Page 54 of Last First Kiss
“Ready to get your ass kicked, Monroe?”
“Always.” He winked, took her hand, and led them outside where they played on opposing teams for the next two hours. Girls versus boys.
“This is BS, Mr. Monroe. The boys won!” A little boy whined.
“It was a tie,” Paul said.
“It wasn’t a tie!” It really wasn’t a tie; the girls were terrible, mostly because they were for the most part younger than the boys.
Rocco kneeled down in front of the little boy. “I’ll tell you a secret, Jake. Your life will be a lot better if you let the girls win. Make them happy.”
“What? Why?” he asked, dirt all over his face and his hair falling over his eyes.
“Because if they’re happy, you’ll be happy. Trust me.”
The boy pouted and rolled his eyes as he stomped off. Paul and Annabelle snorted.
“I gotta run. I’ll swing by the set this week. Later guys.”
“Bye, Paul.”
“Bye, brother.”
“This was fun,” Annabelle said.
“I love it here. These kids don’t have much. They do their homework, eat hot meals, and play games. I used to love coming here when I was a kid.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his lips to hers for a simple kiss. “You’re a good man, Mr. Monroe.”
He smiled coyly. “Well, thank you, Ms. Clad. Come on, we have a Sunday dinner to get to.”
“A white Tesla!” he said abruptly as they got into the car.
“What?”
“Your car. It’s a Tesla.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Not even a little close.”
“Come on, give me a hint.”
“If you show me where you keep your Rocco Monroe Ken dolls, I’ll tell you what car I drive.”
He groaned and narrowed his eyes. “It’s an action figure. A badass action figure, not a Barbie. And I will never show you. Not ever.”
She threw her head back and laughed all the way to her mother’s house.
CHAPTER TEN
El Traficante received a five-million-dollar cash injection from the Century Investors group after delays in filming as well as added expenses from location changes caused yet another investor to back out.
“Did Paul tell you that Century was brought on board?” Rocco asked as he drove.
“No. What’s Century?”
“A big investing firm. Apparently all the publicity made them change their minds about putting their money behind it. They originally said no to the project, but now they’re in.”
“So two investors have pulled out because of the risk, but another one thinks the risk is a good thing?”
