“She took me back. Well, kinda.”
“She’s holding out on him.” Whiskey snickered, clearly enjoying having me at a disadvantage. He was getting laid. Everyone was getting laid except me. Lucky had picked up the slack with the club girls since I’d stopped putting out. Even Mac hooked up now and then, though he was pretty fucking quiet.
Again, Jack’s chest made a low rumble of approval.
“I need to find her a job. One where nobody is going to paw at her. Or whack off while she’s taking a nap.”
That might make other guys pause, but Jack just nodded. He made an adjustment to a shelf that wasn’t quite fitting and stood up.
“Okay. We’ll handle it.”
He didn’t mean he would take care of it. He meant that we would. As a team. We all worked together like pieces of a machine. We were all cogs. Big, fucking scary-looking cogs in Jack’s case. But without each other, we were just individuals. Together, we could move mountains.
I took a swig of my beer and smiled.
It was going to be okay.
We were going to handle it.
Chapter Ten
Molly
I pressed a kiss to my brother’s forehead, smoothing his hair back. I looked calm outwardly, but inside, I was devastated. I wasn’t going to be able to cover the cost of keeping him here. Not even close.
I should have known this wouldn’t work. Even with two jobs, I wasn’t going to make the monthly cost. But I had hoped I might be able to squeak by. My brother had Medicare, but a fancy place like this required supplemental insurance for a long-term stay.
I was still trying to figure it out, but since I didn’t have a laptop, I was doing it all on my phone.
I felt my phone vibrate and pulled it out of my purse. I smiled when I saw who it was. I hardly ever got texts. You needed friends to get texts. You needed a person who gave a crap. It had been a long time since I’d had that.
But I had someone now.
Callaway.
And he was right on time.
I’m outside.
How he knew what time I got off every shift was beyond me. The man was simply there, looking after me. He had been, pretty much from the moment we’d met. I blushed a little, thinking about yesterday afternoon in my kitchen. I was well-rested for the first time in weeks.
But I was also . . . curious.
I was going to lose my virginity to Callaway. It was inevitable. I knew that now. Even if my brain was certain that he would disappear on me one day, my gut was telling me something else. And my heart, well, I wasn’t ready to even think about my heart.
I squeezed Tommy’s hand and stepped to the window, using the reflection to adjust my clothes and hair. I even put a little lip gloss on. I had never been particularly vain, but having a gorgeous guy around definitely brought out my girlie side. Then I went outside to meet Callaway.
As always, my heart did a little flip-flop when I saw him.
He was so strong, so handsome, and so dangerous-looking. He was not a knight in shining armor. But he was protective. He’d proven that again and again.
And he certainly knew what he was doing when it came to kissing and . . . other stuff. He must know everything about sex. I blushed again as he pulled me close and kissed me. I sighed, trying not to melt into him. I felt like a girl in a movie. The girl the audience knew had absolutely no chance against the handsome hero.
Or bad guy. He looked more like a bad guy. A sexy, naughty bad guy.
Actually, Callaway was probably a little bit of both.
He finally lifted his head, staring down at me. His gaze was so intense, so hungry, I almost took a step back.
Courage, Molly! Don’t be a wuss!
It was Tommy’s voice I heard in my head this time. He loved shit-talking me like that. It was probably a rule that little brothers had to do that. I closed my eyes, trying to regain my composure. Then I looked up at Callaway and smiled.
“Where to?”
His green eyes crinkled at the edges.
“I figured I might feed you. Then I have a surprise.” He tilted his head to the side. “Unless you want to go right to bed.”
My cheeks burned hot and I started stammering. I did kind of want to go to bed. But I was also nervous about it.
Really, really nervous.
“I–um, well . . .”
He laughed.
“I meant to sleep.” He took my hand and kissed the back of it, rubbing his thumb over my wrist. “But I’m open to anything.”
I shook my head at him. He was incorrigible. The man clearly had sex on the brain, but he was so adorable about it that I couldn’t be mad.