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“I know you do.” Reaching up, she put her hand on his cheek. “Listen to me. You are the smartest, kindest, best kid I know. And you’re pretty damn mature for sixteen. But you’re still the kid and I’m the adult. It’s up to me to provide for you. Got me?”
“Not if you are putting yourself at risk or doing something you shouldn’t do.”
“I’m not doing anything I shouldn’t be doing.”
He eyed her.
“I’m not. I really am going to be working as a personal assistant to a guy called Thomas Grady. And . . . all right, one of the bars he runs is a strip club called Pinkies.” She wasn’t sure if that was the smartest parenting move. But when you were a thirty-five-year-old with a tendency to eat too much junk and you slept with a sloth soft toy and were raising a super smart kid who was sixteen going on forty, you had to do the best you could.
And she’d learned that honesty often worked best.
“Strip club?”
“Yes. Among other businesses.”
“That’s why you’ll have to work at night?”
“I’m not actually sure of my hours,” she admitted. “I’m having dinner with him tomorrow night to discuss that.”
“Dinner?”
“Just dinner.”
“He doesn’t expect anything else?” he asked.
“No, honey.”
He nodded solemnly. “I’m not going to be here tomorrow night. I’m going out.”
“Oh, yeah?” she asked with a teasing grin. “Got a date?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, you have fun. Treat her right. I hope she knows that she’s going out with the sweetest, smartest, most handsome guy at school.”
He rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Aunt Effie. You have to say that shit.”
“I say it because it’s true. But enough mushy stuff, let’s move on.” She said that last part because she knew that despite being mature for his age, he was still a teenage boy.
And teenage boys didn’t like mushy stuff.
“You’re going to need money for this date. I’ll put some in your bank account.” That would hurt, but she wanted her boy to have everything she needed.
“I’ve got money, Aunt Effie.”
“You do? How?”
“Logo work.”
She nodded. Her boy was smart and artistic. A while back, he’d set up a webpage to sell his graphic skills. “That’s good.”
“I’ll give it all to you, if you need it.”
Her gaze hit his. “You need it for your date.”
“I can bring my girl back here instead.”
“Thanks, darling. But you don’t want to bring your girl back here. You’ll scare her off.” If she went to Brooks’ school, that likely meant her family was well off. Well, unless she was a scholarship student like he was. But there weren’t many of those.
