Just Good Friends (Cheap Thrills Series Book 5)

by Mary B. Moore

  “And corruption,” he guessed correctly.

  “And we think corruption.”

  “Fuck,” he hissed. “So, where does that leave your dad?”

  “I haven’t spoken to him in a year, but Dave and Alex have told me that he and Mom are still alive. That’s all I know.” My stomach turned saying it, but it’s all that I was safe knowing.

  “Is he still in New York?”

  “As far as I’m aware.”

  “Jesus Christ!”

  I was so focused on watching him walk around in circles that I missed it when Clyde got up and carefully sank his teeth into the bottom of Garrett’s pants, then started tugging on them. Initially, it looked like he was playing, but then I realized he was trying to stop him from walking around. When Garrett did what he wanted, he got up on his hind legs and lay his head on his stomach with a groan.

  Looking up at him wide-eyed, I asked, “Is that his training? Like he hugs you when you’re upset?”

  Garrett looked just as shocked and confused as I was. “I’ve got no idea, but I have to say it kinda worked.”

  “Better than a baby with diarrhea?”

  Shuddering, he hugged Clyde back and scratched behind his ear. “Okay, man, we’re good. I just needed a moment to vent and let some steam off. Thanks for the hug.”

  With another groan, Clyde was back down again and walking toward me to put his head back in my lap.

  I really needed to look the breed up because I wanted to know what he was going to look like once he was fully grown, plus it might give me an idea what kind of personality they had, too.

  Growing up in New York, we’d had an apartment with no space or time for a pet. My neighbors had cats and tiny dogs, but I never really had time to learn about what breeds they were, or even dog and cat breeds in general. I wasn’t dumb, they came in all shapes and sizes, their coats were all different, and their personalities were as well.

  Still, I could only really name and identify the most common ones like chihuahuas—thank you, Taco Bell—and Labradors. Oh, and German Shepherds.

  This time when Garrett sat down, he took his usual seat beside me on the sofa. “So, where does this leave you?”

  “With the name Zuri Hadid, working as a phlebotomist at Piersville Hospital, with a cool broken arm—again,” I joked, waving my cast around.

  “Am I allowed to know your real name?” he looked hurt as he asked the question like I wasn’t going to tell him.

  “I’d love it if you did,” I told him honestly. “It’s Tamsin Elizabeth Waite, age twenty-four, and I was born on December twenty-fifth at ten o’clock in the morning, even though Mom tried to keep her knees together, so I didn’t have Christmas as a birthday.”

  A new light came into his eyes as he burst out laughing. Then, holding out a hand, he replied, “Garrett Mendez Evans, age thirty-two, born on January fifth at ten o’clock at night.”

  Because he’d automatically held out his right hand, I put my casted hand in it and awkwardly tried to shake it.

  “Do you want me to reel off my statistics, too, so you know most of my identifying details? I’d rather not give my weight, but I’m proud of my height.”

  “Go for it,” he snickered, gently stroking his thumb along the part of my palm that wasn’t under the cast.

  “I’m five feet and seven whole inches tall.”

  With his head tipped slightly back, Garrett burst out laughing, getting a round of applause from Clyde’s tail against the side of the couch, who apparently loved it when he did that as much as I did.

  When it left him, he lowered it back down again, but the humor was still making his eyes shine. “Hate to say, pretty girl, but you’re still short in comparison to my six foot four inches.”

  “Yeah, you and your brother are lucky,” I sighed. “Hey, I have a question. Was it not kind of awkward being tall when you were in the Air Force?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, you did things like patrolling on the ground, right?” When he nodded, I continued, “So, did that not make you a target? Other people could hide behind stuff, but with your height, you’d probably pop out over the top of things.”

  I was serious, but he started laughing again and pulled me into his side. “You’re a breath of fresh air, Tamsin.” Hearing him say my real name made a long sigh come out of me. I wasn’t used to it, and I’d missed it hugely. “You’re going to be okay, baby. I promise.”

  Burying my nose in his side, I hugged him with my bad arm. “I hope so. I kind of like it here.”

  Giving me a squeeze, he kissed the top of my head, leaving his face buried in it. I’d read about this in romance books, and the same thing that’d hit me each time hit me again then. I knew my hair was clean, Garrett did it for me every other night, but what if it smelled slightly? I mean, hair does start to smell, and even though I’d washed it last night, what if it’d started to smell funny already? Oh my God, what if he was sniffing stinky hair and trying to be nice?

  With that worry at the front of my brain like a siren, I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me go. “Give me this moment, baby. I imagined a lot of shitty things today, and hearing the real one…”

  I knew what he meant, but I doubted a dirty hair stench would fix it for him.

  “I know,” I patted his stomach with my cast, trying to be as gentle as possible. Then, it just blurted out of me. “If you’re going to put your face near my hair, I probably need to wash it twice a day. Does it smell? Not the shampoo, the roots. Hair smells funny if you don’t wash it every hour, doesn’t it, so I probably have that smell in there. Maybe I should shave my head?”

  Even as I suggested it, I mourned my hair. It was naturally black, long, and healthy, and I loved it.

  Lifting his head, he glared down at me. “Firstly, if you shave your head, I’ll spank your ass. And to answer your question: no, it doesn’t smell bad, it smells like the shampoo and conditioner I put on it last night. I also get hard when I get in the shower because of the smell of both of those things. It makes me think about waking up in the morning with your head on my chest and the scent of you in my nose. I almost wanked to the smell this morning, but I heard you moving around and knew I’d be loud when I came.”

  And with that, he gave me a lip touch, then got up and walked toward the hallway. “I’m making us steaks and potatoes tonight. Just let me get changed.”

  Staring at where he’d just been with his words still going around in my head, I looked down at Clyde, who looked like he was frowning at me. “What the hell do I do with that information? And how long do you think it’ll be until he starts finding the guns and knives I’ve hidden?”

  Two guns and two knives were hidden in strategic places in the house, including one under the couch cushions. I wasn’t brave enough to tell him about them today, though.

  Chapter Nine

  Garrett

  The next morning…

  My plan of wooing Zuri—no, she was Tamsin now—had changed. Learning what I had about her situation kind of changed where our relationship was at.

  I knew I needed to go slowly and ease into her circle of trust because, if I were in her shoes, I’d have a whole new level of trust that needed to be hit by people around me. I also felt like I was ten feet tall after she’d shared it all because it showed she trusted me. Yeah, sure, that was trust, but what I wanted with her meant I had to earn a different level of it. Fuck it, I knew what I meant, and I was going to do this properly.

  Unfortunately, Mom had called early this morning to say that Dad needed help with something, so my plans for the day had changed from nothing but Tamsin to bringing her to see my parents.

  And that’s why I was about to open their front door, with my hand around her wrist as I delicately tugged her along behind me.

  “Just crack a window in the car, and I’ll stick my nose out of it,” she begged again. “Think about poor Clyde, think of the child.”

  Pulling it open, I moved through
the entrance and sighed when the air conditioning hit me. It was hot as balls out—welcome to Texas, have sweaty balls for life.

  “Phil has him for the day to do some training with him, and then Alex is collecting him to spend some time with his mom.”

  Just as she was about to try a new tactic, something came running down the hallway toward us with its teeth bared. It looked like a rat on steroids.

  Jumping in front of Tamsin, I put my arms out so it wouldn’t see her behind me. “Fucking shit! Dad, call an exterminator. What the hell is it?”

  I expected a screeching noise to come out of it, but instead, it started doing this high pitched barking that freaked me out even more.

  “Is that…” Tamsin whispered from somewhere under my armpit, “a dog?”

  Lowering my arm to protect her face, I hissed out of the corner of my mouth, “Don’t make eye contact with it.”

  There was a clicking noise behind us as the door shut, and my heart sank into my balls—our way of escape was closed. Then again, if the rat jumped at us, I could block it from landing on Tamsin with my back while opening the front door at the same time. It would take some maneuvering, but we could probably get her out before it could do much damage.

  While I was thinking all of this, though, I’d been backing us up into the corner without realizing it until I couldn’t press any further back into Tamsin without smothering her.

  “Hello, darling,” Mom called as she came down the hallway toward us. “I see you’ve met our new gorgeous man, Fonzie.”

  “Gorgeous?”

  The thing, sensing I was talking about it, growled at me.

  Christ, its eyes looked like they’d had an argument and were trying to take off in opposite directions. And it’s teeth… they were like the front of a forklift.

  Squatting down beside him, Mom reached out and started stroking its prickly hair. “There, there, sweetheart. Your brother doesn’t mean it.”

  At the word ‘brother’, Tamsin started choking behind me.

  “Ma, what the fuck is it?”

  “A dog, Garrett. We adopted him the other day because he was just so handsome.”

  This time both of us choked.

  “Are you sure it’s a dog? Did you have a vet check him over?”

  Sighing, she picked him up off the ground and made weird noises at it. “Of course we did. We made sure our baby was perfectly fine. Speaking of, where’s your new baby? The pictures and videos you keep sending us are just adorable.”

  Yeah, I might’ve gotten carried away with Clyde when Tamsin wasn’t looking. Speaking of, when she heard this, she pinched me on the side hard.

  “Uh, we dropped him off with the trainer, then he’s off to see his mom at Alex’s house, and Raoul’s bringing his dad over.”

  Glaring at me, she cupped a hand over the thing's ear and held his head against her chest so that he couldn’t hear out of the other one. “Garrett Evans, once you adopt them, they’re yours. You don’t talk about their birth parents and siblings, it makes them feel like you’re establishing boundaries with your love.”

  Looking from her to the thing, I nodded slowly. “Noted. I’ve got a question, though.” When she raised an eyebrow at me, I continued, “Is it snarling at me, or is that just its face?”

  Peering around to see what he was doing, she replied, “That’s his loveable face. Don’t you just want to kiss him?”

  Fuck no.

  This time when Tamsin choked, it came with a full-body shudder that made me move slightly.

  “Speaking of loveable faces, I thought you were bringing one with you today? Where’s Zuri? I mean, I can see her legs, but I was hoping the rest of us would be able to join us as well.”

  As she said it, Mom took a step closer to us to try and peer around me, so I was pressed against Tamsin again as the beast got closer to me.

  Because of that, her voice was muffled when she called out, “I’m back here!” and raised her hand in the air.

  Mom looked from the hand to me and put her free hand on her hip. “I raised you better than to smother your guests.”

  “Jesus, Mom. I was protecting her from that,” I pointed at the furry thing. “What the shit is it doing with its eyes?”

  I swear, it was like it had the eyes of a chameleon.

  “Leave him alone. He’s a handsome little baby, and you’re being a mean big brother.” Tamsin burst out laughing this time and gripped a handful of my t-shirt on either side of my body. “You’re also being a mean host. If you want this girl to like you, you need to let her breathe.”

  Taking a reluctant step forward, I kept my focus on Fonzie as I moved to the side so that Mom could see her. I was also reminding myself that I had to introduce her as Zuri. As fantastic and trustworthy as my parents were, no one could know her real name unless they had to.

  “Mom, meet Zuri Hadid. Zuri, this is my mom, Luisa.”

  Squeezing her arm through the gap between my side and the wall, she shook Mom’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Evans. That’s a lovely… uh, dog you have there.”

  “Don’t lie,” I hissed over my shoulder. “It might attach its soul to yours.”

  Putting Fonzie down on the ground, Mom placed both of her hands on my side and pushed me away.

  “Oh my God, you’re beautiful,” Mom breathed, her hands going to her chest. “I… Are you guys…” she started flapping her hands around. Sticking one finger out, she pointed at both of us. “Don’t you dare move. Let me get your dad.”

  And with that, she was off and running down the hallway, the dog following her, grunting like a wildebeest the whole way. “Harry? Harry, you’ve got to see this.”

  Taking Tamsin’s hand, I pulled her down to where the entrance to the lounge was. At one point, the house had been all open plan, but Mom hated the concept and had insisted on walls.

  “This is beautiful,” Tamsin whispered once she saw the living room, and I had to agree.

  “I think this is what I want my home to look like,” I agreed, taking it all in again.

  Mom’s sense of taste ran more toward the country design. She detested any form of plaid and leaned heavily toward the artistically scuffed look and pitchers and milk jugs, with plain cream curtains in the windows. On one side of the room was a wood-burning fire that had an old fashioned metal protector in front of it, with all the old type shit that they had for fires about two hundred years ago.

  “Here she is. I told you,” Mom announced, holding her hand out to Tamsin like Dad had called her a liar. “Her name’s Zuri, Harry. Isn’t that amazing?”

  Tamsin blinked at them both and then looked at me for reassurance.

  “Mom, I think you might be scaring her.”

  “Oh, pish posh, Garrett. Zuri, this is my husband, Harry. He’s Garrett’s father, you know.”

  “Nice to meet you, Zuri,” Dad said, trying to relax her with a smile as he held his hand out.

  Shaking it, she smiled back, and I saw Dad lose his balance slightly when she did. “Thanks for having me, Mr. Evans.”

  I smirked when dad looked at me to make sure I wasn’t yanking his crank. Yeah, I didn’t bring girls home, and definitely not one as beautiful as her.

  “You can call me Harry,” Dad muttered, looking as flustered as Mom was now, “because that’s my name. Harry. I mean, it’s Harry Evans, but Harry’s—”

  “She gets it, Dad,” I chuckled, moving next to her and putting an arm around her to give her some support.

  “You must call me Luisa as well, Zuri. Mrs. Evans is my mother-in-law, and if I tried to take the title from her, she’d probably find a way to curse me.”

  This wasn’t a lie.

  “There are seats. People sit on them,” Dad stuttered, pointing at the couch.

  Leading her away from me to it, Mom asked, “Would you like a drink? Maybe a sandwich? I’m making lunch, but you might be hungry before that.”

  “Could we have some coffee, please, Mom? Zuri’s been struggling to maintain
her normal caffeine intake with her arm because she can’t do jack with her left hand, so it’s important that I keep her topped up when I can.”

  Like they’d both just noticed the cast, they both started fussing around her.

  As Mom went to make coffee, Dad put a cushion on her lap and lifted the broken limb to rest on top of it. “Tell us if you need to see the doctor, okay, Zuri? You can never be too careful of things like clots and infections.”

  Smiling shyly, she explained that she’d had it for a while and then told him about re-breaking it, too. Well, at least she was getting along with my parents, that’s the main thing.

  I’d just sat down beside her when the weird dog thing jumped up and made an odd noise at Tamsin as it tried to curl up on her lap.

  “Poor baby has terrible mucus and phlegm problems,” Mom murmured, nodding her head at the beast. “At night, he snores louder than your father.”

  Because his chair was angled away from hers, she didn’t notice him pointing at her and mouthing, “Hers is still loudest.”

  The emergency that’d led to us visiting turned out to be them installing a doggie door for the beast.

  I’d been on my hands and knees helping Dad do it at one point, and Fonzie had come closer to me while my head was turned, scaring the shit out of me when I’d heard something breathing harshly right next to my head. He might have been scary as fuck with a few feet distance between us, but with only a few inches, it’d been a whole new level of near pant shitting fear.

  They didn’t know what breed it was because it appeared to be a mix of quite a few, but it was probably twice the size of a Yorkshire Terrier, with wiry salt and pepper colored hair. On the top of its head was a big chunk of black hair like a mohawk with a streak of white at the front. Add that onto its weird eyes and teeth, and it was the stuff nightmares were made of. I was also fairly certain that it hated me and was planning my death while my parents weren’t looking.