“Sorry, I was hurrying to go catch a nap so I can go to the bar.”
“Be careful! What if I’d been holding food and you made me drop it all.”
“I’d feel like shit,” he said, grinning at her and kissing her cheek as he passed her quickly and darted into the house.
“You see that?” Bonnie asked Jack.
“Yep. You see that?” Jack asked Draven.
“I did. You think it means what I think it means?”
“I don’t know, he left pretty quickly.”
“Because he’s terrified,” Vance said.
“What’s he terrified of?” Rance asked.
They all turned around and looked at Rance.
“Women,” Three said, his tone indicating he was surprised they didn’t know. “How did you not see that?”
“Why is he afraid of women?” Rance asked, looking around the group of friends reclining by the pool as the kids continued to squeal and laugh.
“He’s afraid of that woman,” Jack said. “Which kind of says a lot.”
“Is that woman Griffin’s mom?” Rance asked.
Everybody turned around and looked at Rance like he knew something they didn’t.
“Yes, she is. Her name is Maeve and she’s very, very nice,” Kassidy said.
“He’s just making sure she doesn’t get the wrong idea. He promised her kid he’d protect him and his mom, and he doesn’t want her to think he promised anything he wouldn’t promise anybody else.”
“You sure? I mean, we were sitting there this morning and heard him promise Griff. It didn’t seem like a big deal to him then,” Bonnie said.
“You been putting worries into his head about what she might think about his promise?” Jack asked.
“Not intentionally. We talked about it, but it wasn’t a big deal. I just said he should make sure she understands he was just comforting her kid. A lot of females out there looking for a mate, you know? And her kid intentionally said she didn’t have a mate,” Rance said.
“Rance, how ‘bout you don’t give any more romance advice?”
“Romance? I wasn’t talking about romance. I know nothing about romance.”
“Glad you’re aware of that,” Jack said.
“Hey, y’all. I wanted to let you know that I went home and made a big roasting pan full of dirty rice. And I brought over some corn on the cob, too, already slathered with butter and salt and pepper and Parmesan. Both pans are wrapped in foil. If you just pop them in the oven while you’re frying the chicken later, it’ll warm up nicely by the time the chicken is ready.”
“Thanks, Alison. We appreciate that.”
Alison smiled at Bonnie. “Glad to help out. It’s nice to be needed.”
“You’re always needed,” Bonnie said.
Alison smiled quickly and kind of shrugged a shoulder.
Jack’s phone buzzed at the same time Rance’s did. They both checked their phones. “Frenzy says he’s on his way up with friends,” Rance said, then scrolled to the next message. “Paxton says the same, but he says two Suburbans.”
“Yep. I got Paxton’s message, too. Didn’t get anything from Frenzy, though.”
