“No kidding. That’s why I moved to this neighborhood—I wanted all our neighbors to be normal, not trashy. And her friend … God, she must’ve been, what, ten years old when she had her kid?”
“I saw her skanking all over Josh. Disgusting.”
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket to find a text from Marie.
Hey. I know things are weird, but I really hope you’ll come to my bachelorette party next weekend. We’re all hanging out tonight and thinking about how much more fun it would be with you here! xoxo
“So, my pedicure girl moved to a new salon. All Vietnamese, and I hate how they talk to each other without speaking in English. So rude!” said the woman in the kitchen.
“You’re sooo right. I never leave a tip when they do that. They should be speaking English if they’re going to live here …”
I stood up and walked through the kitchen, piercing each of the women in turn with a sweet smile. Bitches. How dare they gossip about Kimber, in her own house? I couldn’t believe they’d get drunk on her booze while ripping her apart like that.
At least nobody was whipping out knives.
Not metal ones, anyway.
I wanted to go home.
“You got it, bud,” Josh said, watching intensely as Noah lined up his shot at the skee-ball machine. I had to laugh. Josh had been joking about his theory … mostly. The man really did love the game. It turned out Noah loved it, too, so things had worked out pretty well.
We’d been at Chuck E. Cheese’s for nearly three hours, and I’d had a blast. Josh was easy to be around. He didn’t stress me out and he didn’t scare me. We’d eaten dinner, and to give him credit, he ate the nasty pizza they served without a single snide comment (not even I could pull that off). Then he bought Noah more tokens than he’d ever seen before and we’d hit the games.
Now it was almost nine and I knew we needed to get Noah out soon or things could get ugly. I touched Josh’s arm, catching his attention. He turned and grinned at me, looking like a big, happy puppy.
“We need to head home,” I said, nodding toward my son. “He’s tired. Don’t want to push him too hard.”
“Understood,” Josh replied. He put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, giving me a squeeze. “You’ve got a good kid there.”
I smiled, because I knew he was right. Also because I liked his arm around my shoulder. Josh didn’t make my heart explode like Ruger did, but he had a good sense of humor and was fun to be around. That had to count for something.
We fed all of the tickets we’d won (and it seemed like thousands of them) into the chomping machines, which caused Noah intense delight. Then we spent another twenty minutes at the prize counter as he agonized over which tiny plastic rings or erasers to pick.
The sun had set when we finally walked outside. The pizza place was in one of those strip malls with free-standing restaurants in the parking lot. I looked over at the steak house longingly, still a little hungry—I’d only managed to choke down half a slice. Josh bumped my shoulder.
“Maybe next time we can get a grown-up meal,” he said.
“Is that your way of asking me out again?” I asked, coming to a stop next to my car. Noah bounced around next to me happily, playing with his new treasures. I looked up at Josh and smiled. He smiled back, and I was struck by how cute he was. Geeky cute, like Ryan.
I could do a lot worse.
“Depends on what the answer would be,” he replied, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “I hate getting shot down.”
“I don’t think you’d get shot down,” I said. He leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips. It was nice—not hot and intense, but pleasant.
“Uncle Ruger!” Noah yelled, and I felt him take off running. I pulled away from Ryan instantly, my mommy radar fully engaged. I bolted after him, shouting his name and yelling at him to stop. He ignored me, jumping into Ruger’s arms where he stood on the sidewalk outside the steak house.
Several other guys from the club were with him.
“Noah, you can’t run off like that!” I said, catching Noah’s chin so his eyes had to meet mine. “You could get killed. You know better—you’re a big boy now.”
“I’m sorry,” he said instantly. “I forgot. I got excited. I wanted to show Uncle Ruger my prizes.”
Shit, I’d been so worried about Noah, I wasn’t even thinking about Ruger. I looked up to find him staring across the lot.
“Who’s your friend?” he asked, jerking his chin toward Josh, who gave us a halfhearted wave.
“That’s Josh,” I said defiantly. “He’s a friend of Kimber’s husband. They work together.”
“He took us to Chuck E. Cheese’s and we played tons of games and I got all kinds of prizes but I didn’t have enough tickets to get what I really wanted so he said maybe we could come back another time and I said yes,” Noah told him breathlessly. “He’s pretty cool, Ruger.”
Ruger’s eyes hardened, and he set Noah down.
“Stay here, kid,” he said. Then he stepped out across the parking lot, obviously planning to intercept Josh. Fuck.
“Stay,” I said to Noah, then glanced up at Bam Bam. “Will you make sure he doesn’t run off?”
Dancer’s husband gave a quick nod, but his eyes weren’t exactly friendly.
Great.
I scurried off toward Ruger and Josh.
“Hey,” I said, looking between them. Ruger’s face was like stone, his eyes glinting with possessive menace. Josh looked confused and a little uncertain. “Josh, this is Noah’s uncle, Ruger. Ruger, this is my friend Josh. We were just leaving. Sorry about Noah bothering you.”
“Noah never bothers me,” Ruger said, cocking his head at Josh, who tried to offer him a smile.
“He’s a great kid,” Josh said. “You must be proud of him.”
“Yup,” Ruger said to him. “You need to go now. Probably be best if you don’t call Sophie again.”
Josh’s eyes widened.
“Go fuck yourself, Ruger,” I snapped. Josh glanced over at me, looking nervous. “Josh, please ignore him. He’s leaving.”
“Nope, I’m not leaving,” Ruger said pointedly. “And I won’t be leaving. You’re not welcome here. Don’t know what Sophie’s told you, but she’s taken.”
“That’s not true,” I said quickly. Josh looked between us, swallowing.
“You need a hand, Ruger?” Horse called from the sidewalk. He offered Josh a wolfish smile.
“Not with this asshole,” Ruger replied, holding Josh’s eyes steadily. Josh broke, looking away.
“Um, I gotta get going,” he said, offering me a quick, sheepish smile. Then he turned and walked away very quickly.
I stared, dumbfounded.
“Looks like your new boyfriend scares easy,” Ruger murmured. “Didn’t even make sure you were safe with me. Wouldn’t want a man like that at my back. Of course, I don’t need to worry about backup. My brothers are there for me, no matter what.”
He took my shoulders and turned me toward the steak house. I saw Horse, Bam Bam, Duck, and Slide standing around my son. Bam held Noah’s shoulder protectively. Ruger leaned down behind me, speaking softly in my ear as his fingers squeezed my shoulders.
“Look at that,” he said. “You know them, so you know Noah couldn’t be safer. But your buddy Josh? He knows shit about those guys. That didn’t stop him from walking away to cover his own ass while they had your son. Hell of a man you’ve found.”
I swallowed, because I knew he was right.
So Josh wouldn’t be getting a second date if he bothered to call. Probably a moot point, because I had a feeling he wouldn’t.