“I sincerely hope not,” he said back.
“Dotty, you’re just so good at making friends wherever you go,” Monroe told her, smiling.
“Let me go,” Dotty told them. “I’m good now.” They let go of her and she turned, staring at everybody. “Right, does someone want to tell me who the gangster boys are? And why my sister has a bruised face and a bandage on her hand?”
Addie groaned while Monroe studied them all. Gangster boys?
“I resent that,” Ralen told her.
Uh-oh.
“We’re not boys, we’re men,” he added.
“These are my friends. They helped me,” Addie managed to get out. “They didn’t hurt me.”
“Addie,” Monroe said. “You’re talking while in public?”
Well, yeah, but she was surrounded by some of her favorite people, her sisters, along with the man who made her feel safe and his friend who made her smile.
Oh, and then there was Butch.
“Let’s get out of here,” Cash said. “And then we can explain everything.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Dotty said as she strode ahead of them toward the front door.
Suddenly, Butch and Ralen pulled in front of them all. Ralen opened the door and Butch stepped outside first.
“Why did you just do that?” Dotty asked suspiciously as she stared at Ralen.
He half-bowed and put his arm out. “After you, milady.”
“Right. You’re acting weird. Is he normally this weird?” Dotty demanded of Addie.
Addie just shrugged. She had no idea. She’d only just met him after all.
“How is she meant to know?” Monroe asked Dotty. “She can’t know him that well, unless he’s like a pen pal or a Tinder date.He’s not a Tinder date, is he, Addie? Because if you’re going to do online dating, you need to tell Dotty and me. We have to approve people, and Dotty will want to do a background check. So he’s not a Tinder date, right?”
Addie just gaped at Monroe. What the heck was she saying?
“What the hell did you just say?” Dotty asked her incredulously. “Of course he’s not a Tinder date. Addie doesn’t date. Addie can’t talk to people other than you and me, and sometimes the FedEx delivery man.”
Fred was a really nice man.
Plus, he owned this Pekingese dog called Coco, and she was adorable. Fred often showed her videos of Coco. She had ridiculously short legs in all this fur.
Too cute.
“She doesn’t usually talk to anyone but the two of you?” Cash said, sounding amazed.
“No. So why is she talking to you people?” Dotty asked.
Addie had to roll her eyes. She sounded so suspicious. Did she think that they were threatening her to get her to talk?
“I don’t know, maybe because she trusts us,” Cash said.
Dotty snorted as though that was ludicrous.
But it wasn’t, because Addie did think she trusted them. Well, Cash and Ralen. Butch could take a flying leap off a cliff.
