Rock Chick Revenge (Rock Chick #5)(162)
“Okay.”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Luke!” I snapped.
“Promise me.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Last time you called me, beautiful, Smithie was up a tree.”
Shit!
I hated it when he was right. And he was right all the f**king time (except for with Kurt Reid, but that wasn’t his fault).
I gave in. “All right, I won’t do anything stupid.”
“Christ, you’re cute.” The smile was back in his voice.
“Am I cute or a pain in the ass?” I asked, the bitch in my voice.
“Both and you can be a bitch too and for some f**kin’ insane reason, I like it all.”
What did you say to that?
I didn’t have a chance to say anything, he disconnected.
I took a shower and when I got out, my phone was ringing again. I padded to it, wrapped in one of the hotel’s robes. It said “unknown number’ but I flipped it open anyway.
“Yo.”
“We goin’ to the mall or what?”
It was Olivia. How she got my number I didn’t know but it was a moot point now.
“We’re going to the mall. I have to have breakfast with my Mom and sisters first.”
“I could do breakfast,” she invited herself which I was realizing was kind of her way.
Olivia would definitely make breakfast with my sisters a better experience. Hell, Genghis Khan would make breakfast with my sisters a better experience.
“Meet us at Hotel Monaco as soon as you can get here,” I told her.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she replied.
“Gotcha.”
She disconnected but I had another call coming in before I got the phone flipped shut so I took it.
“Yo.”
“Where are you?”
It was Riley and I remembered I was supposed to meet him at the gym that morning. “Shit, Riley. I’m sorry. I forgot. My life’s a total –”
He cut me off. “That guy still in the picture?”
I sighed.
Then I said quietly, “That guy’s name is Luke and yeah, he’s still in the picture. He’s probably gonna be in the picture for a while.”
Silence then, “Ava, I’m guessing that you guessed where I’m at with this. Can’t say I’m thrilled that this Luke character shows up and your life becomes a disaster.”
“Luke didn’t do it, he’s fixing it.”
“Fixing, not fixed, means he’s taking his f**king time.”
“Riley, that isn’t fair. You don’t know what’s going on. It’s not good and he’s barely getting any sleep, he’s working so hard to fix it.”
More silence then, “You sure about this guy, Ava?”
I went back to speaking quietly. “Yeah, Riley. I’m sure.” Then for some bizarre reason I shared, “I’m in love with him.”
It was his turn to sigh. “You comin’ into the gym today?”
I closed my eyes because what he said meant we were going to be okay and that was a relief.
I opened my eyes again “I have to go to breakfast with my family. Do you want to come?”
Now why did I ask that? He was hot. He wasn’t just the personal trainer at the gym, he part owned it. Marilyn and Sofia would be all over him
Luke told me not to do anything stupid, and there I was, doing stupid shit. I couldn’t even control it.
“Since you’re not here, got nothin’ on. I’ll be there,” Riley responded.
Crap.
Crapity, crap, crap, crap.
“Um… I should warn you my sisters are kind of, how do I put it?” I used Luke’s words. “Man eaters.”
“You’ll protect me,” he teased and I drew in breath. The old Riley was back.
I told him where to meet us and flipped the phone shut just as a knock came at the door.
I looked out the peephole and saw my mother standing there so I opened the door and she shoved in. She was alone. I glanced out in the hall but no Marilyn and Sofia so I shut the door behind her.
“This hotel is something else!” she cried, looking around. “Luke must be doing well. Really, really well. A Porsche and putting you up here?”
She wasn’t wrong. Hotel Monaco was super-fly.
“Where are Marilyn and Sofia?” I asked.
She turned and stared at me, ignoring my question due to the fact that something just dawned on her. “Why are you here? Doesn’t Luke have a house where you can stay?”
“He’s having some work done on his loft,” I semi-fibbed. “He was staying with me until you guys came.”
“Loft?”
“Yeah, in LoDo.”
“Luke has a LoDo loft?” she breathed, eyes faraway happy.
Okay so yes, it was true, a LoDo loft was quite something but really, enough was enough.
“Mother. Hello? Where are Marilyn and Sofia?”
She blinked and came back into the room. “They’re downstairs having coffee,” she dumped a bag on the chair and continued. “There’s your clothes. Take your time, we’ll enjoy coffee and let you get ready. Just meet us downstairs when you’re done.”