Releasing my hold on my girl, my eyes cut across the room to see DJ with his head down, eyes half-mast, lurching toward a stool. He sank his ass down, bent forward, and laid his cheek on the countertop. “Yeah, please.”
Ro cocked an eyebrow. “As you can see, my son’s quite the morning person. I’m surprised we didn’t hear his dulcet tones earlier as he sang a jaunty tune out of his bedroom window, while the local wildlife gathered around and joined in with the dawn chorus. I hear he loves the chicks, especially, though not the feathered variety.”
“Mom!” DJ grumbled, his head still on the countertop. “Stop being a goof.”
Rosie stuck her tongue out at him.
“What’s for breakfast?” he asked.
“You want eggs and bacon?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he sighed happily, his tired gaze lifting to mine. “Was gonna come down to the gym later and work out.”
“After your chores,” Rosie interjected,
DJ’s head hit the counter again, and he muttered, “Right.”
She turned toward the stove, reached down, and pulled open the pan drawer. “You gonna talk to your dad today, Son?”
“Nope.”
“You can’t ignore him forever,” she insisted gently.
“Yeah, I can,” he bit back. “He’s a rat bastard.”
She twisted her neck to face her son. “Stop saying bastard.”
DJ stayed silent.
“You making coffee or what?” Rosie asked me.
I passed her the one that was ready and loaded another pod. After I made DJ’s java and then my own, I walked around the counter and took the seat next to the kid, cup in hand.
“What are your plans today?” I asked her.
She went to the fridge and took the eggs and bacon out before closing the door with her hip and walking back to the stove with them. “I have to get some work moving again. A girl’s gotta hustle.”
“Like I told you yesterday, I could use some help with my accounts. I’m not the most organized guy when it comes to office work, and numbers turn my brain to mush.”
“I can do that,” she agreed. “I may get some cards printed up and pass them around the businesses in town. If I could get my own gig going, I could work it around the kids and school. It would be much easier.”
“Might be worth having a word with the club, too,” I suggested. “Bowie’s always complaining that Arrow’s more interested in the tech side of things than the accounts. Their payroll’s always late, and last month, they found a shit load of invoices that hadn’t been sent out for building work they’d completed months before. They could probably use some help.”
“Atlas mentioned it,” she murmured. “But I thought he was making it up because he felt bad for me and wanted to throw me a bone.”
“Definitely not, baby. Between all their businesses, they’ve probably got enough work to keep you busy for a few days a week. My gym will take up some time, too. It needs a complete reorganization, seeing as my current system is nonexistent. I get an invoice and I pay it, but nothing's filed properly. I’d be fucked if the IRS came to check my shit.”
“What accounts software do you use?” she asked, placing bacon on the griddle to cook.
I grimaced. “It’s a system called stuff it in a drawer and pray.”
“Right,” she grumbled, cracking an egg into the pan. “So that’s my first job. Migrate everything over to Xero. Once it’s on there, you’ll find it easier to keep on top of everything, and you won’t need to worry so much about paperwork. I’ll contact your clients and ask them to email copy invoices and receipts so everything’s there in case you ever get audited.”
“I have a computer set up in my office and a filing cabinet, but that’s about all there is. I tried to load a program once, but Iforgot the password, and it locked me out. Never bothered after that.”
She blinked at me with her spatula in hand as the bacon sizzled in the pan. “Wow. I admire your commitment to carnage. It’s very you.”
“Thanks,” I murmured, sipping my coffee with a small smile. “It’s a gift.”
