Page 46 of Five Mountain Daddies

She laughs. “Not really. James is kind of a hard-ass?”

I laugh, remembering the early days. “You have noidea.”

“But it’s good though. I mean, part of me thought this job was just an excuse to keep me around, but I think it’sreal.”

“It’s definitely real,” I confirm. “And it’s also definitely meant to keep you around, or at least nice andclose.”

She laughs a little. “I should haveknown.”

“James doesn’t give out free rides. Well, in your case he does, but you still have to work forit.”

She laughs again and finishes packing her stuff up. “Walk me out?” sheasks.

I nod. “Actually, I want to show yousomething.”

She smiles, clearly in a good mood. “Okay, I’m all yoursthen.”

“Perfect.” We head back out, down into the parking lot, and we get into my truck. I let her pick the radio station and we talk idly about her first day at work. I make sure she’s comfortable, that everyone’s treating her right, but mostly I’m just trying to hide mynerves.

I have no clue how she’ll react to this. I’ve never offered a woman an apartment before as a gift, and I know it’s a little crazy and intense, but I hope she can take it for what it is. I totally mean well with this, and I think she’ll be a lot happier in this town if she has her ownspace.

“So, what’s this surprise?” she asks me as we pull in to the apartment building parkinglot.

“You’ll see,” Isay.

“You’re not taking me in there to murder me or something, areyou?”

I grin at her. “Youwish.”

She stares at me. “I wish you’d… murderme?”

I nod. “Pretty corpse, famous killer. That’s a recipe forinfamy.”

She strokes her chin thoughtfully as I park. “Good point. I always did want to be in a bunch of made-for-TVmovies.”

“Don’t forget the documentaries.” We climb out of the truck together and I lead her in through thefront.

“And the obsessive weirdos,” she notes as we push into the lobby. “They’ll love me,right?”

“Tons of guys would jerk off to your corpse,” I say, nodding. The guy at the front desk does a double-take and I just smile and nod athim.

“Are you sure you’re not killing me?” she asks as we get to the elevator. “I’m starting to rethink the whole thing. I’m prettyconvinced.”

“We’ll make it a murder-suicide. Does thatwork?”

“Sounds good.” She grins at me as we step into theelevator.

We ride it up to the top floor, and I lead her around toward the back of the building. This side overlooks the trees, and the view is much, much nicer. Her potential apartment is a corner unit, so it’s nice and large. I stop in front of the door and I faceher.

“Listen, London,” I say, clearing my throat. I feel nervous again like a fucking little kid. “So I don’t want you to read too much into this. It’s more… selfish, than anythingelse.”

“Okay,” she says, smiling uncertainly. “what’s goingon?”

I open the apartment door and we head inside. She follows me, lookingaround.

“Nice, an empty apartment,” she says. “What’s the…” She trails off when she looks back atme.

“If you want it, it’syours.”

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