Rock Chick Reborn (Rock Chick #9)(12)

Richardson’s brows shot up but he didn’t say anything.

“Once that happens,” Lee went on, “it’ll be up to you to get in there.”

“If she doesn’t want—” Richardson started.

Lee pushed away from his truck, turned to fully face the man, put his hands on his hips and said quietly, “She wants. She’s still not gonna call you.”

“And you’re setting her up because . . . ?” Richardson prompted.

“Because you’re a good man and she’s a good woman and it’s time she had some happy in her life.”

His eyes narrowed. “She’s not happy?”

Good point to hone in on.

Lee approved.

“I’m talking about the kind we’re hopin’ you can give her, not her boys givin’ her, not the Rock Chicks givin’ her, not her bossin’ around my men givin’ her. I think you get me.”

“I get you. I’m still not sure why we’re standing here having this conversation.”

“You know who she is, don’t you,” Lee stated.

Richardson drew a visible breath in through his nose before he shared, “Wasn’t sure. Kid looked a lot different when I had him at Gilliam. It’s been a while and he grew up and good since he was thirteen. And we don’t allow street names. But after she told me she was a foster parent and when she gave me her name, yeah, I knew who she was and I knew who her boy was.”

Lee studied him closely. “Okay, so you know who she is, do you know who she was?”

Richardson didn’t break eye contact. “If you mean do I know she’s Leon Jackson’s widow and that her and Darius Tucker took over the kingdom when the king was dead, yeah, I know that too.”

“And you still gave her your number.”

“She’s out of the game and so is her nephew. They’re both on board with you. So yeah. I gave her my number and straight up, it’s been a bummer she hasn’t used it.”

Lee said nothing to that.

Richardson tipped his head to the side, beginning to look impatient.

“Is this a setup for a setup or is this a test, you feelin’ me out?” he asked.

“Both,” Lee answered.

That got him a look that said the man was getting pissed.

“I’m way too old for this kinda shit,” Richardson told him.

Yeah, he was getting pissed.

“And I’m way too fuckin’ protective to let anyone near Shirleen that might hurt her in any way, and I’m just one of many who would not be pleased she even got bruised, much less broken,” Lee shot back.

“Part of the bein’ too old shit is being any part of a setup that blindsides some woman who doesn’t really wanna have dinner with me,” Richardson returned.

“She doesn’t want to have dinner with you because she thinks when you learn about her history, you won’t want her.”

Richardson shut his mouth so fast, his chin dipping sharply back into his neck, it was clear he hadn’t thought of that.

“She didn’t lose your number, man, to the point she clipped it to Christmas in her planner,” Lee shared, with this in the cards, not having a problem invading Shirleen’s space to see where she was at with Moses Richardson.

Christmas.

He didn’t have to be a private investigator to know what that said about where she was at.

“Shit,” Richardson whispered.

He knew where she was at too.

“Yeah,” Lee agreed. “Now she’s not gonna call you, but she wants to call you. And I want her to have what she wants. I want her to find her piece of happiness. Those boys are gonna graduate next month and they’re gonna start to get on with their lives, and they will never lose her. You need to understand that. They will not ever lose her. But they’re the kind of boys that will get on with their lives and how they’ll do that, big parts of her life she’ll be alone, and my guess from all this, she’s hung up on her past so she won’t ever do anything about it.”

Richardson just stared at him.

“And I’ll admit,” Lee carried on, “in order not to give you a call to try it out with you, and in order not to think about the fact those boys’re gonna be moving on soon, she’s bought herself a bunch of shit to organize herself, the office, and my men. My marker is black, but my man Mace’s marker is strawberry fuckin’ sorbet, what she calls it, but it’s pink. And to say he’s not a big fan of that is an understatement. He’s not even a fan of being color coded with a marker at all. But definitely not pink. And I hit my desk last night to see ‘date night’ stickers all over it, givin’ me the not subtle hint I need to look after my woman, and my man Luke had a note in his cubby that had a sticker on it that said ‘grocery shopping’ with a list Shirleen got from his wife. Now if we don’t turn her mind to something else, I can’t even begin to guess what shit is going to go down at the office.”

“So this whole thing is self-serving,” Richardson noted, his lips twitching.

“Shit yeah,” Lee replied.

The lip twitch stopped.

“I don’t care what she was,” Richardson said quietly. “What she did, she has to make her peace with herself and God. What she is now is the only thing that interests me, and I saw her handle those boys. I know she cleaned up her life. I know it takes courage to do that. Turning your back on that kind of life isn’t easy, and it isn’t safe, and she did it. So I want to get to know her for more than the fact she’s a beautiful woman. But I don’t have crystal ball, Nightingale. I don’t know how this is going to turn out. I just know I won’t hurt her. Now if we don’t spark . . .” He let that trail off and lifted his shoulders.