Shade sat back on his bike, studying me.
“Yeah, I think I’m a lucky enough guy, but I’m not quite sure what it has to do with the conversation.”
“You get to travel,” I told him, frustrated. “In a few weeks or a month or whatever you’ll leave this place. You’ll go see things and do things, and for some reason you seem to have enough money to live on without taking a shitty job waiting tables.”
Shade snorted. “Mandy, you don’t wanna know how I get my money.”
“Let me guess—it’s bad?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “I’m starting to think I’m genetically incapable of being attracted to a good guy. No offense.”
“None taken,” he replied, offering a slow smile. “I’m not a good man. But I’m not a man who’ll drag you down into the dirt, either. Or let you get caught up in club business. The Reapers have been around for a long time and we’re real good at taking care of our people. I’m not sayin’ I’ll never need a getaway car, but if I do, I sure as shit won’t trick my woman into driving it.”
God, how was he so sexy when he was saying such terrible things? And that knowing, naughty look in his eyes… It wasn’t fair.
“This is crazy,” I said, trying hard not to smile back at him. “I need to get to work and you need to go do whatever it is that you do that may or may not involve getaway cars. I’m sorry that I was weird about Heath’s car. I know he’s just there to see Hannah. He’s probably even a good guy. I overreacted and it was stupid.”
“I’ve asked around about him,” Shade said, his voice serious this time. “And he is a good guy. A real good guy. Good enough that he won’t play ball with us, if it makes you feel better.”
“It actually does,” I admitted, then my purse buzzed. Pulling out my phone, I found a message from Hannah.
Hannah: Are you ever coming home? i saw you drive by. Heath just stopped by to say hi
Me: Yeah will be there soon. Sorry. It felt weird seeing him there and I guess i panicked
Hannah: He’s a good guy.
Shade must’ve been reading the messages upside down, because he laughed.
Me: so i hear. coming home soon
I looked at Shade, stiffening my spine.
“Okay, so you’ve heard the story, we’ve finished our one-night stand, we’ve finished the bonus barbecue, and now it’s time for me to go to work,” I said. “It’s been fun.”
“Great. I’ll wait while you get ready and run you over to the Pit,” Shade told me, patting the back of his bike. “Hop on. I can’t stick around tonight because I gotta go back to the clubhouse, but I’ll be in touch. Bone will change your work schedule if I need him to.”
“Um, weren’t you listening?” I asked. “I have to stay single. Otherwise, you’ll destroy my life. It’s my destiny.”
Shade reached out, hooking his fingers into my waistband, then pulled me close.
“I didn’t ask you to marry me,” he said seriously, catching and holding my gaze. “And I promise, I have no plans to. But we aren’t done fuckin’.”
Oh, God, I wished that could be true. But there’d been my dad, Trevor, Rebel, Randy and so many others. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t afford to take the chance on a guy right now.”
Shade studied me, then nodded. “Okay, so we’ll just have another one-night stand.”
“But they’re only one night—that’s the definition.”
“Yeah, and they don’t include afternoon barbecues, but we managed to survive one, didn’t we? So we’ll just fuck again. No relationships. I promise.”
It really would be nice. And I was already setting Future Me up for a win by finishing out my probation.
Yes, you are, said Wonder Woman approvingly. Future You is a very lucky girl.
“All right. We can have sex again, but there won’t be any relationship bullshit. You need a getaway driver, call someone else. Dopey. You should call Dopey. He’s a decent guy, even if he is nosy.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him that,” Shade said, cracking a smile.
Chapter Fifteen
I slept in the next morning, or at least as much as I could with three little girls sitting on me while they watched cartoons. It was Sunday and Hannah was making pancakes.
That meant she wanted to ask me a favor. I had a massive weakness for pancakes and we both knew it.
Just to spite her, I pretended not to notice until she literally waved them under my nose. Then it was all over because she’d put in chocolate chips. Whatever she wanted me to do, she felt strongly about it—those were the big guns. Half an hour later I sat at the counter, watching as she dried the dishes. Usually, whoever cooked didn’t have to clean, which raised the stakes even more.
“Okay, spit it out,” I said, waiting until she was done. That way if I told her no she couldn’t stick me with kitchen duty, because that’s what sisters do to each other.
“What?” Hannah asked, all innocence.
“Just tell me what the favor is. You wouldn’t have pulled out the chocolate chips if wasn’t a big deal to you… But it’s also something that you think I might say no to, which means it’s technically optional. Otherwise you wouldn’t bother sucking up so hard. It’s about Heath, isn’t it?”
Hannah dropped the innocent act and put both hands on the counter, leaning across the faded laminate toward me.
“He asked me out on a date,” she said in a hushed tone. “Like, a real date. Oh, don’t look at me like that. It wasn’t the police department’s fault you got arrested and thrown into jail. They were just there to finish what Trevor started. And Heath is cute—really cute. Not only that, he’s stable and nice and doesn’t do drugs. He’s a volunteer baseball coach, for God’s sake. What more do you want?”
“I hate it when you’re all reasonable and expect me to be reasonable, too. It’s not fair.”
“Whatever. Will you watch the girls or not?” she asked, crossing her arms and glaring at me.
“Ha! I knew you couldn’t keep up the nice act,” I replied, sticking out my tongue. She stuck hers out back at me. “But yeah, I’ll watch the kids. When?”