Join the Club - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,38

actually sure what those things are and were, mostly because it’s like he’s having a meeting that doesn’t actually even concern me, but it doesn’t matter. I’m going home. Tomorrow’s meeting can go fuck itself.”

Angel’s lips twitched.

“I just don’t like the governor,” Angel said as if those few words explained why he’d instantly disliked me. “There’s something about him that doesn’t sit well with me.”

I frowned. “That was you I saw when I came out of his office earlier?”

Angel nodded.

“Interesting,” I said. “But yeah, there’s nothing special about what I’m doing there. I just felt like this would be a good opportunity to get my name out there.”

“Don’t trust him, Delanie,” Angel murmured as he gathered his keys. “He’s not a good man.”

With that, Angel took his leave, leaving me standing there wondering if I should bother going to eat at all.

Maybe I should just head back to the hotel.

A sandwich didn’t really sound all that good anyway.

What sounded good was tacos.

Oh, and about half a loaf of bread, buttered up with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on it.

But it wasn’t like I could just up and leave.

I was here for a meeting.

That would be rude to leave.

What would be dumb, though, was not taking Angel’s words to heart when it came to Governor Bryan.

It was on that thought that I decided ‘fuck it.’

I was ready to go home.

I wanted to know more about what was going on with my sister—because she was being suspiciously quiet about a lot of things that I didn’t like her being quiet on—and I missed my baby.

Pulling my phone out, I called an Uber to take me back to the hotel.

Then I sent Bourne a text telling him I was ready to go home when he was.

He didn’t ask questions when he came to pick me up. Likely because he knew more answers than I did. He also didn’t protest when I said that dinner would have to be rescheduled. He didn’t talk when we drove home in silence, the entire four-hour drive.

He also didn’t admit a single sound protest when I asked to be dropped off, alone, for the night.

All he did was wait for me to walk inside until he sedately pulled away.

Chapter 8

There appears to have been a struggle.

-My housekeeping style

Bourne

I walked up the length of Delanie’s front walk and was unsurprised to find her sitting outside on the porch, reading.

When I walked up, she lowered the book and looked at me over the edge, just as I’d seen her do a thousand times before. She was the muse for the tattoo I’d gotten a few days ago, and she didn’t even know it.

How many times had I wished that I could walk up to her and kiss her pouty lips?

How many times had I thought about what she would do if I walked up to her and planted a wet one directly on her upturned mouth?

Well, no more.

Walking up to her, I didn’t stop a polite distance away.

I bent down, using the sturdy edge of the glider to help lower myself down to her lips, then kissed her.

She gasped but didn’t try to push me away.

No, she leaned into the kiss, her hands going up to rest on my chest as she kissed me back.

Long seconds later, after we were both breathless, I pulled back, grinning down into her face.

“You okay?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes.

“I’d be better if my sister didn’t have some psycho after her, and my father responsible for it,” she admitted. “A father that left me a voicemail about an hour ago telling me he was coming to town, and he wanted to talk to me.”

“When’s this?” I asked.

“Tomorrow, apparently.” She shrugged. “I ignored that voicemail, too.”

My brows went up. “And you’re not telling her that you’re meeting with your father.”

“I never said I was meeting with him,” she countered, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

“No,” I agreed. “But you want to give him a piece of your mind, so I assume that it’s going to happen.”

She didn’t contradict me.

In fact, she smiled.

“I’ll allow you in on the meeting if you’d like,” she said, acting like she was offering me a Golden Ticket to Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

“You’re damn right I want in,” I said. “I don’t get off until nine in the morning.”

She patted my uniformed chest. “I didn’t realize you’d already be back at work seeing as we were supposed to be in Austin one more night.”

I shrugged and moved to the seat beside her,