Page 75 of A Little Luck
She must’ve been afraid to find out she was pregnant at twenty. Alone with no job and a crazy mom, I understand why she needed stability, someone to trust. I’m pretty sure I spent the entire nine months of her pregnancy high. Shit, I want to kick my own ass right about now. No wonder it took her five years to give me a second chance.
Watching her working hard, doing what she does best—surviving, making a life for her son, doing the impossible, publishing a newspapertoday?
I don’t just want to be the guy who has always loved her. I want to be the man who lifts her up when she’s tired of being strong. I want to be the rock holding her steady in the storm.
The door behind me opens, and Jemima straightens, blue eyes blinking wide as her red-velvet smile. “Hey there, welcome to theGazette.”
“Hey…” A hesitant male voice answers behind me, and I know who it is.
Turning, I frown, reaching out to shake his hand. “Hey, Raif, what’s up?”
Piper stops what she’s doing and walks over as well. The Jones brothers don’t just show up in town without a reason, and they definitely don’t go to places like the newspaper office or the courthouse or, God forbid, church.
“Did something happen?” Piper’s voice is all business.
“Ah, no.” He exhales a laugh, looking down at his beat-up tan work boots.
He’s wearing a white tee and jeans, but he’s pulled a plaid shirt over the top, covering the tattoos on his arms. His long hair is brushed, and he seems to have made an effort to look nice.
“Obviously, he has breaking news.” Jemima has a grin on her face.
“The breaking news is me.” Raif winks up at her, and I never noticed he had a dimple in his cheek.
“It certainly is.” Jemima is not shy. “Has anyone ever told you you look like a young James Dean?”
“Young James Dean is the only one we had,” Piper mutters under her breath, moving her starstruck assistant to the side. “Have you done something, Raif? Need to report anything?”
“Not yet, but I’m planning on starting a business, and I want to let people know about it.” He straightens, smacking the counter. “Want to do a story?”
“Is this about the wild hogs?” Jemima’s getting excited. “I’ll interview you. I think it sounds like a great idea. All those rich people in Kiawah and Hilton Head are all about their free-range meats. Let’s give it to them.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Piper looks from him to her to me. I lift my eyebrows, and she nods. “Okay, see what you can do with it. If it’s any good, I’ll put it in the Sunday edition.”
Jemima grabs her phone, walking around the counter to take his arm. “Right this way—we can talk in the conference room.”
He goes with her to the smaller office beside Piper’s. He looks at her in a way I recognize all too well. His lips curl into a smile, and he looks at her like he’s seeing his future.
“How do you feel about the name Outlaw Pork?” she asks, closing the door.
“I like your red lipstick,” is the last thing we hear him say.
Piper turns to me. “I’ve created a monster.”
“I think she arrived that way. She’s kind of a natural at news, though.”
“If you call gossip news.” Piper shoves a pen behind her ear and looks up at me. “We’re scheduling all the stories for Sunday today, and Stew said he’d do the print run on Saturday so we can get the wedding photos in the Sunday edition.”
“Smart having the wedding on a Friday.”
“It was my idea—before I knew I’d be planning the whole thing as well as covering it for the paper.”
“I think no matter what you do, my brother is going to be too infatuated with his bride to worry about it.”
I would be if it were Piper.
“Cass will be the same way,” she exhales heavily. “I’m probably putting too much pressure on myself to make it perfect.”