Now what did I do?
I couldn’t say no in front of Dane. He’d think I was the un-awesome, uptight Mom and Kate would be embarrassed. No way Kate should ask me this question in front of Dane and make me look like the un-awesome, uptight Mom and force me to make the choice of doing what would give me peace of mind, therefore asking them to study, say, in the study or embarrassing her in front of her new possible boyfriend who was strapping, tall and also good-looking therefore likely very popular which would be important to any girl but especially important to my girl who had just been forced to leave the school she loved where she left behind a million of her friends she’d known forever to move to a school four hours away, in a small town in Indiana where she knew no one.
Fuck!
“Sure,” I said through clenched teeth, Kate beamed, I tried not to groan and Kate, Dane and Keira headed toward the house. “But Kate,” I called after her, “I want your door open.”
Keira giggled. Dane grinned. Kate looked at me, her eyes skidded to Joe then back to me and her cheeks got pink.
“Okay,” she called back.
Thank God.
The front door closed behind them and Joe advised, “You should give her condoms.”
My eyes flew to his and I blinked.
“What?” I asked.
“Condoms, buddy, you of all people should know you should give her condoms.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“She yours?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s drivin’ which means you had her, what, when you were fifteen, sixteen?”
“Eighteen.” By the time of her birth, of course, her conception was another matter but I didn’t share this with Joe.
He just looked at me then again he didn’t really need to say more, his point was made.
“Can I have my shovel back?” I asked.
He didn’t give me my shovel back.
Instead he said, “Come to J&J’s tonight, I’ll buy you a drink.”
This wasn’t really a question but I decided to treat it like one. “Thanks, but, no.” Then I repeated, “Can I have my shovel back?”
He turned fully to me and again stepped into my space. It took a lot but I held my ground and tipped my head back to look at him. I had to tip it back far; he was that close and he was that tall.
“I’m tryin’ to be neighborly,” he said quietly.
“Neighborly would have been not draggin’ me into your house and treatin’ me to that scene.”
“I needed a witness and you were the only one available.”
“A witness?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because Kenzie’s a pain in the ass, if she can make trouble, she will and the bitch can make trouble for me. I got a witness as to the way things went down, and I’m guessin’ she’s not hot to share that scene with anyone, she’ll keep her mouth shut. I don’t, she can share whatever she wants to share, make the whole thing up. I was right, she’s keepin’ her mouth shut. She doesn’t then I produce you who says it like it was.”
“Produce me?”
“It’s not gonna happen, she’s not gonna say shit.”
“Produce me to who?”
“What?”
“Who would you produce me to?”
His head cocked slightly to the side and his brows drew together. “Clients.”
“What clients?”
“Potential clients who might be swayed into not hirin’ me if they hear some bullshit Kenzie cooked up.”
“What kind of clients?”
He got closer and I really wanted to edge back but I didn’t when he asked, “Buddy, you serious?”
“Yes.”
“I’m in security.”
“Security?” he nodded and I went on. “What kind of security?”
“Kenzie Elise security.”
I stared at him, feeling my lips part and my eyes get wide.
I had Security to the Stars living next door.
Wasn’t that just the shit of it? There I was, in my predicament and I had Security to the fucking Stars living next door and I hated him because he was a huge jerk. I couldn’t have made him a plate of cookies when I saw the shiny, black, new model Ford pickup in the drive and charmed him with my rapier wit. No. I had to get embroiled in a situation when he was scraping off a movie star who had fallen in lust with her mysterious, rugged and interesting-looking bodyguard at the same time finding out myself during said situation that he was a huge jerk and falling in instant hate with him.
“So, seeing as you do what you do, and considering Dane’s reaction to you, I guess you’re pretty famous around here?” I asked and he shook his head.
“Not famous, people just know what I do and sometimes who I do it for. They’re famous, not me.”
“That stuff rubs off.”
“Not really.”
“Dane looked pretty impressed.”
“He’s seventeen. That ain’t hard to do with a seventeen year old.”
“Still I’d guess, around here, you don’t often hear no either.”
“I’m not ‘round here often.”
God, he had an answer for everything.