Great Sass (Providence Family Ties 1)

For some reason, this made him frown. “No, I’m not.”

Scanning through the information I remembered about the family, I tried to recall a Jackson. The problem was, there were about a thousand of them, so it wasn’t an easy thing to do, and the stories about them kind of overshadowed the names and relations.

Looking mildly amused, Levi muttered, “Uh, this is Elijah’s—"

“Don’t say that name,” I spat. “We had an unspoken accord that it’d never be mentioned in my presence. In fact, if you’re going to, we need to come up with a signal so I can either make myself scarce or I can cover my ears.”

The brothers’ mouths both twitched at my rant, but Jackson didn’t have that level of control and burst out laughing instead. “Holy shit, she’s fuckin’ awesome. All of that sass in one tiny package.”

Now that pissed me off even more. Crossing my arms over my chest, I shot him a glare. “I’ll have you know that I’m five and a half feet tall.”

The words worked like an off-switch for his laughter, and even Lily tilted her head and looked me up and down like she was measuring me with her eyes.

“I call bullshit,” Jackson finally replied, a smile tilting one side of his mouth up. “There’s no way you’re that tall.”

Straightening to my full—and unimpressive—height, I shot back, “I am.”

“Prove it.”

So, smugly, I pulled a medical card out of my back pocket. Yes, I had insurance through the bar, but I always carried around the policy Dad had gotten for me that covered pretty much everything. When I’d arrived, they’d put me through a long and tedious assessment, then handed me a card with my vitals on it and told me to carry it everywhere just in case. Being used to the National Health Service where I’d get treated no matter what, I’d taken that advice to heart and never went anywhere without it in my pocket or bra.

And that’s how I could prove I was five and a half feet tall because it said so on that card. Unfortunately, it also had my weight on that, but I deducted twenty pounds for my boobs—something I wasn’t going to tell them as all four of them examined it.

“Uh, babe,” Jackson said slowly, looking up at me. “It says your five feet and half an inch tall.”

“That’s right, five and a half feet.” Happy that I’d won, I held my hand out for it back.

“No, five feet and six inches is five and a half feet, darlin’. There are twelve inches in one foot, so you’d have to be five feet and six inches tall to be considered five and a half feet tall,” he explained.

Scowling at him, I reached back for my phone, glad I’d kept it in my pocket, and looked up what he was saying.

Shit on it, he was right.

Avoiding eye contact, I took the card that Levi was still holding out for me, no doubt doing his best not to laugh, and put it back in my pocket. “I’m still five and a half feet tall. If you want to be anal about it, half an inch is still half.”

And with that, I walked carefully down to the other end of the bar, ignoring the laughter from the gits behind me. Arseholes!

It was half an hour later that I found myself in front of him again, and by that time, I’d lost my attitude from before and knew that I needed to apologize for being a cow.

“I’m sorry about before. I’ve had a bad day—”

“Sounds like you’ve had a bad couple of months thanks to Elijah,” he interrupted matter of factly. “If it makes you feel better, none of us have heard from him either, but he’s done this before. He’ll show up soon, feeling like a dick.”

Shrugging, I focused on the bar top instead of the pity in his eyes. “He has good reasons for it. When I lost my mum, all I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and be left alone. Everyone grieves in their own way, and there isn’t a set time allowed for it either, so he just needs time.”

“Sadie,” he called gently, and I looked up to see him watching me with a soft expression on his face. “I agree with what you’ve said, and I’m so fuckin’ glad my brother’s found someone like you who gets him. But he was still wrong to just leave without saying anything and making sure you’re okay. It’s also not okay for him to not answer his damn phone.”

“That’s ‘cos it’s in my drawer. I found it on my bed after I went home that night, so I thought I’d put it somewhere safe until you guys knew where to send it.”

Frowning now, he mumbled to himself, “Now it all adds up. Stupid dickhead.”