“Dad just got back to work. He needs to take it easy.”
Tobias shook his head. “That man is perfectly fine, and you have to get over the idea he had a heart attack. You need to take care of you.”
“And if you don’t,” said Rory. “We’ll take care of you.”
Jacine’s phone rang, and she tried to get up to reach for it on the nightstand, but Jersey snatched it first.
“Jacine Alexander’s phone. No. She’s not available.”
"Who is it?" she said. Jacine reached frantically for the phone, and wisely Dys turned away. "Yes. Call Mr. Alexander's office. He's covering Miss Alexander's schedule today. Yes, Franklin Alexander. The man who owns Alexander and Wells. I'm glad that will work for you."
“Hey!” protested Jacine. “If you won’t tell me who that is, at least don’t be rude to them.”
“Bash Hunt,” said Jersey.
Jacine had regaled us with stories of what a massive ass the effable Bash Hunt, and I say that tongue-in-cheek, was.
“Hell,” muttered Jersey. “The man thinks of rehab as a spa.”
“Oh. Then you can be rude to him. Just not so rude.”
“That gives me an idea,” muttered Jersey, “but I’ll keep the shades of rudeness in mind while I answer the phone.”
"You will not," Jacine. She tried to rise from the bed, and Rory tackled her. "Oh, no, you don't," he said. Rory pinned her to the bed. "You won't go anywhere until you take a nice nap."
“Get off me,” sputtered Jacine.
“Don’t Rory,” said Jersey. “I’m not done yet. Don’t let her up or she’ll just run off to work.”
“I said, get off me,” she growled.
How I loved her growl. It made my cock twitch, but that’s not job one right now.
“That’s not what you said last night,” said Rory with a smirk.
Jersey clicked off his phone with a satisfied smile on his smug face.
“And then,” said Jersey, “you’ll go to the day spa I just booked and get the full treatment. It should take up the day while we get ready.”
“Full treatment? Get ready? What are you planning Jersey Dys?” Surprise lit on her adorable face. It was as if the woman never considered that she deserved the “full treatment,” whatever that was, though Jersey knew because he booked the entire day for it. Jeezus, what do they do to a woman for an entire day?
“Yep, and then we’ll take you out to dinner,” said Jersey with his best rock star smile.
Sometimes I still want to smack the smug expression off of Dys' face, but I have to admit that he has the best ideas—sometimes. We've holed up in this house for the past three months, and that was not like me. Hell, it wasn't like us. And fuck, it suddenly hit me, and I don't know why until now, that there was an "us." For the first time since we became an "us," we would go out in public as whatever we were.
What were we again?
“Wait? Dinner?” The note of panic in Jacine’s voice was unmistakable.
"Where Dys?" said Tobias. He spoke as calmly as if inquiring about the weather. You have to admire the lawyer's calm demeanor. One got the sense that if California slid into the sea, he'd hand out life jackets and call a yacht. But the fear in the Jacine's eyes told me that she saw disaster.
“Let’s go to that celebrity chef place with the steaks.”
“Excellent idea,” I said. “With all her running around, she must be iron deficient.”
“I am not iron deficient,” protested Jacine.
"You've been back in LA for nearly six months, and you still look like a snowman," I said.
