Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,26

off any alarm in my mind.

“Um, no Jade, just while we eat.” I pat the spot next to me. Henry looks at me like I have three heads and what’s the big deal if he sits next to Jade.

The kid will understand one day it’s not Jade sitting next to him I’m worried about, it’s the fact that--

“Perfect.” Reed slides in next to me, his strong thigh pressing against mine. “Couldn’t have set this up any better if I’d tried.” He winks, and I slide until my entire left side of my body is pressed to the wall.

Jade slides down into her seat across from me, focusing on her meal again. Henry sits down next to her and Reed hands him his meal. He doesn’t open the sauces, doesn’t put the straw in his cup, which I believe might be soda and he lets the kid set everything up himself. My eyes glance to Jade’s spot. Her nugget box is opened with the fries in the lid, sweet and sour sauce open and sitting next to her ketchup. I added the straw to her milk and have a napkin there for her to clean up after. The toy is tucked into my purse until she eats.

“Looks like a car.” Reed tosses Henry the toy and the little boy catches it.

“Have it.” Henry shrugs and sets it between him and Jade.

“What did I get?” Jade sets her eyes on me.

I shoot her my non-verbal ‘you know the rules’ look.

“Henry got his. Can I have mine?”

My eyes look over to Henry and Reed, both looking between us. Not judging, just intrigued.

“Eat some nuggets.” I nod my head to her uneaten food.

“Come on. I want to know what I got,” she whines, and I close my eyes because the last thing I want is for this to become a whole thing over a McDonald’s cheap toy.

“Jade,” I give her my warning tone, but I can already tell it’s not going to work today. “Eat.” I’m a little more curt this time around.

Reed gets the hint. “Henry, eat your meal.”

Henry’s eyebrows crinkle at Reed’s authoritative voice. I’m sensing whoever Reed is to Henry, he’s not an authority figure.

Henry does take a bite of his hamburger.

Meanwhile, Jade crosses her arms over her chest in defiance.

“If you don’t eat, you don’t play.”

A small sound escapes Reed, but thankfully Jade didn’t hear it because her eyes are set on challenging me. I play her game, not really caring what Reed thinks. I want to drive him away anyway. Maybe I should hold the toy hostage longer, so she throws a tantrum and then he’ll realize he doesn’t want a ride on our crazy train.

Jade slides forward, picks up a nugget and then nibbles it.

Once she’s finally eating, I look at my plate no longer interested in eating with Reed right next to me. I pick up a fry and eat it, then take a sip of my soda. This is not a first date. This is nothing. After repeating that a few times, I finally pick up my chicken sandwich and take a bite. When the tomato and lettuce slide out of the sandwich because of the abundance of mayonnaise and it lands in my lap, I repeat to myself that this is a good sign. After all, we want Reed to run far far away.

“Shit.” Reed’s hand moves over to pick up the vegetables out of my lap.

“You said a bad word,” Jade scolds him.

His head flicks her way at the same time my hand grabs his wrist to stop him from plucking something out of my crotch. An electric current shudders through my body.

“Sorry.”

“He says that all the time,” Henry says and him, and Jade talks about parents swearing. “My grandpa is the worst. He says the f word.” He lowers his voice once he gets to f.

Jade’s jaw opens although I’d bet the house in Vegas her dad uses that language around her.

“Once my dad put up the finger at someone in the car next to us. Then the guy rolled down his window and if I’d collected money for a swear jar, we’d be going out for ice cream after this.”

Reed chuckles lightly to himself and excuses himself.

“My grandpa yells at his neighbors, saying get the potatoes out of your damn ears.”

Jade laughs uncontrollably, rolling all around the booth. “I don’t have a grandpa.” She doesn’t say it in a mean way,, she says it like it is the way it is. “I