Under Locke(173)
“Son, I love you. A lot. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a lying shit and I know that my promises probably don’t mean anything to you anymore but I swear I won’t lie to you again. At least not over anything so stupid. I mean, if you ask me if I finished the last PopTart, I might lie but that’s it. Nothing else important.”
And then I waited. And waited. And waited.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he really was that pissed off at me. Holy crap. I’d finally done it.
“Kid,” he finally spoke after what felt like a year. “You pissed me the hell off but I love you anyway. Nothing will ever change that. Not even that dumb monkey you got playing bodyguard.”
“I like my dumb monkey.” Like hell was I going to bring up him being mad at me again. I was going to focus on something other than that.
Sonny sighed again, this long, suffering sigh. “That’s unfortunate.”
“He’s really nice to me,” I whispered into the phone, turning around in the stool to look for said dumb monkey. He was still standing by the bathrooms with the waitress talking to him. “I’d like to keep him, so I hope you aren’t planning on murdering him.”
“Kinda ruining my plans there, kid,” he said, and I wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not. More than likely, he wasn’t. “He didn’t exactly keep to the truce between the Club, of leaving family alone. He knows that’s not cool.”
“Eh.” I glanced around to see the tall, black-haired jerk making his way around the booths toward where he’d left me. “At least leave his face alone.” I paused before adding, “And his hands.”
My half-brother groaned. “Getting off the phone now.”
I was torn between laughing and being ridiculously embarrassed by the way I’d made the comment sound. “That wasn’t what I meant!”
“Don’t care, kid. The damage is done.”
Warm fingers drew a line from my bare shoulder down to my wrist before Dex sat down next to me, his chest a solid wall of muscle and heat on my side. I glanced at his face, seeing it calm and passive. So handsome. Yet, I still cringed when I thought about the mental picture Sonny was probably having. “Yeah, okay.”
“Call me later?” he asked.
I kept my eyes on Dex as his own gaze dragged its way from the low cut half of my shirt, and then up over my face. The corner of his mouth went up in a soft smile. “Sure will. Drive safe.” Then, I added for good measure, watching Charlie as I said, “Love you.”
Sonny must have mumbled the response to me but I missed it. The only thing I captured was the dial tone after he hung up. Because the man sitting next to me was watching me with those curious blue eyes.
As soon as I set the phone flat on the counter, I nudged my shoulder into his arm. “Just checking in with Son.”
That hot gaze ran over my face, my mouth, my cheeks, before making its way to stare straight into my eyes. “Got all y’alls shit straightened out?” he asked in a lower voice.
“Mmmhmm. I had to let him call you a dumb monkey to get his forgiveness but I doubt you care.”
Dex slid those long fingers over my wrist, circling the bones gently. “You happy he’s finally talkin’ to you again?” I nodded, earning a shrug. “Then I don’t give a fuck what he thinks, you know that.”
I did know that. Like I knew plenty of other crazy things. Like the fact that I’d offer up one of my dad’s body parts to ensure Dex’s safety. Leaning into him again, I pressed my mouth into his biceps. “Yeah, I know you don’t.”
“One stack of blueberry pancakes, and a double stack with a side of sausage,” our waitress appeared then, dropping each of our plates in front of us.
I thanked her and watched her disappear, looking around for the younger one I’d spotted talking to Dex just a few minutes before. But she wasn’t anywhere.
“I think I pissed her off,” Dex said abruptly, making me drag my eyes back to him.
He was busy cutting into the huge mound of pancakes in front of him, his tone casual.
“The waitress you were talking to?”
He lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. “She was annoyin’ the shit outta me. Don’t know why she’d think I’d care whether she likes my ink or not.”
My first thought was that the girl had run to the kitchen and spit in our food. Oh hell.
Dex cut into another thick triangle, eyeing me out of the corner of his eye. “Wouldn’t quit ramblin’ about how she wants to get tatted up, even after I told her my girl was waitin’ on me.”