Page 96 of Swan

“Good,” I said before thinking and blushed. I quickly added, “It’s good because she’s been a bit harsh to the new manager, Jody. She wants Jody’s job. Plus, she doesn’t like Rommy.”

“That’s shit. You let me know if she’s a bitch to you, yeah? I’ll get her to back off.”

“I can handle her.”

“Know you can, but need you to know that if anythin’ ever arises and you don’t want to handle it, you don’t have to because I’ll take your back, Birdy.”

He was too dang sweet. “Thanks, Drake.”

He winked.

“How was your day?” I asked.

“Great.” He grinned. “Gave Vicious a piece on his shoulder, and Knife wanted a skull on his ribs.”

“I’ve heard that area hurts a lot.”

“It kills, but he handled it. I’ve gotta do two big jobs tomorrow, and Rommy wants me to fit her in on Thursday.”

“Rommy? What does she want?”

“A stack of books with the sayin’ ‘a room without a book is like a body without a soul.’”

“Oh wow, that’s actually really beautiful.”

“Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool. When you saw her, did she mention about Friday night?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing. Why?”

“She must have forgotten. I did yesterday after she asked me, but she reminded me on the way out today while she had her hands full with a carburettor. She’s tryin’ to get us to go to a club.”

My stomach churned.

“It’s gonna be a club Wolf owns, and apparently, he’s got a section blocked off from other people where we can hang. But if you ain’t for it, I’m happy to not go.”

He wouldn’t go if I didn’t.

“I don’t want you to miss out. You can go.”

“Clubs ain’t really my thing, Birdy. Pubs or the compounds when we party are. Means I’m more than happy to miss out and stay back at the house.”

“Can I think about it?”

“Yeah, babe. No rush.”

I loved when he called me babe. But nothing would top Birdy or little birdy, because he’d been using it for years, and each time, they gave me a soft feeling inside.

“How’d today go? You reckon the new manager will work?”

I nodded. “She was already a librarian and knew some of the things. It was more the computer programming side she needed help with. We should be home by Sunday. I don’t think I’ll need to stay longer.”

“Happy to go whenever. I got brothers booked for tomorrow and Thursday but haven’t done anything for Friday or the weekend in case of that. The work would be there if I wanted, or they could travel down to us in Ballarat anyway.”

“So you didn’t have to come here?”

He stilled for a beat but then said, “I wanted to. Sometimes it’s good to get out of town for a while. When I go back, I’ll appreciate it that much more. Know what I mean?”

I did. But I wasn’t sure if he was just saying that to appease me. If my parents had forced Drake to accompany me as a guard and interrupted his work schedule, I would be more than annoyed.

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