“I’m hungry. We gonna stand around and look at babies all night, or is there food here?” a new voice said, drawing my attention from the baby. I recognized him, but I couldn’t remember his name. He had his dreadlocks pulled back in a ponytail. Tattoos decorated most of his arms, and he even had one coming up his neck. I didn’t stare long enough to figure out what it was. His lip was pierced, and when he talked you could see the metal in his mouth.
“We have plenty of food, Dewayne,” Sadie replied, smiling at him like he wasn’t a scary-ass dude.
“Good,” he said, walking over and stopping to kiss Eli’s head, which was not what I was expecting him to do. “Damn, that kid’s cute. But then, he looks like his momma.”
Marcus just chuckled.
Dewayne looked over at me and stopped. His gaze shifted from me to where I knew Amanda and Preston stood behind me. A slow grin stretched across his face. “Hell yeah. This should be a shit ton of fun. Preston, you gonna play nice with Jason?”
Sadie’s eyes went wide, and everyone went quiet. I decided now was a good time to turn and address them and get this over with.
Amanda was glaring at Dewayne like she was about to take a swing at him, but Preston had an amused grin on his face. “I always play nice,” Preston said with a lazy drawl that went well with his surfer-boy appearance. “I got no problem with Jason. At least not anymore.” He dropped his arm from around Amanda’s waist, stepped forward, and held out his hand to me. “No hard feelings,” he said.
The guy was hard to dislike. I shook his hand. “Not at all,” I replied.
“Good,” he said, stepping back to put his hand back on Amanda. “See, dickhead? We’re all good,” Preston said to Dewayne.
Dewayne just chuckled and shook his head. “Sure you are.”
“Okay, Dewayne, don’t go getting everyone all stirred up. We’re at the Stones’ house,” Marcus said, trying to sound diplomatic.
Dewayne shrugged and glanced back at Marcus. “Just having some fun.”
The doorway was filled again, this time with the massive brick wall that was Rock. A little girl with a head full of curls ran around his legs, squealing Preston’s name. I turned to see Preston reach down and grab her just as she flung herself into his arms. Rock and his wife, Trisha, had adopted Preston’s little sister and brothers when their mother passed away, making this group of friends even tighter.
“I missed you,” the little girl said, planting a loud, smacking kiss on Preston’s cheek.
“I missed you, too,” he said.
“Sorry we’re late,” Rock said. “Trisha is bringing the boys after football practice. I had to go get Daisy. Jess was watching her at the house while we were at the boys’ practice.
My head snapped around at the name Jess. The name of the girl I’d rescued the other night.
“You’re letting Jess watch Daisy?” Willow asked, sounding surprised.
Rock looked over at her and frowned. “She’s my cousin. I know you aren’t a fan of Jess’s, but she’s good with Daisy.”
“She’s really not so bad, Low, Amanda piped up. “I know you had a bad experience with her, but Jess is loyal to a fault and she loves those kids.” That made me even more curious. If this was the same Jess who beat the hell out of her boyfriend’s truck, then I could understand Low’s concern. She didn’t seem like the babysitter type.
“She seems so flighty,” Willow said, frowning.
Dewayne walked back into the room with a handful of chips. “You’re just worried because Jess had her sexy ass set on Marcus. Don’t mean she’s a bad girl. Just a little misguided at times.”
Amanda shot an annoyed glare Dewayne’s way. “Don’t bring that up. It’s old news.”
“Don’t, dude.” Marcus’s voice sounded pleading.
“Jess does some things that are not well thought out, and she’s impulsive, but she’s still good with Daisy,” Rock said defensively.
“She bashed in Hank’s truck the other night,” Marcus pointed out.
This group had just won my complete and total attention. I couldn’t keep from grinning. I had to rub my hand over my mouth so no one noticed. They were talking about the hot blonde I’d helped escape.
“She did what?” Sadie asked in shocked horror.
Willow sighed and shook her head. “Her on-again, off-again boyfriend was cheating on her, and she took a bat or something and shattered his truck’s windows and apparently got a few dents in the side before she took off running.”
Preston let out an amused laugh. “Sorry. But it’s funny as hell. Every time I hear it, I can’t stop myself from laughing.”