Wild Wind: A Chaos Novella (Chaos #6.6)(18)

“Yeah,” she muttered.

“You gotta get back to work?”

She nodded.

He needed to let her get to it.

“I’m not leaving here without your number,” he stated.

“Phone trade.”

He dug his out, engaged it, handed it to her, and took hers.

He entered his info, then took his phone back.

He called her immediately and her phone rang.

She smirked at him. “So you’re a tester.”

“Never did before.”

“Right.” She was unconvinced.

“Only had one girl put in the wrong digits. Her loss,” Jagger shared.

“Right.” Still unconvinced.

“But you’re different and you know it, so quit fishing.”

She stopped smirking, held his gaze, and whispered, “Right.”

She knew what he was saying.

“I’m glad you could quit being a big baby and give us a shot,” he teased.

“Jagger?”

“Right here,” he noted.

“Be good or I’m not going to make our first date special by laying a really hot kiss on you when it’s over,” she warned.

Immediately, Jag held up three fingers.

Her gaze slid to his hand then to him.

“You ever a scout?” she asked.

“Hell no,” he answered, lowering his hand.

She did another head tip that wasn’t cute, it was just sexy, and drawled, “See, baby, I knew it. I like you more the more I get to know you.”

“You got a problem with scouts?”

“Not at all. But I’m not a joiner. And I always had the feeling you weren’t one either. And it’s good to know I was right.”

“I always had a feeling we had a lot in common, and not just what we know we got in common,” he replied.

“Is dinner gonna be caj?” she asked.

Annnnnnnd she could be a dork, calling “casual,” “caj.”

“Georgie knows how to turn herself out, but it’s at their place and neither of them are up themselves, so you do you and they’ll be cool.”

“Your ex, is she gonna be gunning for your attention?”

He shrugged but said, “Probably.”

“Hmm…”

Through all this, she had a semi-flirty look on her face.

And then suddenly, she didn’t have a flirty look on her face.

“Notwithstanding you cursing at and threatening children, I’m really glad you showed at my shop, Jagger.”

And with the expression on her face, the tone of her voice, he knew she really meant that.

“I am too, honey,” he replied.

And he really meant it too.





Chapter Four



The Sopranos



Jagger



Jag could have called it.

That “it” being that he got two competing responses to his text to Dutch and Georgie that he was bringing someone to dinner.

Georgie: Awesome! Can’t wait to meet her!

Dutch: no text. He phoned.

Jagger considered letting it go to voicemail but decided if there was going to be any awkward with Dutch about Archie, he wanted it out before Archie was in the mix.

So he picked up.

“Yo,” he greeted.

“C’mon, man, you cannot be that petty.”

Oh shit.

Dutch was not a big brother who was constantly riding your ass.

But that didn’t mean Dutch hadn’t ridden Jagger’s ass.

Even rare, Jagger fucking hated it.

“Wanna say that again?” Jag invited.

“Listen, Carolyn isn’t my favorite person either, but she’s trying and we both know it isn’t cool you bring some rando chick in order to—”

Okay, there we go.

That was precisely why he hated it when Dutch started riding his ass.

Because he usually did it when he didn’t know what he was talking about.

“She’s not rando,” Jag bit out.

“So you’re seeing some woman who you’ve never mentioned to anyone and she’s important enough to bring to a family dinner?”

“I met her the day her mother was put into the ground. It was a day I was visiting Dad’s grave. And that day was my sixteenth birthday.”

That shut Dutch up.

Jag kept talking.

“I haven’t said anything because we haven’t pulled our shit together. Now, we’re pulling our shit together. She wanted to have dinner tonight. I told her I had plans, told her about Carolyn and she wanted to be there. So she’s gonna be there.”

There was stuff he left out and Dutch didn’t miss it.

“You’ve been seeing someone for over ten years and I’ve never heard of her?”

“It’s a long story,” Jagger replied. “But bottom line for you is, this isn’t about Carolyn. You want this not to be weird for Georgie. And you want what Georgie wants. Family sitting down together and breaking bread and you want it to go well for her. Now, the bottom line for me is, you and Georgie are going the distance and I’m eventually gonna end up with someone and Carolyn is gonna see that and she’s gonna have to move on with her own life. If she’s not ready to do that, then I should not have been invited to this dinner.”