“Yeah,” Hero laughed. “They were good dogs.”
His eyes connected with mine, and I couldn’t turn away from him. The heat of his gaze held me in place, and I swear it was like he could see into my mind and know exactly what I was thinking. His deep blue eyes glittered like the ocean, and all I wanted to do was swim around and float in them. They were hypnotizing.
“Sunshine.”
I shook my head. “Uh, yeah?”
“I asked you if we were messing with your business with the RV in the road? The thing is so huge that King didn’t want to pull it into the clubhouse parking lot because he didn’t think he had enough room to turn it around.”
“No business.” I shook my head. “I mean no, you’re not hurting my business. Pam dropped off my last dog for the day, and no one else is coming until closer to five for pickups.” There. I finally said something that made sense. I looked away from Hero and stepped back. “It’s all good in the hood.” And there I went sounding like an idiot again.
Hero smothered a laugh. “That’s good. For the hood, that is.”
I glanced at him and cringed. “I’m normally not a tool,” I insisted.
He tipped his head to the side. “Never once thought you were a tool, Sunshine. You actually fit in pretty damn good with the other women in my life.”
Other women. Jesus. How many chicks was he dating?
“Well, okay.” What was I supposed to say to that?
“I could tell you some stories about my mom and her best friend, Meg. Life with those two around was never dull.” He sounded amused, but I could tell he wasn’t making fun of his mom. He was proud.
His mom and her friend. Those were the other women in his life? I found it hard to believe that he was referring to them and not a girlfriend. I nodded and smiled. Now instead of saying something ridiculous, I was silent Betty.
Oscar whined.
“Uh, I should probably get back to work. Oscar is a good boy, but sitting in a sink half clean probably isn’t all that fun.”
“I came in to make sure we weren’t messing with your business, and then, I stand here distracting you.” He chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair.
He was distracting. So distracting. A man shouldn’t be allowed to be that handsome without coming with a warning sign.
Warning: So hot will fry your brain. Will render you speechless and/or a bumbling fool.
He reached out and patted Oscar on the head again. “Have a good bath, buddy.” He moved back to the front door, and I didn’t take my eyes off him. It was physically impossible for me to not look at him when he was within fifty feet.
“Did you call your landlord?”
I blinked twice and tried to get my brain working again after watching his butt. “Uh, for?”
“The lock, Sunshine.”
Oh. “Uh, not yet.”
Hero shook his head. “Stay safe.” He pushed out the front door, and I watched him through the glass ‘til he disappeared.
I looked down at Oscar and sighed. He laid his paw on my side and grunted.
“Yeah, boy,” I mumbled. “I really need to get a grip.” I had gone years without ever running into any of the club members of the MC, and now, suddenly, two days in a row, I had managed to embarrass myself in front of Hero.
I turned on the water and tried to focus on finishing up Oscar.
Hero had said he was a distraction, and he was damn right.
From now on, I was going to have to run the other way and hide if I saw him coming.
Hero was too handsome for his own good, and he knew it.
*
Hero
“Where did you go?”
I slid my sunglasses over my eyes and folded my arms over my chest. “You’re blocking the entrance to the strip mall, Mom. I went to make sure we weren't pissing everyone off.”
Mom pointed a finger into her chest. “I’m not blocking the road, Micha. That damn RV is.”
I rolled my eyes but only because she wouldn’t be able to see me do it. “You know what I mean. And, you and Meg are the ones who rented that bigass thing.”
“Cyn,” Meg called.
Mom raised her finger over her head. “Just one second, Meg,” she called. She turned her finger on me. “I know you rolled your eyes behind those sunglasses, Micha Scott. And we bought the RV. It was cheaper that way.”
My jaw dropped. That was news to me. “You and Dad becoming gray-haired roaming the country in a huge ass RV?”
She rolled her eyes and held up a large piece of her hair. “Does this look gray to you? I’m fifty-five, smartass, not one hundred.”
“Same difference?”
She slugged me in the arm. “It’s my own damn fault for making you such a smartass,” she grumbled.
“Growing up around the clubhouse might have had something to do with that, too.”
“Cyn!” Meg called again.
Mom closed her eyes and whispered, “For Pete’s sake. She’s been frantically going over this bigass checklist all morning. It’s like there aren’t stores and restaurants along the way or something.” She spun around. “What’s up?” she called cheerfully.
Meg beelined over with a clipboard in her hands. “The guys are almost done loading up the bikes. I tried to convince Lo to just leave them behind.”
Even I knew Meg had wasted her breath trying to convince King to leave his bike behind for weeks.
“He would have stolen Gravel’s the whole time, then,” Mom laughed.
Meg pursed her lips. “Accurate,” she mumbled. “Do you think we’re going to have enough chips?”
Mom grabbed the clipboard from her hands. She looked it over, pointed her finger at one of the handwritten items, and flipped it around to Meg. “Is that a twenty-six?” she asked her.
Meg squinted and nodded. “Yes.”
“So you have twenty-six bags of chips on that land yacht?” Mom asked.
Meg confirmed with a nod. “Yeah. I think we need a few more bags.”
Damn. That was an awful lot of chips. “You guys planning on eating only chips?” I chuckled.
Meg shook her head seriously. “No. I also have two weeks’ worth of groceries.”
Mom ripped the list off the clipboard. She tore the papers in half and then in half again. “You’re done.”
Meg’s jaw dropped.
Mom snapped the clipboard in half and dropped it on the road. “Done.” She stomped down the length of the RV and stormed up the stairs inside.
“She just broke my clipboard.” Meg picked up the two pieces and held them together. “My clipboard.”
“Meg?!?!” Mom screeched from inside the RV.
Uh oh.
Meg closed one eye and cringed. “She probably figured out where I put all of the chips.” Meg jogged to the stairs and jumped into the RV.
Dad moved next to me and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “You ever wanna be a fly on the wall when those two are together? Just to listen to all of the weird shit they get into?”
“The little that I’ve been able to see of them together is enough to last a lifetime.” Meg and Mom were forever getting into trouble. All my life, I had been front row to all their antics.