Page 23 of Dirty Pool

She didn’t bother to check the caller ID before putting the phone to her ear after grabbing it. “Hello?”

“Gabbie, sweetness.”

Despite it being way too early to deal with any kind of grumblings from her father, she had to smile at his greeting. Usually, he left her mornings alone, and didn’t bother her until later in the day when he would then want to know every single detail about her day, and more. His hovering could get to be a bit much, but she was his only child, and she had simply resigned herself to this.

“Hey, Da.”

“How’s your morning going?”

“Fine.”

Not a lie.

It had been damn fine.

She didn’t think he wanted the details, though.

“How do you feel about breakfast with me and Brennan, then?”

“Well, I—”

“Oh, that wasn’t a request. We’re outside. I will see you in five minutes. I’m sure you’re up and about by now.”

Her father wasn’t joking.

He hung up the phone before she could explain that she had already eaten, and wasn’t in the mood to entertain him and his best friend for the entire morning. She had better things to do, for one, and she still needed a damn shower.

She also knew Charles.

If she wasn’t outside in five minutes, ready to go and do whatever he wanted for the morning, then he would quickly make his way inside her house. Then, he would take her out of it like she should have just done in the first place.

Might as well make it easier on herself.

Gabbie tried to be as fast as she could to pull something more suitable on than black leggings, and a baggy T-shirt. She was still trying to pull her hair into a manageable ponytail when she stepped out of her house. Locking the front door, she eyed the car idling at the curb next to her driveway.

Charles waited just long enough for her to lock the door before he started honking the Lexus’s horn for her to hurry up. She glared at her father sitting in the passenger seat, where he leaned over to keep his hand pressed against the horn of the steering wheel until she had opened the back door, and slid into the vehicle.

“Do you mind?” she asked.

“Mind what?”

Charles sounded so confused.

Gabbie just gave him a look. “I do have neighbors, you know.”

“A whole lot of eejits, too.”

“First of all, my neighborhood is fine.”

“I know, I picked it.”

As annoying as that was. She couldn’t even pick the place where she wanted to live because her father had to do that for her, too. She loved him, but he needed to back off. Just a wee bit, that was all.

Gabbie sighed. “I think the man honking the horn at nine in the morning might be the one doing something wrong, Da.”

Charles shrugged his broad shoulders under the navy blazer he wore, and shot her a grin over his shoulder. “Boss’s right, no?”

“I already ate breakfast,” she said, wanting to change the conversation.