Page 180 of Tenderfoot

Right.

Time to mount up.

I straightened my shoulders. “Let’s go.”

I’d practiced in my head on the way there what I intended to say, so I was ready.

We’d just made it to Javi’s dad’s impressive front door, the girls fanning out behind me, when my plan went awry.

This was because, materializing from the shadows, were Cap, Roam, Knox, Brady, Liam, Gabe, Jacob, Jeff, Cody and Eric.

They fanned out behind the Angels and Rock Chicks.

I looked to Jessie.

Accusingly.

She shrugged. “Okay, I got pissed on Javi’s behalf and rant-texted my man, and during that, I might have shared what we were up to.”

I kept looking at Jessie.

“And maybe I did the same with my brother,” she finished.

Jeff being that brother, who was also Javi’s closest friend, so naturally he’d rally Javi’s crew to get his dad to back off once and for all.

“Did you also rant-text the Terminator?” I inquired.

Another shadow formed, it pushed through the men to stand slightly in front of them, and we had Mace.

So now we had the Terminator.

“I didn’t rant-text him,” Stella shared. “I ranted face-to-face.”

I didn’t know what to make of this in my current situation.

What I did know was that I wished Javi was here to see it.

Speaking of my guy.

“Where’s Javi?” I asked, seeing as we left him, Cap and Eric having beers with Mace at Stella’s and Mace’s place, and now Cap, Eric and Mace were here.

“Left” was a nice way to say it.

“Snuck away hoping they wouldn’t notice we were gone” was more apt.

“He’s looking after the kids,” Mace said.

Javi was…

Babysitting?

“How’d you pull that off?” I asked.

“Wasn’t hard. Javi loves kids,’ Mace answered.

Oh my.

Now I felt super melty.

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