“Right.” The Pipefitter’s shoulders slump. “That’s why we were at the club. To make trouble for you.”
“It’s nothing personal, but we gotta protect what’s ours,” I explain. “I’ll let you go this time, but show up around the club again and we’re not going to let it slide.”
“Yeah, I hear you.” The leader scuttles off.
“I’ll take the money back to Clark,” Niki offers. “You gonna meet up with Josie?”
I nod. “Maybe she can put something together.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
JOSIE
“Uno.” Dad lays down a green three on top of my yellow three, changing the game’s color over. His face is unreadable. He always brings his poker face to our Uno games. I rub the two cards in my hands, trying to stare him down, but it’s pointless. His face is giving me nothing.
“Uno,” I say right back, laying a wild card down on top of his green three.
“What’s it going to be, kiddo?”
The best bet would be yellow, but I need red on the board for my last card. Dad cocks his head, giving me a smirk, waiting for me to call out my color.
“Red,” I finally say, Dad’s smirk turning to a smile. “Oh, man.”
“Got you.” He draws a card.
“Ahh!” He did have me. Now I wait to see if he has a card to play. He gives a shake of his head, and I slam down my red Draw Two. Dad drops his cards down onto the table, and I jump up and do a victory dance around the kitchen, making himchuckle. I love these times with my dad. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
“All right, after three losses, I’m calling it.” He leans back in his chair. “You’ve gotten too good at this game.”
“Sorry, Dad. I don’t give out pity wins.” He shakes his head at me but is smiling. I drop back down in my chair, slightly out of breath from all the dancing.
“Where did you say your boyfriend went?” That’s the second time he’s asked me that.
“Got things to take care of. Work.”
“Work?” Shit, this is why he asked twice because I did end up giving it to him this second time. I was trying to be evasive when he asked earlier. I should have known he wasn’t going to settle for the answer I gave him.
“Yeah, work. I should probably get a job.”
“You don’t need a job. You go to school, and you’ve sold a few articles.” He actually sounds defensive for me.
You’d have thought I’d won a giant award the first time I sold an article with how my dad went around talking about it to anyone and everyone. He printed it out and put it in his truck so he has it on hand. I feel sorry for all the truckers out there who had to read about the lack of access to menstruation products in high schools due to funding cuts.
“Just an idea.” Really, I was trying to distract him from asking me any more questions about Bam. Especially when it came to his job. It doesn’t work.
“What does he do?”
“Works in a laundromat. Doing deliveries or something.” I shrug. Technically Bam does do business out of one.
Dad stares at me, and I start stacking up the cards so I’m busying my hands and not fidgeting under his stare. He’s good at reading people, and he knows me too well.
The cops are easy to lie to. My dad, not so much. It wasn’t a full-on lie, but I’d do the same if I were protecting something about my dad. I’d lie straight to anyone’s face for him and not blink an eye or have a lick of guilt over it. You do that for the people you love.
“You two have gotten serious fast.” I nod, thinking I know where this conversation is going. “I know I’m your father, but I’m also both parents for you. So I have to?—”
“Dad, I’m taking my birth control. I’m being safe.” I feel my face heating, but Dad gives me a soft smile. He brought up the whole birth control thing when I was sixteen at one of my checkups. Dad has always been good about those things with me. He never scooted around it or made it awkward, making it clear it’s all a part of life. I’m sure it was uncomfortable for him, but that man would do anything to protect me on all levels.
When I got my first period, he already had a whole stock of feminine items under the bathroom sink. I’ll never forget the morning when it happened. I went and told him, and he gave me a thumbs-up and told me, “Good job,” like I’d actually done something.
