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There’s one guy I even keep messaging throughout the next day during breaks at work.
Scott is a small-business owner of a local video game store. He’s kind yet playful as we talk about our day’s work, funny too. The kind of guy who is still a kid at heart and wants a big family.
So, when he asks me to go to dinner with him Friday night, I say yes, choosing the time and place before calling Lyla to fill her in.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Isaac
For the past six months, I’ve been spending a fortune on a wedding while trying to figure out how to deal with the threat of the Savage Kings MC expanding. They currently have a chapter so close our girls are going to be eating at the same Waffle House after the clubs close. That’s how wars get started.
The Savage Kings bastards are known for doing whatever the hell they want, what they think is right, without giving a shit what anyone else thinks.
They’ve shut down clubs that traffic drugs, guns, humans.
And while I’m against two of the three, the Devil Hounds have a low-key gun business that I know for a fact the Kings won’t approve of, which could soon make our lives in Clayton hell.
Since I still haven’t come up with a way to shut them down, all I can do is let it simmer on the back burner for now.
Laurel’s wedding takes precedence for the next month. Once it’s over, though, it’ll be time to come up with a strategy to hold our own against whatever comes from the Savage Kings.
Lyla’s been content to keep her own low profile, letting her older sister bask in the spotlight, in the hope that I won’t try and convince her to go back to school.
I’ve barely seen her lately and have assumed she’s spending time with Holly, if only just to get away from Laurel’s relentless wedding chatter.
That’s why I’m surprised as shit when Lyla shows up at the bar in my office one day around lunchtime.
“Hey, Dad,” she says in greeting.
“Hey, baby girl. What are you doing in this shithole?” I tease her.
“I was wondering…I know you’ve been forking over a lot of money for Laurel’s wedding, but could I have some cash to go shopping with Holly?”
“Ah, sure.”
I don’t bother telling her that John’s footed the bill for some of the wedding costs. He told me it was so Laurel could have her “dream vision,” but really, he’s just a rich bastard who can afford it. He loves this shit as much as she does.
Pulling out my wallet, I take out every bill I have. It’s not quite two hundred bucks, but when I offer it to Lyla, she seems happy enough with the wad.
“Any special occasion?” I ask.
“Huh?” she says as she slips the money into her purse and zips it. “Oh, not an occasion for me. Holly, though, needs a new outfit for her date.”
“Her date?” I bite out the second word, hating it with every cell in my body. She’s dating? Of course she’s dating. It’s been months. What did I expect, that she would become a nun after we ended things? And just what kind of cocktease outfit will she wear for this new bastard?
“Yeah, she met a guy on some app, and they’re having dinner tonight.”
An app? She’s having dinner with some stranger she met on an app. Son of a motherfucker…
“Don’t worry. I know what you’re thinking. She’s meeting him at the restaurant, not at her town house, and she promised not to let her purse out of her sight. I’m gonna send her a text to check in with her every half hour.”
“Good. Good, that’s…good.”
“You okay, Dad? You look a little flushed. When was the last time you had your blood pressure checked?”
“My blood pressure is fine,” I assure her, even if it’s likely skyrocketing at the moment.
Holly’s going on a date. With a guy who is probably a hell of a lot closer to her age. She could even take him home tonight.
