The Hookup (Moonlight and Motor Oil #1)(40)

“Oh dear,” I murmured.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “She’s good people but good people with a big damned mouth.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled not wanting to be the talk of the town linked with Johnny when Shandra came back (if she wasn’t already).

“I’m thinking we need another conversation about where shit’s at with us,” he declared.

Oh my.

“Johnny, it’s the man you are to be protective but don’t let what happened with Kent color where we—”

“Kent is whatever the fuck Kent is. That dress is why we need another conversation.”

It really should be noted that I liked how much he liked my dress.

Even noted, I shouldn’t and furthermore, couldn’t.

I needed to tell him where I was with this.

“I’m not sure I can do just sex,” I whispered.

“Right,” he muttered.

I kept whispering. “I could do just friends.”

“Right,” he repeated.

“So maybe you can unpin me from the wall and we can go have dinner with Margot and Dave,” I suggested.

His hand that was resting on my hip slid up and I thought it would slide up but it only got to my waist before he squeezed in, let me go and moved away.

I guessed he was going to make a stab at being friends.

That devastated me.

It shouldn’t.

That didn’t change the fact that it did.

But he caught my hand and held it as he led me back to the table, and I found it odd as just friends that Johnny held my hand and when we were lovers, he hadn’t.

He stood solicitous to the side as he let me scoot in and he followed me immediately, but Margot wasn’t wasting a second.

“Do you have the situation with this unsavory ex-boyfriend of Izzy’s in hand, Johnathon?”

“It’s in hand, Margot. Izzy has it sorted and we have an arrangement if something comes up. So you can chill,” Johnny replied.

Her irate eyes turned to me. “I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve shared with Johnathon and his brother Tobias that I have not, do not, and never will chill. If a woman is upset they should listen and assure her and do whatever they can to sort the situation that’s troubling her. Not simply tell her to chill.”

“I do kind of have it sorted, Margot,” I shared.

“Kind of is not sorted, Eliza,” she retorted in a tone that made me fight back laughter, because she sounded like she’d known me all my life, not maybe twenty minutes, and she had the right to boss me around.

“Well, Kent’s proved to be a guy who does what he’s going to do but now I’m calling Johnny should he do more of it, so I think I’ll be all right, don’t you?” I assured her, not adding the cops and Charlie because I got the impression she thought Johnny could handle just about anything and that would help her to chill.

“Well then,” she huffed, reaching to her martini glass that was nearly frosted the liquid was so chilled and had three big fat olives in it, making me wish I wasn’t driving so I could have a martini. In that moment I sure the heck needed one. “I see it’s actually sorted so fine.”

“Is that vodka or gin?” I asked, reaching for my wine.

“Vodka,” she answered.

“If you like flavored vodkas, I make them and they’re really yummy. If you want to try them, I’ll bottle some and get them to you.”

She took a sip with her eyes on me the entire time I talked, and when I was done she slid my phone across the table to me with one hand, the other hand swinging her martini to the side like I would imagine a sultry bombshell from the sixties would do the same thing.

Except cooler.

“Then it’s good I already programmed myself into your phone. I also called myself so I have your number. So there’ll be no delay in you phoning me to invite me over for a vodka tasting.”

I hadn’t invited her for a vodka tasting but I didn’t share that because I loved the idea of doing that. Deanna would too. And she’d think Margot was a hoot.

“I’ll set that up right away,” I said.

“Excellent,” she answered, lifting her glass to me.

I lifted mine to her and we both took a sip.

“That right there, Johnny boy, you witnessed it. Your girl here accidentally just participated in the ritual that enters her right into the coven,” Dave declared.

Johnny chuckled.

Margot sliced narrowed eyes to her husband. “I wish you’d stop referring to my circle as ‘the coven,’” she stated.

He bent his face to hers with a smile on his. “The voodoo that you do, sweetheart, I’ve been addicted to for forty-eight years. That wasn’t an insult. But I’ve been a man bewitched for nearly five decades. Johnny here hasn’t even lived that long, so it was a warning. And you and me both know that when that voodoo you do spreads to your acolytes, he needs that.”

Johnny draped his arm across the booth again.

I felt a tingle again.

I also sighed.

Margot’s face softened as she looked into her husband’s eyes.

The waiter arrived at our table with the mushrooms.

Margot looked to him. “Well, finally.”

I giggled.

Johnny’s hand curled around the back of my neck again.