Talk Flirty To Me (Cheap Thrills 4)

“I’ve got a date with her tonight, Maya. It’s all good,” I told her, cleaning my hands off on the rag that was hanging out my back pocket and enjoying the way her mouth open and closed a couple times while this sank in.

“You have a date?” she asked quietly, looking around us. “Like a just you and her date?”

“Yup, just me and her going out together.”

Throwing her arms up in the air, she let out a piercing scream, “Yass!” As quickly as she did it, she dropped her hands and grabbed my arm to pull me closer. “Ok, what’s your plan?”

Leaning in like I was about to tell her, I whispered, “It’s a secret,” and backed away, also enjoying the fact that she now looked like she was going to throttle me.

Before she could do that, my phone beeped in my pocket and I pulled it out to see that I had a message from Reid.

Reid: Did you know that Mom can sniff out information on us a mile away? She’s like a shark. So I need to tell you that she knows about Katy, she knows about all of it, and she’s at Katy’s right now. Sorry!

The little shit stain had told Mom?

And she was at Katy’s?

“Yo, Ren,” I yelled, running toward my truck. “Need you to cover for me, I’ll be an hour.”

Not looking pissed or upset, he raised a hand and walked over to see his wife, only just realizing that she was there. For once I didn’t smile when I saw the soft looks they gave each other when he leaned down to give her a kiss. Instead, I was trying to figure out how I was going to drive without having an accident to get to Katy’s before Mom could do her thing.

And again, I’ll point out – this was why I’d wanted some space.

I was going to fucking kill Reid.

KatyJarrod Kline’s mom was in my house. She was sitting on my couch with my niece on her lap, drinking coffee from one of my cups. What in the hell was happening?

When I’d heard the knocks on the door, I’d expected a delivery guy or the mailman, not his mom. Smooth as anything, she’d held her hand out, introduced herself as Gloria Kline, and had then melted and held her hands out for Elodie - who’d of course gone to her. Know the most stupid part? It wasn’t until she was sat down with a cup of coffee and had said the words, “I hear you’re dating my son,” that I’d actually realized she was his mom.

There were so many issues with this. The first was that I’d let a stranger into my home and had let her hold my niece. I was such a shitty aunt. The second was that she had the name Kline – the same name as Jarrod – and I hadn’t figured it out. The third was that I’d put on a Hooters tank thinking that it was just us girls today, so that’s what I was currently wearing while I was talking to her. And trust me, there was no disguising the fact that it said Hooters, San Diego, on it. The fourth was that I hadn’t dried my hair, so I probably looked like Mufasa while she looked like a team of beauticians had worked on her. The fifth… I don’t even know what the fifth issue was, but the list was fucking long.

“My boys have all told me such great things about you, Katy,” she murmured, letting Elodie jump around like a maniac on her knees. “And I see they’re all true.”

What did you say to that? I’d never even met a guy’s parents before. Well, unless you counted the parent-teacher evenings at school where I’d bumped into my boyfriend’s parents. Did that count?

Totally lost for a response, I whispered weakly, “That’s very kind of you.”

We were both watching Elodie doing her thing on her new friend when she said, “You’re probably wondering why I’m here.”

It wasn’t a question or even a statement, it was just a thing that was now dangling between us. Did I nod and say yes, or did I say she was always welcome to come over? I had no freaking clue what to do.

Thankfully, she didn’t wait for me to figure it out.

“My Jarrod is special,” she told me, reading Elodie’s new movements perfectly and putting her on the floor. “He’s always been the quietest one out of my boys, the one who thinks more than talks. He’s also the one who is more grounded, reliable and sturdy.” Thinking about all four of the Klines, I had to disagree. They were all built like flipping buildings, so they were all sturdy if you asked me. “All of them have something in their own unique way – just like you with your siblings – but Jarrod… he truly is something rare,” she told me, and then picked up her cup and took a sip of her coffee.