Page 56 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
She squeezed my hand.“I know.”Her eyes drifted to the building.“I bet it’s air-conditioned in there, and they have a bathroom.It might even be clean.”
“Let’s find out.”
While I browsed the romance stacks, Zoe talked the librarian into helping her with her “homework.”I overheard her joke, “Even on vacation, Mommakes me work.”Of course, the librarian was more than happy to get her signed in.
I settled into a comfy chair and started reading a thin novel.I couldn’t tell you what the title was, or the story because it quickly became background to a lucid nap.Funny how I remember people walking around, Zoe in my peripheral quietly tapping away on the computer, and the various noises, but I dreamt of somewhere else.A place where the tension of hiding and concealing my identity vanished, and I could check out whatever books I wanted.Maybe even have a library of my own again.
Zoe stood over me, a stack of papers in hand.“Ready, Mom?”
Had I slept?I looked at the book in my hand.Page thirty.Man, that was pathetic.I must have fallen asleep.“I guess.”
“Keys, I’m driving.”She shook the stack of papers in hand.The colored maps had turn-by-turn directions gracing multiple pages.
“I thought your generation didn’t do paper maps.”
“Only the funky folded kind.Although, if we find any somewhere, you can teach me how to be a true pirate and do that fancy origami shit.”
“Stuff,” I corrected.
“Shit, Mom.I’m sixteen.”
I stood up and glared at her.“We’re in a library.”I pointedly shot a look at the kiddie section.
“Whatever.We be off on a bonny adventure.And I be yer capt’n.”Her pirate-ese needed work.
As I put the book back on the shelf, I realized I’d grabbed one of those kidnapped pirate princess titles.Zoe was smart enough to use my weakness against me.
Godhelp me.
Chapter 17
Skilletsville—Jackson
“You did what?”Wolf grabbed the desk edge to push himself to standing so he could tower over me.
Tits grabbed his arm.“Hear him out.”
“Fuck no.It’s bad enough my wife is still sticking her neck out—”
“Wolf,” I warned him.But he kept going.
“—every goddamned time there’s a fucking sob story on her club’s doorsteps, but now I gotta deal with the same shit from my fucking president?”His face screwed up with disbelief as he flung words at me.“You?The king of love ‘em and leave ‘em?What the fuck is next, Sprout is actually a savant?”
Considering he knew about my secret this whole fucking time, I wouldn’t doubt it.But right now, Wolf had dug a grave and stuck a headstone in the churned-up dirt right next to it with his name on it.
Tits fumed.“Tell me what you really think.”
He blanched.“Babe, I’m … sorry.”
Her face was stoic—in the way a teakettle hides the boiling water inside.I waited to watch it whistle.
“I thought you were okay with my work.”Her voice was quiet but deadly sharp.
Wolf opened his mouth and wisely shut it before saying something stupider.It was time to save his ass without actually sticking up for him.
“I need an introduction to one of your connections.”
“You’re looking at her.”Tits flashed a hand down her upper half.
