“Yes, son, that’s my stuff right here. I just want to get Meg’s number before she leaves.”
“Why do you need my number?” I asked as I juggled my basket and towels.
Ethel grabbed her purse off the ground and started digging through it again. “Well, you won’t let me pay you back for the snacks you got for me, so I figured I could pay you back by inviting you over for dinner sometime. So what’s your number, sweetheart?”
“I don’t eat dinner,” I blurted out. I was going to have to talk with my brain and mouth when I got home. They needed to get their shit together and start working in unison so that I wouldn’t sound like such an idiot.
“You don’t eat dinner? Please don’t tell me you're on a diet.” Lo said as he looked me up and down.
“No,” I said. Lord knew I should be.
Lo and Ethel just stared at me.
“So, no, you don’t eat dinner?” Lo asked again.
“Yes. I mean, no, I’m not on a diet. Yes, I eat dinner. I just work at night, so I meant that I wouldn’t be able to come to dinner.” I looked at Lo and blushed about ten shades of red. “Why is this so hard?”
“What’s hard, sweetheart? Can’t remember your phone number? I can barely remember mine too. Don’t worry about not being able to make it to dinner; I can have you over for lunch. You eat lunch, right?” Ethel asked with a smirk on her face. Lo had a full-blown smile on his face. Even his eyes were smiling at me. That smile ought to be illegal.
I could see where Lo got his looks from. With Lo and Ethel standing next to each other, I could see the resemblance, especially when they were both smirking.
I had to get out of here. I’m usually the one with the one-liners and making everyone laugh; now, I couldn’t even put two words together.
“Lunch would be good.” I rattled off my number, and Ethel jotted it down.
“Ok, sweetheart, I’ll let you get your nap. I’ll give you a call later, and we can figure out a day we can get together.” Ethel shoved the pen and paper back in her bag and leaned into me for a hug.
I awkwardly hugged her back and patted her on the shoulder. “Sounds good. Have a good day, Ethel. Uh, it was nice meeting you, Lo,” I mumbled as my gaze wandered over Lo again.
“You too, Meg. See you around,” Lo replied.
I gave them both a jaunty wave and booked it to the checkout. Thankfully there wasn’t a line, and I quickly made my escape to my car. I threw my things in the trunk and hopped in. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, plugged it into the radio, and turned on my chill playlist; the soothing sounds of Fleetwood Mac filled the car.
Music was the one thing in my life that had gotten me through so much shit. Good or bad, there was always a song that I could play, and it would make everything better. Right now, I just needed to unscramble my brain and get my bearings. Fleetwood Mac singing “Landslide” was helping.
I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home. All I needed was to forget about today. If Ethel called for lunch, I would say yes because she did remind me so much of mom, but I wasn’t going to let Lo enter my thoughts anymore. A woman like me did not register on his radar. He was better, just forgotten.
When I was halfway home, I realized I forgot about dog food and shampoo.
Shit.
======
Lo
I helped mom finish her shopping and loaded all her crap into the truck. I looked around the parking lot for Meg, hoping she hadn’t left yet so I could get another look at her. As soon as I saw her ass waving in the air as she struggled to stand up, I knew I had to be inside her.
It took all my willpower not to get a hard-on as her eyes ran over my body. Fucking chick was smoking’ hot and didn’t even know it.
“Thanks for coming to get me, Lo,” Ma said as she interrupted my thoughts about Meg.
“No problem, Ma. I’ll get one of the guys to bring your car to you later. Make sure it’s locked.” Ma dug her keys out of her huge ass purse and beeped the locks. We both got into the shop truck, and I started it up.
“Sure was nice of that Meg to help out. I don’t know what I would have done without her.”
“Yup, definitely nice of her.” I shifted the truck into drive, keeping my foot on the brake, knowing exactly where mom was headed with this.
“You should ask her out.” All I could do was shake my head and laugh.
“Straight to the point, huh, Ma?”
“I’m old. I can say what I want. Meg is just the thing you need.”
“I didn’t know I needed anything.” I pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Ma’s house.
“You need someone in your life besides that club.” My mom grabbed her phone out of her purse and started fiddling with it.
“We’ll see, ma. Meg didn’t seem too thrilled with me.” She liked what she saw, but it was like she couldn’t get away from me quickly enough when she saw that Ma was going to be ok.
“Well, you are pretty intimidating, Lo. Thank goodness you didn’t wear your cut.”
My leather vest with my club rockers and patches was a part of me. “What the hell is wrong with my cut? If some bitch can’t handle me in my cut, she sure as shit doesn't belong with me,” I growled.
“Not what I meant, Lo. That girl has been hurt; you can see it in her eyes. You’ll have to be gentle with her.”
My phone dinged. I dug it out of my pocket and saw my mom had texted me. “You texted me her number, ma?”
“Use it, Logan, fix her,” she insisted.
I sighed and pulled into mom’s driveway. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be fixed, ma. Maybe she has a boyfriend.”
“She doesn’t. Call her, or I’ll do it for you,” she ordered.
I knew my mom’s threat wasn’t idle. She totally would call Meg and ask her out for me. Fuck. “I’ll help you get your shit inside, ma.”
“I’ll make you lunch, and then you can call Meg,” Ma said, as she jumped out of the truck and grabbed some bags.
I watched her walk into her house and looked at the message she had sent me. I saved Meg’s number to my phone and grabbed the rest of Ma’s shit, and headed into the house.
It looked like I was calling Meg.
Grab your copy of Loving Lo.