Hustle Him (Bank Shot Romance #2)(24)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Logan pointed to the filled bucket.

She looked from him to me and smiled. “You know what this means?”

The little kid was as confused as me. “No?”

“It means that you and the sheriff have a lot more fish to catch. Maybe this is something that you can do again.”

She kept smiling when she winked at me. This wasn’t part of her favor, but after spending the majority of the day with Logan, I’d realized that I had relaxed and enjoyed myself. “Maybe so.”

“We have to get these fish in the house, so that we can have ice-cream,” he explained.

“I don’t know if we have any ice cream,” She admitted.

He got a sad look on his face. I sat down the heavy load of fish. “Looks like we are going to have to go into town then.”

“Let me change my shirt. Be right back!” he yelled as he ran into the house.

“You did a real good thing today, Ramsey.” I could tell that she was up to something.

Just like her pushing me toward Vessa, I figured it out almost immediately. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. I just wanted the kid to not be damaged because he’s got a daddy that doesn’t give a damn.”

“So, it had nothing to do with trying to get me to open up?” She was a clever woman, with apparent tricks up her sleeve.

“Why? Is that what’s happening?” She was acting all dumb about it.

I shook my head, knowing that I was caught in another one of her plans. “For someone that doesn’t pry, you sure seem to be involved in my actions, more than ever.”

“I know a broken man when I see one. It doesn’t take a genius to know that you’ve been through something. I’d never ask what it was. I’m not that type of woman. You need to know that all broken men can be fixed.”

“You can’t fix me, Sue. Nobody can fix me.” Not when I wished that I had died in that car with my family. I was dead to society and didn’t want to be apart of it anymore.

“You keep telling yourself that. Mark my word, Ramsey. Things are about to change for you. You’ll see.”

I shook my head, getting exactly what she was saying. “You need to stop trying to push us together. It’s never going to happen with your niece, Sue.”

“I saw you dropped her off last night. Looks like you’ve been spending time together, if you asked me. Everyone needs friends, you know. The best ones come into your life when you aren’t looking for them.”

I was tired of hearing it from her, but my parents brought me up to respect my elders, so I kept my mouth shut. It was a good thing, because Logan came running outside in clean clothes. “I’m ready. Can we turn on the siren?”

Sue had already picked back up on hanging her clothes. “I’ll bring him back in a little while.”

“Take your time. I’m sure Vessa would love for you to stay for dinner.”

She had to give her two cents again. I walked close to her so that the kid couldn’t hear me. “I drove Vessa home because she’d been drinking, and as a police officer, I couldn’t allow her to do that. Nothing is going to happen between the two of us. I can be cordial to your niece, but nothing has changed. I don’t need friends like you think. I manage just fine!”

Without hearing what she said back to me, I walked away from her and headed to the truck, where Logan waited patiently. Spending the day fishing with the kid was one thing, but being set up with someone that I was determined to avoid was not.

Chapter 12

Vessa

The day shift was busy. It kept me from thinking about my intimate moments with Ramsey the night before. Since alcohol was involved, I couldn’t be too sure how he was going to react to it all. My luck, he’d stay away and not talk to me for months.

By the time my shift was over, all I wanted to do was lay around with the kids and relax. My hangover was kicking my ass. You can imagine what it was like when my aunt pulled up to switch places with me and one of my kids wasn’t in the car. “Where’s Logan?”

I could tell she was up to something. My aunt and my mother shared several qualities. This was one of them. “He’s with the sheriff.”

I put my hands on my hips and looked over at her. “What are you talking about? Why is he with him? What happened?”

“Just go home and have a nice night, Vessa. Logan is fine, in fact, I assure you he is better than fine.”

I didn’t ask her what she did. I just wanted to get home and see my son. Being on my own for the first time made me nervous. If something bad happened, I was scared that Gavin could take custody of them, whether he wanted them or not. He would do it to spite me.

Asha didn’t say much. She was in the backseat with her headphones on her ears. Not that she would have cared where her brother was, anyway. She looked forward to him being away from her.

When we pulled up at the house, I didn’t see Ramsey’s truck. It made me nervous. I rushed into the kitchen and found his number on the refrigerator. It rang four times and went to voicemail. I tried two more times, before hearing a truck pulling into the driveway.

The frustration of not knowing had already taken over, and by the time that Ramsey stepped out of his truck, I was already at it, screaming. “How could you just take my kid without my permission?”

“It wasn’t a big deal, Vessa. Your aunt knew all about it.”

I don’t care about my aunt. When it comes to my kids, you ask me, not her!”

He looked over at the passenger side of the truck; I could see that Logan was still buckled in the seat. “Look, the kid had a good day. Can’t you just be happy without blowing this whole thing out of proportion? I was doing you a damn favor.”

“I didn’t ask for a favor! My God, you’ve probably been drinking.” My hands were still on my hips.

“I knew this was a bad idea.” He shook his head and walked away from me.

I could see him getting Logan unhooked. Sure enough, my little guy came running from around the other side of the truck. “Mommy! Mommy, the sheriff took me fishing. We caught lots of big ones. Then he took me to get ice cream, just like dad was going to. Can the sheriff eat dinner with us?”

At the same time, Ramsey and me both yelled, “No!”

My son’s bottom lip came out. “But why not?”

I leaned down to look at him. “Go get all that ice cream washed off of your face. I’ll be inside in a minute.”