The Hookup (Moonlight and Motor Oil #1)(64)

I felt my eyes get big.

Johnny took them in smiling and talking. “Right. I’ll call you back.” Pause then, “No, I haven’t shopped yet, so if Izzy says it’s okay I’ll buy enough for you and Dave.” Another pause then, “Margot, Christ, I love you. I’d take a bullet for you. I’d give you my kidney. But no, don’t make your cherry pie right now because I don’t know if you’re comin’ over here for them to eat it.” He listened for a second then said softly, “Ich liebe dich auch, mein liebling.”

After that, he hung up.

I was feeling residual warmth and a newfound adoration of the German language when I asked, “Do you speak German full stop?”

“Enough I could go to Germany and get myself around.”

That was impressive.

I let that go and continued with my questions.

“Do you know what kind of hell we’d both be in if Margot and Addie got together?”

He let my hand go, both of his came to my hips, they turned me, pulled me to him and only when I was resting against him with my hands on his chest did he answer.

“We can hack it.”

“Johnny, your house is one room. I don’t know if I can be in the same room with Margot as the room I did what I did to you this morning.” I paused and added, “And the other times I’ve been here.”

“Margot loves Dave more than he loves her, and I know that sounds impossible but trust me, she does. They had three kids. I think she knows what men and women do together when they like each other.”

“Especially now that you told her I was in your T-shirt and nothing else.”

He grinned. “Sometimes shock therapy is the way to go with Margot.”

Why did I not find that surprising?

“Johnny—”

He pulled me closer. “Izzy, baby, we can’t chose the way our lives go and shit got sorted when your sister is here and Margot is horning in because she’s worried about me. Where I was at when Shandra left was not lost on her. Where I was at with you sitting beside me at dinner was not lost on her either. She thought from the story, like everyone thought when they heard the story, that I’d blanked you to go after Shandra. She wants to make sure I’m okay but it’s more, she wants to make sure you’re okay. And you can say no and I’ll tell Dave who might be the only one who could stop her from coming here anyway. But I don’t know why I’d do that since your sister loves you, Margot loves me, she likes you a lot, she’ll feel the same way about Addie and she’ll adore Brooks. So it’s gonna be a big Memorial Day cookout. And it’s probably gonna be fuckin’ fantastic.”

“If Addie offends Margot so much she tries to make you break up with me, you have to promise right here and now to stand strong.”

He pulled me even closer. “I can promise that.”

My gaze drifted to his shoulder and I muttered, “I’ll tell Addie to behave herself.”

“Will she do that?”

I looked again at him. “Absolutely not.”

He burst out laughing, doing it clutching me to him.

Yes, when Johnny wasn’t holding back, he was very affectionate.

I fit myself to him and wrapped my arms around.

When he quit laughing, he asked softly, “So can I call her back and say she can make her cherry pie?”

“I was going to make my chocolate silk pie,” I told him.

“We’ll have both,” he decreed.

Perfect.

I smiled.

“Best call her and then get you home to your sister.”

I nodded.

Johnny kissed me.

After he finished doing that, he called Margot. We got dressed.

And he took me home to my sister.

I made French silk pie, got dolled up, loaded up my dogs and my family.

And we went back.





Look at Her

Johnny

RANGER PERKED UP as Johnny was slipping the meat into the marinade.

He watched his dog run to the door so he turned to the sink, rinsed his hands, dried them and moved that way.

The minute he opened the door, Ranger sprang out and rushed down the steps.

Johnny went a lot more slowly and not because he didn’t want to get to the burgundy Murano parked thirty feet from the foot of his stairs (she hadn’t lied, it was now covered in dust) but because going slow gave him the opportunity to enjoy the show.

As usual, Izzy didn’t disappoint.

He watched as she got out of her car.

That day, she was wearing a cream dress with big lilac flowers on it that had long, loose sleeves, a short flowy skirt, which hit her at mid-thigh, and a low vee dip that offered up a hint of her tits.

With it, she was wearing a pair of simple, flat, fawn suede sandals that had a wide strap across her toes but notched up the sex-kitten factor with the tasseled strings that snaked up her calves.

Another dress he wanted the skirt of it up to her waist.

But that was after he took her out somewhere. For a burger. For drinks at Home. To Margot and Dave’s. Somewhere for dinner with his friend Ben and his wife Cait.

Sit by her side in that dress. Walk by her side while she was wearing that dress. Have her on his arm whatever way he could while she was in that dress.

When he was sitting across from Dave in The Star, he’d finally got it. He’d finally got why, all Johnny’s life, it seemed whenever Dave was with Margot, he stood straighter, walked prouder.