“Eddie, promise me.”
“Jet, you aren’t just anyone to those boys. Lee’s got cameras and bugs in Fortnum’s. They’ve been watchin’ you for months and likin’ what they see, I know, I heard ‘em say it. When Lee told me he’d got word that Slick was on the move and he was asking for volunteers to run protection for your crew, every f**kin’ guy on his payrol volunteered. He got to hand pick a team of his best men, al of ‘em puttin’
themselves on the line for you for free.” Sweet Jesus.
He had to be joking.
“You’re joking,” I whispered.
He shook his head.
I found I was having trouble breathing. I would never process this, this was beyond processing.
“Why?” I asked.
“I’m thinkin’ it’s because they’d like to be where I am right now. Lucky for me, I got there first and made it clear I was interested. That is, I made it clear to everyone but you.” He stopped and watched me closely, “Jesus, Jet, you don’t have a clue, do you?”
I found I didn’t want to chat anymore, I was done chatting.
I needed to get up, get to work, go check on Shirleen, make sure my Mom and Lottie were okay and process the fact that I was now “official y” Eddie’s w-word. I did not want to be having this discussion.
To communicate al of this to Eddie, I said, “I need coffee.”
He kept looking at me for awhile then something changed in his eyes, the glitter went out and the warmth went back in, warmth and tenderness. I was beginning to miss the terror of having a gun held to my head.
“Chiquita, women spend a lot of time sittin’ around bitchin’ that there are no good men out there. I hate to tel you this, but there aren’t a lot of good women either. The difference is, when a man sees one, he knows it. Then, he goes after her and wears her down until she’s his. Then, if he’s any man at al , he won’t let her go.” Eek!
This just got worse and worse.
“I real y need coffee,” I said.
His eyelids lowered a bit and the dimple came out but his lips didn’t form a smile.
“I see you’re in ready-to-bolt mode so I’l let you off the hook. Just to finish this, I hope you can understand now why I’m gonna get things straight with Mace.” I sighed, knowing that this was another argument I wasn’t going to win and deciding to save my energy for one I could win.
Whenever that would be, likely when I was ninety-eight and wearing black flats.
Then I said, “If he grabs me and we disappear in Mexico, you’l only have yourself to blame.”
The smile came out, “I’l take that chance.” I used the best word a woman had in her argument arsenal, undoubtedly its own special kind of f-word for men.
“Fine,” I clipped, meaning anything but. “Can I have coffee now?”
Somehow, it seemed Eddie found my “fine” amusing. I could tel by the warmth and tenderness being joined by an affectionate gleam in his eye.
Wonderful.
So much for me putting on the brakes. It seemed instead I somehow shifted us up from relationship overdrive straight to relationship hyperdrive.
His lips touched mine, then he said, “Yeah, you can have coffee.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
One of My Girls
Late morning, Eddie and I walked into Fortnum’s, my arm was around Eddie’s waist, my other hand on his abs.
Eddie’s arm was curled around my neck, his hand hanging loose in front of me, which meant I was tucked super-close to his side.