Why would he be there? “Doing what?”
His cell starts to vibrate next to him where it sits on the countertop. Bones flashes across his screen, and I step back so he can walk out of the bathroom to answer it.
I haven’t brought up his mother or the fact that he ordered her flowers. His reasons aren’t any of my business. I just hope that whatever he needed from those flowers, he got. Everyone grieves differently. And there is no timeframe on how long you can mourn a loved one.
I start my morning after-shower ritual when he comes back into the bathroom.
“What were we talking about?” he asks, walking up behind me.
“You blowing me off tonight.”
He pulls my wet hair off my shoulder, and his eyes meet mine in the mirror. “It’ll be late.”
“You can wake me up.” I offer.
He spins me around, grips my hips, and sets my ass on the cold counter. “How would you like me to do that?” he asks.
“Surprise me.”
He steps between my legs, pressing mine apart, and grips my wet hair, pulling my head back. Then his lips are on mine, letting me know we’re both going to be late today. The only difference is he has a job to get to and all I have is an empty shop.
CHAPTER TWENTY
GRAVE
“WHAT CAN I get you?” I ask the guy who stands at the bar inside of Crown. I run it most of the time. Bones didn’t want it. Titan was too busy running the Queens and Cross wanted to open up his own tattoo parlor, so I took our exclusive night club at Kingdom.
“Two shots of Patron and two Miller Lites,” he answers, pulling his card out of his wallet.
I turn my back to him and start to pop the tops on the beers when I feel my cell vibrate in my back pocket.
“Hey, get him two shots of Patron,” I holler at one of my bartenders as I step away to answer my phone in the office. “What’s up?”
“Hey, man. Just wanted to let you know that Randy has been booked.”
Fucking finally. “What are the charges?”
“Well, your plan worked. Not only did the bastard decide to fuck up, he did a royal job at it.” I smile. “He ran his car right into a tree. He was drunk and had pills on him. When we went to arrest him, he punched my partner in the face.”
“Yes.” I chuckle.
“Yep, it definitely worked in our favor,” he adds. “But it gets better.”
“Go on.”
“Found out that he did have a warrant. But it’s out of Florida. And they want to extradite him. He’s looking at fifteen to twenty years there.”
“That’s good enough for me. Thanks, man.” I hang up the phone and walk back out into the club. First thing in the morning I’ll go and tell Natalie the good news.
APRIL
I walk into Roses, and people are already here working on the shop. This week has been intense, to say the least. I accepted Grave’s money to fix the shop, not like he was going to give me an option. And I hate to admit it, but it looks better than it did before.
Workers have been in and out every day doing the finishing touches so I can open Monday. I just set my purse on the counter when I see the front door open. “Hey.”
“What’s up, ho?” Jasmine asks, removing her sunglasses and eyeing the guy’s ass bent over cleaning up his mess off the floor. She winks and gives me a smile.
“What are you girls doing here?” I ask.
Haven places her Louis Vuitton on the counter next to my fifteen-dollar purse. I have a feeling these women grew up with money. “We wanted to stop by and see the shop.”
I haven’t told them about what happened. I’m too ashamed and afraid they will judge Ethan. He’s really a good kid who just made some bad choices. Haven’t we all done that at some point? “Thanks. It should be ready for business on Monday.” As far as they know, I’m remodeling, and they have no clue that Grave is footing the bill.
“I saw the boutique next door to you is for sale,” Jasmine adds. “Have you thought about buying it? Expanding?”
“No. But that would be a good idea.” If that was an option. I don’t get enough business to justify that kind of expansion, but a girl can dream.
The door opens, and Emilee walks in followed by Titan. I swallow nervously. He knows what happened here and that the Mason brothers are responsible for the destruction. I’m praying he doesn’t say anything.
“You look like you just rolled out of bed,” Jasmine says to Emilee.
Her dark hair is up in a messy bun, and she’s wearing one of Titan’s T-shirts that’s hanging off one shoulder with a pair of gray yoga pants and tennis shoes.