your panties.”

“Fuck you,” he shot back. “Molly likes me commando.”

“No one wants to hear that,” I said as I reached the garage.

It was going to be a long ass day, working on that Nissan and figuring out what the hell had happened on the run I’d planned and, like a moron, had left others to execute.

I also I needed to figure out what the fuck I was going to do about Rose. She hadn’t texted or called since the day before—which wasn’t like her. She was pissed, for sure, and I was going to have to fix that on top of everything else.

For a second, I contemplated just letting it lie. She could be pissed all she wanted—if she wanted to be done, that was one less thing on my plate. But I dismissed that train of thought almost immediately. There was no way I was giving Rose up.

By the time I left the garage, I was tired, sweaty, and had a throbbing tension headache. Kara had called, asking to spend the night with Charlie, which wasn’t a surprise. I was actually thankful that my kid was trying to escape me, because I still hadn’t heard from Rose and I needed to fix that shit. Letting it fester would only make things worse.

I took my time in the shower, letting the cool water run over my tired shoulders and arms and while I figured out how to smooth things over with Rose. Twenty minutes later, I was walking into the shop where she’d bought my gift certificate. Thirty minutes after that, I was walking into the bar where Rose was slinging drinks.

I stepped aside as someone came in behind me, taking a minute to look at her before she noticed me. She was wearing a black t-shirt and her hair was piled on top of her head in a bun, and I grinned at the fact that she didn’t seem to give a shit that the man leaning toward her at the bar was definitely trying to pick her up. She laughed and rolled her eyes at whatever he said, then moved away, forgetting he even existed. Jesus, she was hot. Especially when she was in her element, chatting with people and pouring beers like it was her favorite thing in the world to do. I moved toward her.

When she noticed me at the bar, she raised one eyebrow and went back to what she was doing, which automatically made me want to catch her attention again. Instead, I waited.

“What can I get you?” she asked as she finally made her way toward me.

“You,” I replied, holding back a laugh when she scoffed.

“I can’t even tell you the number of times someone has said that to me,” she said. “Or some version of it.”

“But I actually have a shot,” I replied.

“Debatable,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Sorry I was a dick,” I said quietly. Better to get that out first. I didn’t like apologizing a whole lot, but I knew she deserved that first thing.

“Forgiven,” she said easily. “What are you doing here?”