Page 62 of Space Balls: Houston, We Have Liftoff
She lasts about thirty seconds before sighing. “Okay, fine. I’ll come.” She says it like she’s doing me a favor.
I’m pretty sure she is.
I try not to look too triumphant, but from the look she throws me, I probably fail.
The front door swings open. “Hi guys!” Jackie smiles, planting herself in front of her very annoyed-looking husband.
Rose kisses Jackie’s cheek and throws some sort of gang-looking hand sign at Flynn. “Yo, bro.”
Flynn crosses his arms over his chest. “Where have you been?” He’s talking to Rose but glaring at me.
Rose just rolls her eyes. “Don’t be lame.” She pushes past Jackie and her brother. “I was just with Vance, getting into a public bitch fight and nearly getting arrested.”
Flynn drops his arms, his eyes snapping to his sister. Jackie’s eyebrows shoot over the top of her glasses.
“But don’t worry,” Rose calls over her shoulder as she walks into the house. “I came out victorious once again. No charges filed.”
I brace for impact when Flynn turns my way again. But I’m surprised by his sympathetic expression.
“You poor bastard.” He waves me inside. “Let’s get you a drink.”
Fifteen
High Speed Data Transfer
Vance
If you’d toldme yesterday that Flynn and I would be laughing over a beer and prime steaks, I’d have thought you were crazy.
But here we are.
That’s happened often since Rose has come into my life.
And while Flynn and I stand at the outdoor kitchen set under a pergola, Jackie and Rose sunbathe. Well, Rose is. Jackie’s skin has a near grayish cast to it from the amount of sunscreen she’s applied, and she’s settled herself under a very large umbrella.
Rose, wearing a bright pink string bikini, is basking in the sunlight.
It’s not cold, but it sure isn’t warm. Which is made apparent by Rose’s nipples trying to poke their way through her top.
I remind myself not to stare. I don’t want to shatter the newfound friendship I seem to have forged with Flynn by perving on his little sister in front of him.
“So, Vance.”
I jerk my gaze away from Rose, having just done what I told myself not to. “Uh, yeah?”
“Now that you’ve been officially initiated into the club, how you feeling?”
“Club?”
“The ‘I survived Rose West’s drama’ club.” He turns the meat on the grill, perfectly crisscrossing the grill lines. “I love my sister, but she gets herself into some crazy situations. I’ve seen…”
As Flynn tells story after story, my fingers tighten around my beer bottle. I know he’s saying what I was thinking just an hour ago in the security office, but hearing Rose’s brother, someone who’s always supposed to have her back say it, well, it really pisses me off.
I cut off his Rose antics monologue. “Sounds to me like Rose is a great friend.”
Flynn’s tongs pause mid steak rotation. “What do you mean?” Rather than annoyed at me for cutting him off, his tone sounds amused.
“Every story I’ve heard, whether it’s a bar fight, getting arrested or bribery, has all been done for her friends and family.” I take a breath, trying to calm down. Nothing good will come of fighting with Rose’s brother, I’m sure. “Rose doesn’t get in trouble just to get in trouble. There’salwaysa reason, and those reasons are the people she loves.”
