“I see you didn’t waste time finding a new job.”
She finished chewing and shook her head. “I don’t work here. I’m just helping Luke out.” She opened the wrapper of the other taco and nodded at me. “You really did waste your time coming here.”
I unfolded my arms and dropped them to my sides. “I didn’t.”
She took a huge bite of the taco and looked me up and down as she chewed. “Yes, you did.”
I spotted Kurt walking toward us, and I knew I had about fifteen seconds to get my point across to Frankie. “You may think you have the upper hand here, Frankie, and for the time being, you do, but for the record, you don’t know me.” I slid my sunglasses back over my eyes. “You have no idea what lengths I’m willing to go to.”
Kurt made it back over to us and grabbed my bag from the ground. “She done being bitchy to you?”
Frankie sputtered and glared at Kurt.
“I don’t even think she’s done with me yet.”
Kurt slapped me on the shoulder and hitched his thumb toward his car. “Then we better make a run for it before she winds up for another round.”
I took two steps toward his car and turned back to Frankie. “I’ll see you later, Frankie.”
She glared at me. “Not if you can’t find me.”
I threw a wink at her, and though I knew it was impossible, I swear I saw smoke come out of her ears. She hated me. As much as I knew this was going to be hard, I had to admit, I was kind of excited to see just what Frankie had in store for me. “I’ll find you, Frankie. You can’t expect something from someone you don’t know. Clue in, doll. I always win.”
*
Chapter Four
Frankie
“I’m making shepherd’s pie for dinner. It’s a new recipe I found.”
I set the last work order on the counter and looked at Violet. “I’m not really hungry.”
“Kurt called and let me know you stole his tacos today, but that was five hours ago. I know you are hungry. You have Jensen blood running through your veins. I know Luke needs to be fed every four hours or he becomes a raging maniac.”
She was right about Luke.
Possibly right about me being the same way. Remy had chucked a Snickers at me once when I was pissy. Not that I would admit it to him, but it helped after I ate it.
I was hungry. But I wasn’t sure that I was hungry enough to sit down to an experiment of a recipe Violet had just found. “We could order pizza. My treat.” I wasn’t getting paid right now, but I had a hefty savings so forking over sixty dollars for pizza wasn’t a problem.
Violet folded her arms over her chest and glared at me. “We are not doing pizza. Luke likes when I cook, so I’m cooking.”
Pretty sure that was a lie. Last week, Luke told me about the time Violet made beef stroganoff, and it looked like puke in the pot and tasted even worse than it looked. Shepherd’s pie, while in theory, wasn’t that complicated of a dish, it still had possibilities for Violet to turn it down the puke-in-a-pot lane.
“Can I help you?”
While I wasn’t Martha Stewart in the kitchen cooking every day, I did cook for Luke, Mitch, and Kurt before they duped Violet, Scarlett, and Leelee into marrying them.
A huge smile spread across Violet’s face, and she clapped her hands together. “Oh, my God, yes! I would totally love that! Ash has no desire to be in the kitchen with me, and Rose is way too young to do anything more than bang on pots.”
“Let me just lock up, change quick, and I’ll meet you in the kitchen.” I glanced over my shoulder to look out the window and sighed. So far, Brooks hadn’t been back. I figured for sure Kurt would drop his ass off after he took him to the bank, but that didn’t seem to be the case. I twisted the lock to the front door, pulled down the shade to cover the window, and jogged up the steps.
Now I was wondering what the hell Kurt was doing with him. My brothers gave me a hard time, but I knew they always had my back. The fact Kurt was more than likely spending his afternoon with the one guy I hated wasn’t sitting well with me.
“You finish the Cutlass and the Impala?” Luke was sprawled out on the couch watching TV. He was fully taking advantage of me being home by making me do all of the work.
“Done. Neither had anything majorly wrong with them. I locked up the shop, and Violet is downstairs emptying the till.”
I made my way down the hallway to my room but stopped when Luke called my name. “Yeah?” I hollered.
“I talked to Kurt this afternoon.”
Fuckity fucking fucksticks. Of course Kurt wasn’t going to keep his mouth shut about Brooks. “Oh yeah? What did he have to say?”
“That he took a twenty out of the till for the tacos you stole from him, and that he just so happens to have Brooks Cummings staying at the house with him and Leelee.”
“What?” I screeched. Kurt was just supposed to be taking the guy to the bank, not moving him into his own house.
“I’d like to think that you are surprised about Brooks being here, but I’m more than certain that you knew he was here but didn’t know that he was staying with Kurt.”
I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. “I know he’s here. I told him to leave. I meant by going back to Kentucky, not to Kurt’s house.” Though he did technically do what I had asked him to do.
“Doesn’t he have a race this weekend?”
My eyes snapped open, and I grinned. “He sure does!” It was Wednesday, and I knew Brooks was going to have to be at the track by Friday morning. I only had to possibly put up with him for one more day if he showed his face again.
“You going back with him?”
“Hell to the no!” I pushed open my bedroom door and slammed it behind me. I pulled my t-shirt over my head and dropped it on the floor next to the bed.
Brooks was going to only be here for one more day. I pumped my fist in the air and hopped from one foot to the other. I was happy as hell.
I grabbed a clean, white tank top from the laundry basket at the foot of my bed, tossed it on the bed, and shimmied off my jeans. I needed to hurry up and get out to the kitchen before Violet started cooking without me. After I yanked the shirt over my head and grabbed a pair of cutoff jean shorts from the basket, I tugged them on and skipped down the hallway with happy thoughts of Brooks leaving.
Violet’s voice carried down to me, and I skidded to a halt when Kurt spoke and a familiar voice with a low timber followed. “Shit,” I hissed. How could I have been so stupid to think that he wouldn’t show up after I had closed the shop.
“I heard that.”
I whirled around and looked down at Ash. I pressed a finger to my lips and shook my head.
He held out his hand and smirked. “Five bucks,” he demanded softly.
The thought of paying my nephew five bucks to quiet him was too appealing to pass up. If I could just make it back to my bedroom without anyone knowing I was five steps away from the kitchen, then I would be off scot free. I patted my back pocket and growled. “I’ll get you in the morning. Just let me get back to my room.”
He moved to the right when I tried to step around him and blocked my way. “I wasn’t born yesterday. I need to see the money before I agree to a deal.”
Christ, Luke was raising a little hustler. If he ever got into street racing like his dad, he would make a hell of a money guy. “I’m your aunt,” I insisted.
He quirked his eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “This isn’t about family. It’s about money.”
He was such a little shithead. “I can’t exactly pull five bucks out of my ass, Ash. Follow me to my room, and I’ll get it for you.”
“Well, well. What do we have here?”
Son of a donkey. I was caught. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Kurt standing at the mouth of the hallway. “I was just headed to the bathroom.”
“No, she wasn’t,” Ash shouted. “She was trying to bribe me to cover for her. I feel a little violated.”
Oh, fo
r God's sake. Did he really just say he felt violated? I was the one who should feel violated. He was trying to weasel five bucks out of me just to walk down the hallway. I stuck my finger in his face and hissed, “You get nothing from me. I was the cool aunt, but not anymore.”
He rolled his eyes and pushed past me toward Kurt. I turned around and propped my hands on my hips.
“Leelee is the fun one. She feeds me ice cream, donuts, and soda all of the time. All you’ve done since you’ve been home is watch tv and work on cars. Give her heck, Uncle Kurt.” He bumped fists with Kurt and strutted into the living room.
I wasn’t afraid of Kurt. It was the man whose voice I had heard but whose handsome face I hadn’t seen yet who was making me uneasy. He was the one I didn’t want to see. I wasn’t afraid, but I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to talk to him.
“You can’t hide forever, Frankie,” Kurt chided.
I could, but it wouldn’t help me much. I had a feeling Brooks wasn’t going to give up until I actually gave him the boot and told him to shove it where the sun don’t shine. I slowly made my way down the rest of the hallway and slugged Kurt in the stomach before he saw it coming. He always underestimated me when it came to hitting him. While he probably was my favorite brother since he was closer to my age, he still drove me insane. Bringing Brooks to dinner was his latest stunt to piss me off.
“Oh, Frankie! Look who came to dinner! I think we might have to make something else to eat, though. I don’t have enough ingredients for shepherd’s pie.” Violet stood at the kitchen island flipping through a pile of recipes she had printed off the internet.
Luke stood behind her mouthing for me to do something.
I didn’t want to help him since I’m sure he had something do with the fact that Brooks was here, but I was also starving and didn’t want to have to choke down whatever Violet was thinking of making. “Oh, well, then let me make something. You know I don’t have access to a kitchen on the road so cooking for everyone will be fun.”
Violet looked up from the stack, and her face fell. “Are you sure? I really don’t mind making dinner.”
I walked over to the pantry and pulled open the door. “You can help if you want. Though it’s probably not going to be anything fancy.” I scanned the shelves and tried to think of what I could make that would feed nine people.
Yes, I had seen Brooks sitting on the other side of Violet, but I had ignored him. In the two point five seconds I had looked, he seemed refreshed and not so haggard like he was before. His bright blue polo shirt was stretched across chest, and his hands had been folded in front of him. His eyes had been trained on me but I hadn’t given him the time of day.
I grabbed two boxes of spaghetti and turned around to toss them on the counter. “We can do spaghetti and meatballs. Do we have any French bread?” I asked Violet.
“There should be a loaf in the freezer.”
“Vi, that’s not French bread. It’s just a loaf of white bread,” Luke snickered.
Violet stood up and walked over to the freezer. “Well, bread is bread. How am I supposed to know it’s French, English, or German?” She grabbed the loaf of bread and chucked it at Luke.
Luke snatched it mid-air and laughed. “You’re rather feisty tonight.”
I grabbed the loaf of bread from him and set it next to the noodles. “This will work, Violet. I can make pieces of garlic toast with this.” It was best to try to keep her happy before she started chucking more food around.
Thankfully making spaghetti and giving Violet things to do gave me the excuse I needed to ignore Brooks. Luke herded Kurt and Brooks into the living room to watch some show while Violet and I cooked.
“Is Leelee coming over?” I looked over my shoulder and watched Violet sawing some onions to put into the sauce.
“Uh, Kurt said she was working late on some car she needed done by tomorrow. She might be by later if it’s not too late.” She stuck her tongue out and carefully sliced the last piece of onion. It was a miracle she was able to put food on the table for Luke, Ash, and Rose. “Want me to toss this in?”
I lifted the lid to the sauce, and she carried the onion over to the pot. I stirred in the onion and set the timer on the stove for half an hour. While the sauce cooked, we needed to roll meatballs and get the bread ready.
The sauce bubbled away on the stove, and we worked side by side chatting about nothing while I kept one ear trained on the living room listening to the guys. For the most part, Luke and Kurt were doing most of the talking with occasional input from Brooks.
The timer on the stove went off, and I pulled the pan of bread from the oven. I had dropped the meatballs into the sauce fifteen minutes ago, and we were just minutes away from eating.
“Holy hell. It smells amazing in here so either you guys ordered in, or Frankie is cooking.” Leelee stepped through the front door and kicked off her work boots.
Violet slammed a pile of forks down on the counter. “Really Lee? That is how you are going to play me? How about we talk about when you and Kurt are going to make me an aunt?”
“Nevah!” Kurt shouted from the couch.
Leelee rolled her eyes and strutted into the kitchen. “As soon as Kurt grows up, I’ll be all about that life. For the time being, you need to realize you already are an aunt. Scarlett and Mitch have two kids.” Leelee sat down at the island and propped her head up on her hands. “And don’t act like you are some Martha Stewart. I chipped a tooth on those fucking cookies you sent home with Kurt last month.”
“She did,” Kurt confirmed.
Violet threw her hands up in the air. “I cannot be blamed for your chipped tooth. That could have happened at any time that you were eating.”
“Pictures or it didn’t happen,” Luke called. He may give Violet shit about her cooking, but he always had her back at the end of the day.
“Who in the hell takes pictures of their chipped teeth?” Leelee wondered.
“Dinner done?” Kurt asked.
I stirred the pot of sauce one more time and turned off the burner. “Just need to drain the noodles, and we are good to go.” I dumped the huge pot of noodles into the colander and drizzled a little olive oil over them.
Ash came streaking into the kitchen and grabbed a plate from the stack Violet had set out. “I call dibs on the non-French bread.”
Violet rolled her eyes and sat down next to Leelee. “So I don’t know the names of every freakin’ bread on the planet. Who cares?”
Leelee leaned back and looked at her. “Say what? Girl, carbs are life. How can you not know the different types of bread?” Leelee ran her hand down her body. “This body was made by bread, honey—French, sourdough, pumpernickel, rye, whole wheat, ciabatta, focaccia. You name it, it has touched these lips and worked its way onto these thighs.”
“You talking about bread again?” Kurt walked over to Leelee and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Couldn’t even come and say hi to me.”
“Hello, Mr. Jensen,” she purred. “You can’t really blame me for following the smell of delicious food, can you?”
Kurt wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. “You’ll make it up to me later,” he mumbled.
“Ew,” Luke muttered. “Keep that shit over at your place. Lee’s Speed Shop might be into that mushy feely shit, but I can tell you that doesn’t happen at SRK.”
“It’s a good thing you have that baby in your arms, otherwise I would totally smack you in the balls right now,” Violet threatened.
Luke had Rose on his hip and a shit-eating grin on his face. “And you wonder why I always have her with me,” he said to Kurt. “She protects me from Violet dick-smacking me.”
“Are you trying to convince me that the reason I should have a kid is because I can use it as a shield?” He stroked his chin and looked Luke up and down. “As wrong as that sounds, I have to say, that is a pretty good pro to having a kid.” He turned to Leelee, and she silenced him with one long glare.
&
nbsp; Luke clapped him on the shoulder. “If you ever wanna borrow Rose, she is all yours.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about you loaning our daughter out to be a dick-smacker blocker.”
“Ma! Dad! Can we eat and not talk about dick-smacking?” Ash shouted. Everyone stopped talking and looked at Ash who was standing in the middle of the kitchen holding an empty plate. “I’m a growing boy who needs to eat.”
Brooks pushed his way past Luke and Kurt and grabbed a plate. “I’m with the kid.” He nodded to Ash. “Meet me at the noodles, kid. I’ll take care of you.”
“Finally,” Ash muttered.
“Did we just get silenced by our ten-year-old?” Luke asked, amazed.
I moved from in front of the stove out of Brooks way and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. “Yes, that is exactly what just happened.” I popped the top off of my bottle and took a long swig. I stood back and watched Brooks help Ash, and then everyone else fell into line to fill their plates with food.
By the time I had my plate full, the only spot left to sit at the large dining room table was next to Brooks. I instantly regretted my decision to stand by and wait ‘til the end to fill my plate.
“Oh, come on, Frank. You know he doesn’t bite,” Kurt chided.
“I hate you,” I hissed at him as I sat down. I could always go eat in the living room, but I didn’t want it to seem like Brooks could send me running.
“Thank you for making dinner,” Brooks whispered.
I will not look at him. I will not look at him. “We all gotta eat, right?” I reached for the platter of bread Violet had set on the table and grabbed two pieces.
“So, how long are you going to be in town?” Leelee asked Brooks.
“I leave early Friday morning. I need to be to the track before noon.”
Perfect. I just needed to hide out tomorrow and then Brooks would be gone.
“You ready for Allentown?” Luke asked.
Of course, Luke knew where the next race was. All three of my brothers followed the circuit even before I started working on the cars. They were the reason I got so into cars. I just wish they wouldn’t be so nice to Brooks.
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