The Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold

✖ Chapter 26 ✖

"Ah," papa started, his lips into a thin line. "Sorry, mijo. I'm not expecting a lot of activity for the first half of the month. But it's possible around Thanksgiving, you know."

Every time there were holidays, more people came to town and with that the population of idiot drivers always seemed to increase exponentially. It made sense that around that time we may have to pull some extra hours at both shops.

And then I had an idea.

"Papa," I said, catching both of their attention. "Didn't you say you wanted to get the baby's room ready before the holidays?"

He was slow on the uptake. He blinked at me and said, "Well yeah, but I meant Christmas..."

I shrugged like it was no biggie. "Why don't we get it done a bit early then?"

Papa snapped his fingers. "Ah, I see. That's a great plan."

My eyebrows shot all the way up. I didn't think I'd ever heard papa say something like that to anything that came out of my mouth, so I had to bask in the glory of the moment. It didn't matter that Sawyer looked sour as a lemon, I'd done a good thing for him without gaining something for myself, and somehow that landed me the small compliment of papa agreeing with me. To me that was huge. It was like, if you did something nice for others it might feel good to you. The sky was blue and the grass green. Who would've known?

As they coordinated on the details to get started this same weekend, it occurred to me that I was going to see Sawyer at home. And my room was a mess. Not that I expected him to go in my room. After all mama hated the very sight of him. So it was probably going to be a tense weekend instead, and it wouldn't matter that he'd be in the room next to mine if we could both feel mama's laser beams on us.

That settled me down to work next to papa again for a solid hour more without my eyes or my mind drifting away. By the time we had balanced the books, it was approaching time to close shop and head on home. I left the office to get some water at the fountain, looking from the corner of my eye to see if a lot of the guys had already left, and then I bumped into the back of the one that mattered the most to me.

"Sorry," I said, at the same time as Sawyer turned around and gave me an amused glance. My attention drifted to the package that he was holding in his hand and whom he was with. "Oh, hey Manny," I said.

He tipped his chin. "What's up, chica?"

I grabbed a paper cup and filled it up with water. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I also didn't want to run away from the scene as if I had something to hide.

Sawyer gave Manny the package and said, "Keep it safe for me, okay?"

"What's that?" I blurted out. So much for being discrete.

"It's a wad of cash, it's what," Manny said as he patted the package lovingly.

Sawyer smacked him up the head. "Shut up, moron. Do you wanna get robbed or something?"

"Nah, it's cool, bro," Manny said with a chuckle. "I promise you I'll go straight to the bank tomorrow morning and put this away safe and sound."

"You fucking better," Sawyer growled.

I cleared my throat. "So um, what's the money from?"

They both stared at me like I'd asked them if they'd seen flying pigs in a purple sky on the way to work.

"We robbed a bank together," Manny said in a deadpan. "This is my cut."

"Yeah, but that was after we sold all the crack we cooked together at Manny's house," Sawyer said. When it was clear I wasn't laughing he rolled his eyes.