Page 140 of Driftwood Daffodil

I spun around and sliced my hands through the air. “You let Atlee drive my truck.”

“You’re welcome.”

You’re welcome? That’s it. He was getting stabbed. There had to be something sharp around here. Unfortunately I didn’t see anything within reach. Just a bunch of cherrywood furniture – any piece of which could probably pay off Maw Maw’s mortgage – and a way too big bed.

“You know what Gio…”

He crossed his arms and cocked a brow, “What.”

Oh, I was going to tell him what. “I don’t need you and your photoshopped abs to do shit for me. I’ll get home on my own.”

Then hunt down Atlee and murder him. My truck better be in one piece.

“Okay, you do you. If you’re still out here after my shower, then I’ll take you home.”

Gio got off the bed, making no attempt to cover himself or his massive dick from my view and headed over to an open door on the left side of the room.

“Oh,” he paused in the doorway to glance back at me, “and my ass could be photoshopped too.”

Someone was full of himself, though he did have a nice ass.

No! Stop it Nova.

I gave my head a shake and left the room, but not before I took a pair of red sneakers lovingly placed on Gio’s dresser. If he was going to keep my clothes, then I was going to take his shoes.

NOVALEE

The only good thing about my morning was that Maw Maw wasn’t home when I walked through the door. Explaining my appearance probably wouldn’t go over too well. Especially since I spent what felt like forever walking under the hot sun in shoes three times too big. I didn’t know someone could sweat that much.

A couple of times I seriously considered curling up on the side of the road in the grass and mud, but then I’d have to walk down a slight decline, and I didn’t have the energy for that.

God I love Veda. All she did when I stumbled through the door was shoot me a look and say she didn’t want to know. It would’ve been nice if she helped me get off the floor though.

It took an hour for me to get enough strength to get up and have a shower – which I wouldn’t have bothered to do if I didn’t have to work.

Thankfully my truck was parked out front of the trailer, and it looked just like I left it. Minus a few changes I discovered on my way to work. None of which I was impressed about. I no longer had to beat the crap out of the engine to get it to rollover, so my trusty wrench was pretty much useless.

The muffler also didn’t fire off a bang anymore. How were people supposed to know when I arrived? And don’t even get me started on the radio. If I wanted choices, I would’ve fixed the knob myself. Atlee and I would have words about that later.

Combine all of that with the fact that I spent the last fifteen minutes explaining to Memphis what happened last night, and this day could bite my ass. On the upside, Sundays in the diner weren’t busy. We only had three customers and I managed to redirect one of them to the food truck down the street, leaving me with plenty of time to plan a murder. Mainly Atlee’s.

I was pretty sure I could make him fuck himself to death. I just needed a thousand willing girls. That part might be tricky.

“You woke up in Gio’s house?”

I sighed.

The only thing worse than after drinking regret, was explaining said regret to your best friend.

“Yes.”

“Now, when you say Gio...” Memphis tipped his head. “Do you mean Gio, Gio?”

“Do you know any other Gio?”

If there was another Gio somewhere around here than there was no doubt in mind that I wouldn’t like him either. The name alone would guarantee that. In fact I was pretty sure all Gio’s were massive pricks.

“Okay,” Memphis propped his elbow up on the counter and did a ‘hang on’ wave with his hand. “So let me see if I’m understanding this right?”

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