Page 87 of Pirate

Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Do you think I don’t know my daughter well enough to know when she’s lying? The day you and Pirate came to the house and you told me you were dating, I knew you weren’t. I let it slide.”

Sophia wasn’t sure she liked the fact that her mother was so easily able to read her. “Why?”

“Because of the way he looked at you.” Bea’s eyes moved to Pirate. “You were in love with my daughter even then, weren’t you?”

Pirate nodded. “I was. I didn’t know it, but I was.” He reached over and took Sophia’s hand. “I’m still in love with her.”

Her mom smiled lovingly at him. “Then I—” She stopped, grabbed her husband’s hand, and then corrected, “I mean,wewould like to officially welcome you to our family.”

Pirate squeezed Sophia’s hand as he said, “Thank you.”

Darnell Groveton then turned his attention to Jasmine and Jumper. “We had a wedding gift that we planned on giving the two of you when you returned from your original honeymoon. Under the circumstances, we chose to continue with our original plans. Only, we’re telling you a little earlier than anticipated. We hope that this way, you will be ready when it is.”

Jumper and Jasmine exchanged a look before Jazz asked, “I don’t understand. You weren’t charging us for the use of your estate. I thought that was our wedding gift.”

Sophia’s dad gave Jasmine an indulgent smile. “My dear, you are like a second daughter to me. I also owe you for all the years you’ve kept this one,” he pointed at Sophia, “out of jail.”

“Hey!” Sophia snapped, indignant. At her father’s raised eyebrow, Sophia slumped back against the couch. “Okay, yeah, fair point.”

Jasmine smiled at her bestie before turning back to Sophia’s dad. “I appreciate the offered gift. It’s unnecessary, though. We aren’t getting married for several months now.”

Darnell shook his head. “No, this was necessary.” He reached into his suit’s inner pocket, pulled out a set of keys and tossed them gently to Jasmine.

She tried to catch them, floundered, and ended up dropping them. Jumper caught them partway down and brought them back for Jasmine.

Curious, Sophia looked over Jasmine’s shoulder to see if there was any indication what the keys were to. It was actually more than one set of keys.

It was four of them hooked together on one larger ring. Each individual keyring held two sets of keys and a monogrammed silver keychain.

Jasminewith the silhouettes of a dog’s and a cat’s heads.

Jumperwith a dog’s paw print.

Sophiawith a winged fairy, or maybe a sprite.

Piratewith a skull and crossbones.

Jasmine looked at Sophia, Pirate, and Jumper for a clue, but the three of them shook their heads at her. Sophia had no idea what was going on. Jasmine turned back to Bea and Darnell. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What are the keys for?”

Bea reached into her purse and pulled out a jewelry box. It was rectangular like one would expect to hold a necklace. Except it wasn’t pearls inside the box when Jasmine opened it.

It was a single piece of paper the size of a fortune from a Chinese cookie with an address written on it.

Sophia’s parents stood as if they were preparing to leave. Her mom smiled down at the four of them. “I hope you love it as much as I do. Good luck!”

They took the bikes over.Aerial joined them in her sidecar attached to Jumper’sIndian. All four wore their cuts. Pirate’s original cut had been recovered from his Charger but was damaged beyond repair. Demo ordered not only him a new one but a property cut for Sophia.

None of them recognized the address or even the street name, and all were equally confused when they came to a newly paved drive none of them even knew existed before today. Pirate knew approximately where they were. The club’s property was several acres. The owners of the property before it was a distillery had been farmers. When the distillery purchased the property, they purchased all of the land, though they’d only used a small portion of it. The club had purchased everything as well, since the distillery did not want to deal with multiple sales to get rid of all the property and had undersold for what the land was worth by a good deal.

If his geography was correct, Pirate, Sophia, Jumper, and Jasmine were on the very far side of the club’s property. But he had no recollection of a drive being at the end of the club’s land. Were they even off of the club’s land? He’d have to look at a map, because he wasn’t entirely sure.

The Grovetons’ wedding gift became apparent almost immediately after entering the paved drive. A construction crew was gathered around a newly erected structure.

He could make out two very distinctive A-frame roofs with a flat roof between them. At present, only the wooden frame was up but there was no doubt in Pirate’s mind that it would one day be a house. The shape of the house with the two peaked tops kind of reminded him of cat ears.

Jumper and Pirate pulled up next to one of the club’s construction trucks. As they were dismounting, Cage came walking out of the structure with a yellow hardhat on his head, a tool belt around his waist, and no shirt on. He had a sheen of sweat coating his skin.

Pirate narrowed his eyes. He knew damn well that Cage was a stickler for the safety rules and it was against OSHA regulations to work a construction site without proper attire. From the appreciative glances Cage got from Sophia and Jasmine, Pirate knew the man had taken his shirt off for that purpose only—andhedid not appreciate it.

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