Snitches Get Stitches (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 8)

I blinked. “An app?”

He jiggled his phone at me. “An app. On my phone.”

I frowned.

I’d seen him doing a lot of things on his phone over the last couple of days, but I hadn’t realized he could do that kind of thing on his phone.

“Technology has really advanced since when I had a phone,” I said softly. “The last one I had was a flip phone. One of those slim ones that was about the size of the palm of your hand. I’ve noticed Tyson on his phone a lot when we’re visiting, but normally he’s just reading on it while he gives Linnie and I a couple of minutes by ourselves.”

“You haven’t had a phone since the flip phone?” he asked, sounding cautious.

I shook my head. “No. And even then, not since I was a teenager.”

He shook his head, then patted his thigh.

“I’ll go buy you a phone tomorrow,” he said. “Get you out of the Dark Ages.”

I licked my lips again and felt my mouth go dry at the implications.

Sit on his lap?

Was that really a good idea?

“Come on,” he urged. “I’ll show you how to order pizza.”

Then he tugged lightly on my wrist, urging me to come down onto his lap.

I did and didn’t think twice about it.

I sat in his lap and watched as he showed me how to use an iPhone. First, we ordered pizza, then he navigated to the Safari app where he then went to a clothing website and told me to order some clothes.

When I hesitated, he rolled his eyes. “I have more money than you would think. Trust me when I say a couple hundred bucks in clothing purchases won’t be noticed.”

So that was what I was doing when the pizza came.

Sitting on his lap, flipping through his phone, ordering clothes, and listening to Liner as he said, “Not that one. Or that one,” when the pizza finally arrived.

Liner placed both hands on my hips and easily lifted me up to standing, then deposited me at the bar that was between his living room and kitchen.

I continued to look through the clothes and found a couple more pairs of shoes before I heard the eerie silence that filled the room.

Silence that didn’t last long as I lifted my head and stared at the man that was across the room, in the entrance of Liner’s house.

“What in the actual fuck, Liner?”

Liner shook his head. “Long fucking story, bro. Long fucking story.”

To say the next couple of hours was tense was an understatement.

Liner was right. It was a ‘long fucking story.’

A story that started and ended with Liner giving every little piece of information he had on me out to this man that was sitting on the couch in front of us looking pissed off and tired.

We’d eaten. We’d talked.

And now I was wondering if I should get up and go to the bedroom.

“You should offer them a shower,” I whispered. “They look tired and dirty.”

Liner had leaned over so that he could hear what I had to say, then turned to look at his friend.

“Y’all can take a shower if you want. You have a bathroom connected to the room that’s not being used.” He paused. “You’ll have to share it with Theo since it’s a Jack and Jill bathroom, but just make sure to keep the door locked otherwise y’all might walk in on each other.”

I flushed.

My door would be locked. Oh, and I’d be using the hall bathroom.

I hadn’t thought about that when he’d said that he’d be staying over.

But there was no way in hell that he was walking in on me.

I was determined to grow a spine, and to start acting like I wasn’t scared of my own shadow.

But there was no way in hell I was taking a shower, where I was vulnerable, with a man like Castiel on the other side of the wall.

I bet that he had the ability to pick locks.

“Thanks, Liner.” Castiel stood up and held out his hand to the woman that was plastered to him.

Her name was Turner, and she was a hoot.

I liked her a lot.

It was nice to have someone talk to me like I wasn’t two steps into the crazy lane.

Turner smiled at Liner and me.

“Thank you for dinner…and the use of your spare bedroom,” she said. “We really appreciate it.”

Liner stood up as well and offered Castiel his hand. “Any time, man. Any time.”

He said it to Castiel as if he was the one to say it, making Turner and I share a look that caused both of us to smile.

“I’m letting Monster out and locking up for the night,” Liner said, causing Monster to hop up on his feet and dance around, happy to be acknowledged.

“All right, I’ll try not to set the alarm off,” Castiel snorted.