“Please.” Alexa waves away my concerns with a flick of her wrist. “We’ll ditch Chance in no time. He’ll be busy working or chasing groupies and we’ll have our own fun.”
Chance snort-laughs. “Keep telling yourself that, Duchess.” He catches my eye in the mirror. “Grace won’t let me down, right?”
“I’m not doing anything to disrespect or embarrass Aunt Shelby. It has nothing to do with you, Chance Frazier.”
A rush of excitement floods me as I spot Shelby’s tour bus in the parking lot of the restaurant owned by the Lost Kings MC. Phew. For a minute, I was worried someone might’ve called this off and told Shelby not to come.
Then a wave of sadness hits me.
I’ve never been away from my parents for this long. Dad goes on runs with the club all the time but for anything longer than a couple of days, Mom and I have always gone with him.
Chance barely has the SUV in park when I jump out. Alexa follows.
Aunt Shelby and Aunt Lilly are talking but Shelby turns as soon as she sees Alexa and me.
She welcomes us with open arms and we grab her in a fierce hug.
“Here’re my favorite nieces,” Shelby whispers to us. “Don’t let yer cousins hear me sayin’ that.” She presses her finger to her lips as if it’s a big secret.
I hug her tighter. “I know I’m really your favorite,” I whisper in her ear.
She shakes with laughter but doesn’t deny it.
“Are you excited, Aunt Shelby?” I ask, pulling away.
“I am. We have a lot of dates lined up.”
I think the last time she toured was when I was twelve or thirteen. Aunt Trinity and Uncle Wrath had taken us to a bunch of shows. That’s sorta how Alexa and I hatched the plan to work as Shelby’s assistants when we were old enough.
We just didn’t plan on Chance crashing our party. Grrr.
I hug Aunt Lilly. “Are you sure you don’t need Chance at home this summer?” I ask.
Lilly doesn’t smile. If anything, she seems sad. Then she shakes it off. “I can’t believe I’m letting him do this.”
“You know we’ll take good care of ’em,” Shelby says.
Uncle Rooster comes up behind Shelby. “Don’t worry, Lilly, I’ve got so much work for him to do, he won’t have time to get into trouble.”
“Wait a minute,” Chance hollers. “I didn’t sign up for that.”
“Ha-ha!” I laugh in his face.”
It’s going to be an epic summer.
It’s finally Dex’s turn!