Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(132)

“Got a job. It’ll take a few hours.”

“Are you coming back to my place when you’re done?”

I found I was worried about his answer.

“Yeah.”

I found I was relieved at his answer.

“Okay,” I smiled at him.

His gaze dropped to my mouth, taking in my smile. Then he looked in my eyes again and his were serious.

“Princess, we’re gonna have to do something about your inability to share.”

“I’m working on it,” I promised.

He watched me a bit and then said, “Somethin’ else.”

Uh-oh.

He still had the serious look in his eye.

“Yeah?” I asked, but I didn’t want to know.

“I’m wonderin’ why you bought Mace, Ike and Luke cookies when I’m the one who brought in Clarence and Jermaine yesterday.”

I didn’t know what to make of this question. The answer seemed obvious to me but I gave it to him anyway.

“You get na**d gratitude,” I told him.

He stared at me a beat and again I knew I threw him.

Then he gave me one of his shit-eating grins.

“A lot of it,” I went on.

The grin turned into a smile.

“Vance!” a female voice called from behind me.

Vance’s eyes cut to the voice, his smile vanished and I looked over my shoulder.

Coming toward us was a fantastic-looking, curvy, leggy, long-wavy-haired brunette. She had on a short skirt, high-heeled boots and a tight sweater that was giving some serious cle**age.

She was also smiling at Vance in a way that I did not like.

“Hey,” she breathed when she got to our table and I realized instantly that this had been one of the many girls who had come before me.

Poof! There it was. My head crackin’ mamma jamma came out.

“Jackie,” Vance replied. He was across the table from me but I could see his face and it was blank.

I hated his blank look when he directed it at me. I liked his blank look when he was giving it to leggy brunettes in short skirts that he’d f**ked somewhere down the line.

Jackie’s eyes moved to me, looked me up and down where I sat on my stool then she dismissed me and her eyes went back to Vance. She turned so her back was slightly to me.

Um.

No.

“What’re you up to these days? Haven’t seen you in ages,” Jackie asked Vance in a way that communicated she thought his answer might just be the key to the meaning of life.

“Jackie, this is Jules,” Vance said, I thought making a point and I could have kissed him.

She swung her head (as well as her hair) around and glanced at me again. “Jules,” she muttered, then she swung her head (and hair) back. “So, how’re things?” Jackie went on, missing the point.

Vance opened his mouth to speak but I’d kind of had enough.

“Things are good,” I put in and Jackie’s head (and hair) swung back to me. Her eyes had narrowed.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“Things are good,” I repeated, giving her a huge, happy smile. Then my eyes moved to Vance. “Aren’t they, honey?”

Now that, I hoped, was a point Jackie wouldn’t miss.

The corners of Vance’s lips turned up.

Jackie didn’t wait for Vance to answer, to me she said, “I’m so pleased for you.”

She did not mean this.

Translation: Shut the f**k up, I’m not talking to you, I’m flirting with your boyfriend.

She swung back to Vance and leaned in a bit (the better to show her cle**age), smiled, and said in a voice I was meant to hear but she was pretending I wasn’t, “We’ll talk some other time. Give me a call.”

Vance again opened his mouth to speak but again I got there first.

“What did you just say?” I asked.

Vance’s eyes moved to me. “Jules,” his tone held a warning but he looked like he was about ready to laugh.

I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to Vance, my eyes were on Jackie.

Jackie leaned back and put up her hands. “Nothing to get excited about,” she said.

I came off my stool. “Are you saying that you coming onto my f**king boyfriend right in front of me is nothing to get excited about?” I demanded and my voice was a wee bit loud, so much of a wee bit people started to stare.

Jackie looked from me to Vance then back to me. “If he’s your man, then, girlfriend, you got nothing to worry about from me.”

She did not mean this either.

Translation: If he’s your man, you better keep him happy, you don’t, I’ll pounce.

It was at that moment, I really wished I had my gun.

Then she went on, not, I noted, very good at reading body language as in my body language said I was about to kick her ass.

“We’re just friends. Good friends. Hey, Vance?”

I looked at Vance. He was still sitting on his stool and it was evident that he had decided not to intervene. I also noted that his lips were twitching.

“She must have been one of those easy things you were talking about,” I said to Vance.

He pressed his lips together and shook his head slowly. This was not a negative headshake that said Jackie wasn’t one of his easy things. It was a negative headshake that said he thought I was the f**king craziest woman he’d ever met.