Now, here we fucking are. Sitting across the room from Iris with her shapely thighs and her juicy boobs, tarted up in that curve-worshipping tight dress. I can’t get over how good she looks and every few seconds, I find myself stealing a peek.
Cannon growls. “Could you stop eye-fucking your roommate for long enough to tell me why the hell you dragged me here? It’s after eight. I’m supposed to be having naked-time with my wife.” He’s bitter as hell.
I shake myself out of my stupor and face my brother. “We need to find a way to help Mom and Dad,” I declare.
He drops an elbow on the table. “What are you talking about?”
“I talked to Mom the other day,” I tell him. “She’s kind of in over her head with Callie. I think she and Dad could use some help.”
“Like a nanny?”
“Yeah, I guess a nanny. I hadn’t really considered that.”
Cannon nods slowly. “That makes sense.” He squints and gets this far-away look on his face. “Y’know what? I’ll talk to Lexi. Her sister, Jessa, might be interested. She said she needs some extra money while she’s looking for teaching work.”
Sounds like a good idea to me. “Jessa’s cool.” I sneak another furtive peek at Iris.
She’s still sexy. I’m still salty.
“Yeah, Jessa’s cool.” My brother laughs a little, drawing my attention back his way. “Bubbly as hell, but cool.” Slowly, his amusement fades. “Gosh, that poor kid.” He grabs a roll from the bread basket and pinches off a chunk. “If only Eli hadn’t fucked his whole life up, huh?” He pops the bread into his mouth.
I chuff. “Tell me about it…And Gabby? What a bitch, abandoning her kid like that.” I scratch my forehead, a little nervous about what I’m about to say. “But…but don’t you think we should be doing more for Eli? I mean. We’re his brothers. I just feel…” I mess around with the silverware near my plate.
My second oldest brother’s incarceration is a touchy issue in our family. Eli’s smart. Too goddamn smart. No one had a clue what he was up to until federal agents were slapping handcuffs on his wrists. His imprisonment has been hard on the family. It took us all by surprise. He always seemed like an upstanding guy, a family man. We were all wrong about him. Ma’s still having a hard time accepting it. Walker is coping via his anger. The rest of us fall somewhere on the spectrum of emotions in between.
Cannon’s chest expands on a great, big sigh. “My…” He hesitates, looking nervous, too. “My lawyer has been working on building a case to get him released from jail.”
Both of my eyebrows bounce up to my hairline. “You’ve been trying to get him out of jail?”
He nods slowly. “Every time it looks like Frank is getting somewhere with the case, his law firm hits a dead end. I don’t know…we might just need to wait this out, wait until he serves out his sentence.”
I drop my head. Fuck. Eli was convicted of committing some pretty elaborate corporate crimes and I know that he’s guilty and it’s only fair that he do his time, but he’s my family and I can’t help but wish things were different, if only for Callie’s sake.
“Mom and dad have been visiting him in secret,” I spill.
Cannon’s eyes narrow. “What?”
I bob my head in confirmation. “Yeah. That monthly date of theirs?” He nods warily. “It’s a front. That’s when they go off to see him.”
He blows out a breath. “This is all too fucked up.”
That’s when the screeching sound of chair legs grating the floor rises above the ambient music. My attention moves back to Iris.
And I know I shouldn’t stare but…
My roommate’s date is now standing in the middle of this fancy French restaurant, trying to force-feed her a granola bar.
What the…?
Iris takes a step back. She politely declines the man’s offer with a tight smile and a little hand wave. She glances around, evidently conscious of her growing audience.
The waiter tries to intervene, quietly whispering a reprimand to Iris’s date. But the man gives the server the brush-off and takes an insistent step closer to Iris. He grabs a brochure out of his briefcase and brandishes it in her face.
“Is he trying to sell her something?” I mutter. This is very confusing.
Cannon’s attention moves in that direction. Half the patrons in the restaurant are staring over that way.
Iris takes another step back and bumps into the chair behind her. At the panicked expression on her features, I feel something protective rising up in me but I don’t want to jump in the middle of this and make an even bigger scene. I grip the edge of my chair and lay back, watching to see how this plays out.
Now, the restaurant manager is at their table. “Sir, ma’am—this is a restaurant. If you want to dine here, you have to order off our menu. We don’t allow patrons to eat outside meals on our premises.”
All that should be self-evident. Le Sous-Sol is the most exclusive restaurant in town. Iris’s date is obviously an idiot.
“It’s just a bit of a sampler,” the guy says dismissively. “Not a threat to your over-priced ‘escargot’ and ‘foie gras’.” He puts the French words in air-quotes then shoves the brochure at Iris again.
“Sir, you’ll have to leave.” The manager is bloating up with restrained rage. Won’t be long before he blows his lid.
Again, Iris glances around embarrassedly. When our eyes hit, I’m done holding myself back.
Without even a glimpse in Cannon’s direction, I’m stomping across the restaurant like a goddamned Avenger. I tower above the peanut butter peddler when I step between him and Iris. “Hey man, are you gonna just leave or are you gonna make this into a problem?”
By this point, the whole restaurant has tuned into the drama.
He
