Smithie took his attention from the piece of paper he held in his hand, looked across his desk and all the way across his office to the woman striding through the room.
The woman who was the subject of the words written on the paper in his hand.
His throat was tight.
“I’m going natural,” she finished her announcement.
Charlotte McAlister.
Lottie.
Known far and pretty damned wide as Lottie Mac.
Lottie Mac, Queen of the Corvette Calendar.
Though Smithie just called her Mac.
He’d been wrong. She wasn’t done finishing her announcement.
Mac stopped at the front of his desk and proclaimed, “And you can’t talk me out of it.”
It took Smithie a minute to force his mouth to regain the ability of speech.
“I don’t care what you do to your body. It’s not my body. I don’t know why you think I’d have a say in it.”
Lottie gawked at him.
He got this.
He was a strip club owner and she was a stripper. His premier stripper. He had velvet ropes to contain the people who lined up, wanting to watch her dance. It wasn’t a stretch she’d think he’d have a problem with her getting rid of her implants.
Forcibly pulling his mind from the paper in his hand, he turned it over and laid it on the desk, giving his full attention to Mac.
And what she was saying.
Mostly, why she was probably saying it.
Before he could dig into that with her, she kept speaking.
“I interviewed seven plastic surgeons in the Denver area. I’ve chosen one. I’m doing it next month.”
“Why?” Smithie asked.
“Why?” Mac asked back.
“Not heard a thing about you doin’ this, now you’re not only doin’ it, you did all the research into it,” he pointed out. “So what’s the deal and what’s the rush?”
He knew both.
He just wanted to have the conversation.
“There’s no rush,” Mac lied.
When these women would learn that they couldn’t get away with lying to him, he did not know. He was in a variety of relationships with several women of his own, had kids with them, and he’d run a strip club for decades. He could spot a lie before the person even spoke the words.
Hell, his bouncers were the worst culprits. They thought they had that, “you’re a man and I’m a man” thing going on when no man was any kind of man if he lied through his teeth.
“Mac,” he stated warningly.
She didn’t answer his question.
She said, “People will still come watch me dance.”
“I know people will watch you dance. Had Joaquim do a head count coupla months ago for a few nights. Thirty-five percent of the people through the door were female. They say ten percent of the population is gay. So we can assume ten percent of that were lesbians who might have another reason they’re here to see you. But that means twenty-five percent of those females were here just to get a drink, but mostly to watch you dance. And you’re probably the only time a man can get away with saying he comes to a strip club to take in the talent of a dancer’s moves. You got big tits, you got regular tits, it’s not gonna affect your line at the rope. So let’s stop with the bullshit. Now, tell me why?”
Mac lifted her chin and stated, “I’m also looking into sperm donors.”
There it was.
Smithie sat back in his chair.
“Mac—” he began.
“I’m not getting any younger, Smithie,” she snapped.
As noted, he was in a relationship with several women. They knew about each other. Mostly, they shared because he was a lot to take and they didn’t mind the break.
But often, it was a juggling act and he was the juggler.
One thing he learned that helped him not drop a ball was never to field it when a woman lobbed that at him.
Though, he didn’t field it right then not just because of that.
“It’s your sister,” he noted.
She shook her head. “It isn’t my sister.”
“How many has she pushed out for Eddie so far?” Smithie asked a question the answer to which he already knew.
“Jet doesn’t make babies for Eddie,” Mac shot back.
Smithie sighed.
“I’m just ready,” she stated.
“You are not ready,” he returned.
Her face turned from confrontational to pissed.
“You think I haven’t thought about this for a long time?”
“I think, when you decide to bring a kid in the world, once you think you’ve thought about it long enough, you should think even longer about it. Then you should talk to people in your life about it. Then you should