Page 42 of From the Ashes
“I’ll charm her. Don’t worry.”
“I’mmoreworried now.”
Tony gave me a nudge. “Gregory? Really? That’s your middle name?”
“Yeah. See why I don’t use it?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“Well,” I said, turning back to my mother and holding my arms wide. “How are you?”
She glared at me furiously, her gaze powerful enough to bore a hole right through me. But a moment later she broke with a sigh, stepping forward and pulling me into a hug.
“You haven’t been here for over a year and you’re already causing trouble,” she muttered.
“That’s what I do.” I squeezed her tight. “Ted seems to like it.”
“Ted still thinks he’s twenty-four and invincible.”
“Maybe he is.”
She pulled back, lifting an eyebrow at me. “If you had to listen to his knees crackle and his groans when he gets up every morning, you wouldn’t think that.”
I laughed along with her. “I see you already met Tony,” I added, pointing at my agent and friend. “Hopefully he didn’t charm you into doing something you didn’t want to do. You gotta be careful with him. One moment he’s paying you a compliment and the next he’s got your wallet and he’s buying everyone drinks on your dime.”
“I only did that once,” Tony scoffed. “And it wasyouridea.”
“I was drunk.”
“I fail to see how that’s my problem.”
“I can see why you two get along,” my mother interrupted, laughing at the pair of us. “You’re both sassy and stubborn.” She turned to Tony. “You wouldn’tbelievewhat it was like trying to keep this child out of jail as a kid. I swear.”
Tony gave her a wink. “I want to hear all about that while we’re here.” Then he jabbed a finger in my chest. “But first, where the hell have you been? You said you were gonna meet me here! I nearly scared your poor mother half to death when we drove up in this monstrosity.” He gestured to the bus. “She had no idea who I was!”
“I told her my agent was coming with me.”
“Yes, you did,” she said. “But you failed to inform me you’d be arriving separately.”
“Well, I wanted to ride my bike, and it was such a nice day… I guess I took a bit of a detour through the mountains.” I glanced over at Tony. “And it was nice to have some time to myself for a change. We’ve been stuck in that bus for days.”
“We’ve literally stopped at a nice hotel every single night so far.”
“Eh. I needed to stretch my legs.”
Tony rolled his eyes, wrapped his arm around my mother’s shoulders, and led her back toward the house. “Your son is a royal pain in my ass, Mrs. McKean.”
“Then you and I have a lot in common.”
I just shook my head as the pair of them disappeared into the house. They were going to be quite the pair, I could tell already. Nobody loved to complain about me more than Tony. But my mother was a close second. And Tony, from the looks of it, was actually willing to listen. Usually, Ted and I would tune her out or sneak away so we could just exist in peace. But for all her complaining, it didn’t bother me. She had a right. I knew I wasn’t the easiest kid to grow up with and she’d had her hands full for quite a long time. However, now that I was successful and fairly well off, I could hopefully make it up to her. I figured buying them a house on the east coast was a good way to start. Not that I’d told them about it yet. I planned to soon though.
I stood at the end of the driveway, waiting for Ted to return with my motorcycle. I wasn’t worried about it really, but I didn’t mind getting a little more time to myself. For the next three days I definitely wasn’t gonna get any peace, so I might as well enjoy it while I could.
Even though it was only late March, the sky was perfectly clear and the sun was hot. And I was standing on pavement wearing leather from head to toe, sweating more than seemed humanly possible. Thankfully I had street clothes on under my leather riding suit. So, without a care in the world, I kicked off my boots and began to unzip the suit. It took a minute to work my arms out, the sweat already sticking me to every surface where the leather made contact with bare skin. Eventually I worked it down to my waist and stopped for a moment, throwing my arms wide to catch the cool breeze.
Heat rolled off me in waves and now that the leather was gone, I could feel the sweat pooling and dripping down my back. Reaching up, I ran my fingers through my auburn hair, shaking myself out like I was one of Charlie’s Angels in a slow-motion shot. Then, hooking my thumbs into my suit, I yanked it down to the ground and stepped out of it. Of course, it wasn’t until I stood back up that I realized my shorts were nearly down around my knees, my underwear bulge flopped out on full display for everyone to see.
I quickly pulled them back up as my face flushed with heat. Glancing around, I wanted to make sure no one had seen me. There were no cars on the road and most of the houses looked quiet. It was the middle of a weekday, so most everyone was at work, anyway. However, there was one house that caught my attention.