He leaned in and kissed her, his eyes twinkling. “You’re adorable.”
“Hm.” He laughed, and she had to join him. “Yeah, well, you’re gone on me, so it’s easy for you to think so.” She paused. “Do you think my dad was working his way towards asking you, or me, for money?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but maybe. What will you do if he asks?”
She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t owe them help. Especially financial.”
“Would you be upset if I decided to anyway?”
“No.”
“That easy? We don’t even know how much they’re in for.”
“That easy. Once we have all the facts, I might offer an opinion on whether I think it’s smart or not, but whatever you decide, I’ll back you. Doesn’t matter if it’s a logical or emotional decision.”
“You’re freaking awesome.” She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.
“You’re tired.”
She sighed. “Yeah. I was a bit stressed about the meeting, and stress tires me out.”
“I can probably find a way to de-stress you,” he murmured.
She laughed. “I’m not stressed anymore, just tired. It’s an aftereffect.”
“Let’s put on a silly movie and you can fall asleep on top of me on the couch. Then I can wake you early in the morning and sex you up all kinds of ways without feeling guilty about depriving you of your sleep.”
“All kinds of ways?” she asked.
“All kinds.”
“Deal.”
Chapter Fourteen
“It’s over,” Cindy told Jonas on the phone several days later.
“What?” He put down his hammer and walked away from the shed he and Thomas were building.
“The Sheriff’s Department raided the truck stop. Olivia’s okay, she called me. And she said Jen told her that Brenda’s getting charged, too. Though she didn’t have specifics.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. Myra didn’t answer her phone, shockingly enough.”
“Was Olivia heading home?” he asked. “I can go over there, see if she needs something.”
“She was going to, but I suggested she grab Tasha and we meet up at the pack house. See if anyone else wants to meet up. It helps that it’s Friday. We can have a, what do you call it, like an after-action report or whatever. And then we can gossip. We can get pizzas. I texted Myra to see if she’s good with that, I’ll let you know as soon as she answers.”
“A debriefing, I think. And that sounds good to me.”
She laughed. “Remembering that word would have made the text to Myra easier.”
He went back to the shed and updated Thomas, who called Bill out of the trailer to give him the news as well. It wasn’t long before he had a text confirming the pack house debriefing was on. Cindy said she and Olivia were handling contacting everyone and organizing food, so he was able to go back to the construction efforts. By the time they were ready to clean up and head to the house, the shed was complete. Bill came back out to offer his compliments. Thomas said it was Bill’s job to paint it, and they started a discussion about the color.
Laughing as he told them goodbye, Jonas went home to shower.
