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“Oh, I was in favor of blowing the bastard’s house up,” I heard him answer.
“Right?” Ten cheered jovially. “Nowthat’swhat I’m talking about.”
Skylar sniffed and rolled her eyes. “God, I hope no one ever listens in on the insane suggestions that crop up during our discussions. Someone would think we were a freaking mob family.”
“They’re just being the comic relief they know we need during the intense stuff,” I said, exhaling gratefully, glad that I had Luke in my life to provide just the relief I needed when everything else was serious and scary.
“Speaking of which…” Skylar asked, lifting her brows and then waggling them at me. “Just what otherreliefhas Mr. Hamilton been providing for you lately? Because I’ve been hearing rumors. And that look you two just gave each other…mm-hmm. You better spill, girl.”
“Oh God,” I groaned, covering my face and feeling my cheeks heat like crazy. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Well, that blush is saying quite a bit,” Skylar answered, lifting her brows and shaking her head as we entered the main club area, where she stepped behind the bar. “But wow. You andLuke, huh? Are you sure this is really happening?”
“I mean…” I shrugged at her helplessly as I climbed onto a stool and watched her fix me an iced ginger ale. “I think so.” Then I bit my lip and admitted, “I want it to. And so far, he says he does too.”
“Wow,” Skylar repeated, shaking her head in awe. “That’s just…amazing. And I’m glad for you, but wow… It’s going to take a bit for me to adjust to since I’m used to you guys fighting like cats and dogs.” Then she shrugged and smiled as she set the glass in front of me. “I guess what they say is true; that line between love and hate is thin as hell.”
“I guess,” I murmured vaguely as I reached for the drink, only to pause when my sister-in-law exited the hallway with her one-year-old whining on her hip and her phone pressed to her ear as she tried to talk to her caller.
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Nia groaned in frustration as she dug into the diaper bag that was hanging from her other shoulder and pulled out a bottle. “It’s going to takeanotherweek? You’ve already had it for two. Where the hell are you ordering the part from? Australia?”
Hopping off my stool, I hurried over to reach for baby Drea with both hands and then took the bottle from Nia so she could continue to talk to whoever was on the other end of the line without any distractions.
My sister-in-law sent me a grateful glance and turned away, muttering, “And you havenoloaner I can borrow while I wait, right?” only to add a snide, “Of course not,” a moment later.
Meanwhile, I was grinning at my niece and settling her back onto the stool with me so I could give her a drink. Drea latched her chubby little fingers around the bottle and immediately stopped whining so she could fill her belly.
Across the room, Nia ended her call, crying, “Dammit!”
“Problems?” Skylar asked, sounding amused as she mixed another drink—this one with a splash of vodka in it—before setting it on the counter for Nia.
“Oh my God, thank you,” Nia gushed, falling onto the seat next to me and plopping her diaper bag on the countertop before grabbing the glass gratefully. She gulped greedily and then slapped the cup down and said, “I’ve been without a vehicle for two weeks now, and I can’t keep borrowing my mother’s car because she’s taking it on a trip out of state tomorrow, and there’s so much happening at work that I can’t take off, and Julian’s—”
“Hey. Here,” I cut in, digging into my purse and pulling out my own car keys. “Just take mine.” When I slid the keys her way, she blinked at them in astonishment.
“Really?”
I nodded and cuddled her baby closer to me. “Of course. I have a feeling I’m not going to be allowed to drive myselfanywherein the foreseeable future. So you should definitely take it.”
“God,thank you, Chlo,” Nia said, snagging the keys even as she deflated and shook her head. “You are the best, and now I feel like absolute crap because none of my problems are even remotely as bad as what you must be going through, and here I was, acting like it’s the end of the world over here.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Trust me; I know how shitty car problems are. I completely get it.”
Drea spotted her mom then and dove at her, making us gasp in shock and then laugh when we caught her safely and kept her from falling off the countertop. As Nia took control of the baby again, pulling her onto her lap, Luke appeared from the hallway.
“Hey,” I said in surprise, not expecting to see him.
“Hey,” he murmured in a bit more of an intimate tone as he joined us, climbing onto the seat next to me, on the other side of Nia. Grabbing the bar, he pulled back a bit and took a big breath before announcing, “So… As of right now, I am officially on paid leave from the nightclub.” Lifting his eyebrows flirtily at me, he added, “Meet your new twenty-four-hour bodyguard.”
“What?No…” I shrieked. “Dad can’t just take you away from your job.Luke… How long does everyone just expect you to do this?”
He shrugged as if he didn’t care. “We plan to revisit our current arrangement every two weeks and make adjustments as needed.”
“Oh God,” I groaned. “This is… This can’t work,” I tried to argue. “They can’t stick you with me for twenty-four hours a day. We’ll kill each other!”
Luke shot me a wicked grin. “From sexual overdose maybe,” he countered.
Nia spat the drink she was taking halfway across the bar and started to choke.
