This meant he was smiling when he got a chin jerk from Dogas he headed back into the garage.
Approval.
He already knew that.
He got a shit-eating grin from Shy.
Again, approval.
And again, he knew that.
He joined Joker at the car they were now working on.
Joker said nothing.
“So?”Jagger pushed.
Joke looked to him.“You already know she’s the shit, youdon’t need me to confirm it.”
Jag tilted his head to stretch his neck and felt somethingpop.
Joke heard it.
“Your mom’s gonna dig her, man,” Joker went on.
He focused on his friend.
“I got—” He cut himself off.
“You got what?”Joker prompted when Jagger didn’t say more.
Jag coughed when he didn’t need to and said, “Nothin’.Shewants to test drive the Bronco.Tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Joker said, bending back over the engine, noddingdistractedly, head back in the engine.“She’s the shit.”
They got about an hour’s worth of work done before Jaggergot a string of texts.
The first from his mom.
The last one was not, and that was the one that spurred himto action.
The ones from his mom started with,So, you’re blowingyour mother off but your girl has lunch with your brothers?
He suspected it was Dog’s big mouth that caused that.Nodoubt Dog told Sheila, and then Sheila got right on with his mom.
Even if he meant to reply, which he didn’t, not until hefigured out what to say, she shot off another text before he could.
Tack’s been in touch.
Shit.
Tack told her Jag had reached out, then canceled.
His mother wasn’t stupid.They were close.Even not beingaround him, she’d sense something was up.
The next was,I get when it’s new and you want it all toyourself.
Okay, that was a good excuse, and maybe actually part of whyhe was hoarding time with Archie.
