Hustle Me (Bank Shot Romance #1)(22)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I picked at my sandwich and contemplated saying something smart, but decided that I was only making my life worse. "I don’t know. I guess it has to do with my past. I mean, I lost my parents when I was ten. I was put into the foster system and never really had a permanent home. The places that I lived were terrible and I guess I just put up a wall. When I started college, it was hard for me to interact. For the first time in my life, I felt free of all of it. Then, one day, everything changed. I get this letter from a lawyer, saying that a father that I didn’t even know I had, left me a tavern and a kid to raise."

He sat his sandwich down. "Damn, Charlie, that’s some crazy shit. You didn’t know? Like your mother never told you who your real father was?"

I shook my head and kept it down, looking at my food. I couldn’t look him in the eye, because thinking that my mother had betrayed me was still hurting me.

"So, what made you decide to take it all on? Why not just sell it and have someone else take the kid?"

They were all valid questions and for some reason, I wanted to tell him. Talking to someone like this was what a normal person would do. They would communicate. "Well, first, I had to take the on responsibility of my brother because I would never want another child to go through what I did, especially my own sibling. Secondly, I can’t sell the bar without the other part owner’s approval and my lawyers can’t track him down. My father left me three quarters, but he left this guy, John, the other quarter. I have no idea who he is and, since he isn’t around and I didn’t have a job, or a place to live, I moved in here and the rest is history."

Wow, I just told this stranger my whole life story. What was happening to me?

"That explains a lot." Jammer took another bite of his sandwich and looked right at me. "So when you find this guy, will you ask him to sell? I mean, this bar could give you and your brother a future."

I got up to grab a soda and grabbed one for Jammer too. Since I only had Cokes, it wasn’t like he had a choice. He could have apple juice, milk or Coke and I knew he didn’t want the other two. “I don’t really think I want to raise a kid in a bar.”

Jammer waved his hands around. “This doesn’t look like a bar to me. In fact, it’s one of the nicest places I’ve been in around here. Sure, there is a business downstairs, but it’s a lucrative business that has been around for a long time. I think you have everything you need to give your brother a good life.”

Maybe I was just being selfish. Was my wanting to sell because I didn’t want the challenge? Maybe giving up was just the easy route. “Whatever. I have to get back downstairs.”

“And just like that, she’s back to her old self.” My shoulders fell as I looked down at the floor. He was right.

“Look, I didn’t ask you to be my friend.” We couldn’t be friends. It was too dangerous. “I know the company you keep. I’m nothing like those girls you hang out with.”

He chuckled and put his hands over his face. “Yeah, maybe that’s why I actually want to be your friend.”

“Why? Why are you doing all of this? If it’s to get into my pants, I can assure you that it is never going to happen.”

He shocked me when he stood up and approached me. I put my hands on my hips, but didn’t back away. He leaned against a brick pillar separating the living room from the kitchen and crossed his arms. If he was going to continue staying here, he had to start wearing a shirt. “Yeah, you keep saying that, but I can’t decide who is looking at who more.”

“I have a boyfriend.” Okay, it was a lie, but Zach would be my boyfriend to ward off Jammer, if I asked him to.

“Why hasn’t he offered to help you? Have you even told him that you have another guy staying at your place?” I hated that he just stood there looking at me with his arms folded. He was clenching his jaw waiting for me to answer.

“No, I haven’t told him. He’s busy at school.”

“If you really want my help, I suggest you tell him about me staying here. I’d hate for him to walk in on me being here and get the wrong idea about us, because you have assured me that you would never be with someone like me.” The way he said it was sarcastic. I tried not to smile, but it came out anyway.

“You can keep taunting all you want. Unless you do laundry, you’re never going to see my panties.” I put my hands on my hips. I meant what I said, but the whole time, I was wondering how he looked in just a pair of underwear. Then I started thinking about if he wore boxers or briefs. Then I pictured them hanging low as he bent over.

Suddenly, I realized I was staring and when he started waving his hand in front of me. “Earth to Charlie.”

“Sorry, I was…um…I was just thinking about something. I gotta go. See you around six.”

I rushed out of the apartment before he could say anything else. Why was this happening to me? One minute I was telling him things I didn’t tell anyone, the next I was imagining him taking off his clothes.

I didn’t like him.

I couldn’t like him.

But…he was so damn sexy.

When I got back downstairs, a few new patrons had come into the bar. Shaun was up front, but looked like he was relieved I was back. I threw myself into the customers and, in my free time, I started scrubbing down the baseboards. Jammer was just upstairs, probably naked in the shower.

I didn’t understand how I was thinking so much about a guy that I knew nothing about. I’d told him all about me, but he’d offered nothing about himself. If he was a serial killer, I hoped he would kill me when I was asleep.

NO! He protected me.

Still, he must have secrets. Some kind of secrets that he wouldn’t want me to know. Why didn’t he live anywhere? What kind of person drives from city to city and has no place to call home?

Maybe he was going through my underwear drawer. Maybe he was some kind of freaky cross dresser. That would definitely make him less sexy. Yeah, he has to be a cross dresser. A harmless, weirdo cross dresser.

Chapter 14

Jammer

I don’t know how long I stared at that picture. Charlie felt betrayed by everyone she loved and now I was starting to realize that maybe she wasn’t the only one who had been lied to. Joker knew my name. He knew who my parents were and never mentioned that to me. In the picture, they appeared to be friends. This couldn’t be f**king happening.

Six o’clock came fast and I was showering quickly to be downstairs before I had to hear Charlie’s shit. Since I’d offered to help her, and not really asked for anything except a bed to sleep in, I didn’t feel like pissing her off any more than she already was. Honestly, there was something about her that was different and I liked it. She didn’t choose the terrible upbringing she had. Charlie was a victim in all of this.