The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,113
and brothers? Ones she didn’t leave.”
“Then I feel sorry for them.”
“And if we wanna know them, we might have to put up with her.”
Fuck.
Great.
He blew out a breath.
Johnny changed the subject.
“Addie resign?”
“Yeah. Talked her into givin’ ’em just the two weeks so she has a week off to go shoppin’ for clothes and just chill before she has to start. She can’t take vacation until after six months, so she saw the wisdom of that.”
“You got her to go far, fast,” Johnny remarked, knowing all about Addie’s independent streak, and not just what Toby told him.
“I think it had somethin’ to do with that crib Margot helped me pick out.”
Johnny grinned at him.
Toby grinned back.
He felt it fade before he said, “It’s all about Margot. Everything’s good. Sierra’s whatever she is. Addie’s got a job she’s excited about. It pays better. She knows where I’m at with her so the shit I do for her and give to her and Brooks, I feel she considers it now all in the family. Her ex is a ghost and I don’t think that’s gonna change, so when the time comes for me to adopt Brooks, that’s gonna be a pain in the ass, finding his ass. But life is settled. Except Margot.”
“What about Margot looking after Brooks?” Johnny asked.
Toby shook his head but said, “I had a chat with Dave. He really wants us to keep letting them look after him. Says Margot’s at her best when Brooklyn’s there. She’s not weak or spacy, but he doesn’t leave them alone. When the radiation starts, though, we’ll have to have another conversation. Addie’s down with that.”
Johnny nodded before he asked, “Is she gonna put more effort into getting in touch with Perry?”
“Already did. She called some of his friends yesterday. Apparently, he’s left Chattanooga. They say he’s in Nashville. Though none of them shared contact details and she thinks they know how to get hold of him, they just aren’t telling her. Which means he told them not to share. Which means he’s vapor.”
“Fuckin’ dick,” Johnny muttered.
“The longer he stays away and stiffs her for child support, the more ammo we got if he comes back and wants to cause trouble.”
“Yeah. He’s still a fuckin’ dick.”
“No argument there.”
Johnny locked eyes with him, and Toby knew immediately where his mind was at.
“We gotta—” Johnny started.
“We will,” Toby declared.
“Dave’s gonna—”
“We’ll be on it.”
“I thought at least Eliza would unravel,” Johnny said quietly. “After their mom . . .”
He didn’t finish that.
He didn’t have to.
Though he did say, “Granite and steel packaged up in goose down and kitten fur.”
“Say what?” Toby asked.
“You got soft leather and smooth whiskey and I got goose down and kitten fur. But under what we got, it’s granite and steel. Daphne made that. That’s her legacy. That’s what she gave us, what our kids will get. That’s why I know, as fucked up as it sounds, Margot’s good. Because she knows this too. So it’s gonna be about Dave. Because he’s Dad. He’s you. And he’s me. And if it goes down like that, we have to be prepared. Because without his woman, he’s gonna be nothin’ but empty.”
“Yeah,” Toby said quietly.
“But we’re on it,” Johnny vowed.
“Yeah we are,” Toby agreed.
They stared at each other a beat, both feeling the same thing, and in that moment not much of it was good.
Then the Gamble Brothers got back to work.
“You know, I fought for a full hour with Margot about that dinnerware, Lollipop. It’d suck you reduced it to rubble in my sink so I gotta go and find whatever artisan conned Margot so I can buy more,” Toby noted, having dishwasher duty with Addie because she didn’t give a shit where he shoved the plates and silverware.
She fortunately quit banging his plates around and turned to him, looking confused. “Why did you fight with her? This stoneware is rad.”
“One place setting cost a hundred bucks.”
Her gaze coasted down to the sink as she breathed, “Holy shit.”
“And I only know what the term ‘place setting’ means because Margot said it fifteen hundred times when we were arguing about those plates.”
She shot him a grin.
“She found it for me at some art festival in Owensboro,” Toby told her. “Texted me a picture. Said it went with my couches. So with full disclosure, we argued for forty-five minutes via text that I did not need over a thousand dollars-worth of dishes, seein’ as she said I had to have serving bowls and platters and