Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
In the short time we’d worked together, we had a good sync going, because she wasn’t a talker.
Not even a little bit.
I had never seen anyone with so much pure concentration in my life.
Our kitchen was not The Bear. No one was shouting at each other or locking themselves in the freezer or telling raunchy stories.
In fact, Lucia didn’t even have a sous chef.
It was all her.
And she was so Zen, at first when I was working with her, it weirded me out.
Now I just fell into that space with her.
And it was a good space to be after sleeping next to Gabe last night (even not knowing I was at the time), and all that had already happened this morning.
But all of that had happened this morning, so I was way behind on getting the case filled.
And I should have known what was to come before it came.
Then it came.
The kitchen door crashed against the wall.
And tall, humongous, flannel-shirted, jeans-clad Tex was there.
Lucia barely looked up.
I jumped out of my skin.
“Tex! God! You nearly scared me to death,” I cried.
“Angels Confab the minute the girls are in,” he declared, then jabbed a beefy finger at me. “You women are gonna put the word out to your informants, they don’t corner you in dark parking lots.”
See?
He was grouchy, but a good guy.
And…ugh.
Would everyone stop saying I was cornered already?
“He didn’t corner me, Tex.”
“Shut it!” he boomed.
Then again, everything he’d said so far was a boom. The man boomed. That was what he did. It was just him telling me to shut it was boomed louder.
“It’s good you’re with Gabe now,” Tex announced, and such was that announcement, Lucia looked up again. “He’ll get your head straight.”
“My head isn’t crooked!” I exclaimed. Then added, “And I’m not with Gabe.”
“I’m starting the pool this time and calling twenty-four hours. He’s a Stark. They don’t fuck around,” Tex proclaimed.
That gave me a little hoo-ha quiver.
Lucia broke her silence. “I get thirty-six hours then.”
“I’ll take that action,” Tex replied.
“Lucia!” I gasped, shocked.
“The pool,” so you know, was a leftover from the Rock Chicks. I wasn’t sure they did it with Jessie or Harlow, but they did it with Raye and Cap.
And what they were betting on was when Gabe and I would sleep together.
Oh yeah, you read that right.
If I didn’t love my family of the heart with all of that organ, I’d run for the hills.
“You’re both going to lose because we’re not getting together,” I decreed. “I’ve sworn off men for all time.”
For a second, there was no sound or movement.
Then Tex threw his long-haired, crazy-ass-bearded head back and roared with laughter.
I planted my hands on my hips and glared at him.
Still laughing, Tex pulled out his cell (a flip phone, and not one of the cool new ones, I think his was made in 90s, bought in that decade, and he’d never upgraded).
He jabbed at it.
He put it to his ear.
He waited.
I waited.
Lucia waited.
Then he said, “Stark? Yeah. She says she’s sworn off men for all time.”
It was then I heard a bark of laughter from Tex’s ancient cell phone.
Without saying goodbye, Tex flipped the phone shut.
“Which Stark were you talking to?” I demanded.
“The one who’s married to the mother of his two girls who, back in the day, said she’d sworn off men for all time…and then came Luke,” Tex answered.
That didn’t give me a hoo-ha shiver.
It gave me a terrified shudder.
“If you don’t want a muffin thrown at you, you might want to leave,” I threatened.
“Throw what you want, woman. I don’t give a shit,” Tex replied.
I threw a crumble-topped blueberry at him.
He caught it, bit the entire muffin cap off in one mouthful (and I did not make small muffins) and strolled from the room.
I turned to Lucia. “How do you deal with this crazy?”
She shrugged, then spooned up some of her loaded baked potato soup that I’d seen her throw some herbs de Provence in (the fresh kind she made herself). She tasted it, scrunched her nose and tossed in a pinch of salt.
Guess Lucia was back in the Zen Zone.
A timer went off, and I dashed to the ovens to pull out my cranberry orange muffins just as Raye raced in to come to a jolting stop, her eyes on me.
“Are you okay? I heard Mr. Shithead cornered you,” she said.
“I did not get cornered!” I yelled.
“Oh my God.” She was pressing the air down in front of her. “Okay. Calm down.”
I yanked out the muffins and put them on the prep table.
“There’s something up with him,” I shared. “We need an Angels Confab. I didn’t get much out of him before Super Shaw showed up and saved a day that didn’t need saving, but what he did say didn’t sound that hot.”
“I’ll make the calls,” she replied then looked to all the baked goods lined up on the counter. “You haven’t filled the cases yet?”