Page 2 of Time Served in New York
“Hey, lady. I have a luggage question.”
“It’s funny that you called about that right now. I just told Christopher to call the guys to see if they wanted to go riding for a few hours. I need him to get out of my hair so I can pack.”
I watched Marler perk up and laughed at the eager look on his face. I motioned toward the door, and he grinned as he jumped up and hurried around the table toward me. He gave me a kiss on the cheek accompanied by the usual ass grab and then he was out the door without so much as a backward glance.
“I should have thought of that two hours ago,” I said as I flopped down on the chair. “Now I just need to figure out what to do with my kids.” That very instant, a screaming fight started upstairs. “Fuck. I need a vacation.”
“That’s what this week is going to be - a vacation,” Frankie assured me.
I laughed. “Obviously, you have no idea what it’s like to try and entertain three teenagers and a toddler when you’re crammed into a hotel room. And we’re gonna be hauling them all over the place in a city with traffic unlike anything we’ve ever seen. If we go far, we’ll need to take two cabs because . . .”
“Pandora . . .” Frankie tried to interrupt, but I was on a roll and kept pouring out all my worries about my family being that far away from home.
“And how am I going to keep them entertained and show them the sights when I need to make sure I’m there for you? I looked online and found nanny services I can use while we’re at the different things and all but . . .”
“Pandora . . .”
“They’re strangers! Did you see that thing on the news a while back about the nanny that dropped the kids off . . .”
“Pandora! Shut up for a second, and let me talk,” Frankie said firmly. I snapped my mouth shut at her sharpness, and she sighed. “Thank you. The plane is big enough to take whatever you can think of bringing. It’s a commercial plane, not a private jet. When I told my brother how many people I needed to bring with me from Texas, he had to explore other options. As far as transportation inside the city, my brothers have that covered with vehicles and drivers. He’s already purchased car seats for Jared and Boo, so they’ll be perfectly safe. And . . . This is the best part . . . I just hired a housekeeper slash nanny who’s gonna watch our two littles along with my youngest nephew while my older nieces and nephews show your girls around town.”
“Alone? You want our kids to run around without adults all over Manhattan?” I squawked.
“Sweetheart, my nieces and nephews are never alone. They’ve each got a 24/7 guard. Believe me, they’re not going to get up to anything we wouldn’t condone.”
“Oh.” I let out a relieved breath. “And the nanny?”
“She’s a student working on the thesis for her master’s degree.”
“We’re gonna need heavy coats, aren’t we?”
“Well, judging from the sudden left turn in conversation, I assume you’re satisfied with the options offered for your children?”
I laughed before I said, “You sound so prim and proper sometimes. It cracks me up.”
Frankie sighed. “Yes, you’re going to need coats and gloves, at the very least. If you can cough up a scarf or two . . .”
“Fuck! I’m gonna send the girls a text and see who wants to go with me on a quick shopping spree.”
“You’re going to have to go to Dallas, but I’ve got the perfect store in mind. I’m already on vacation, so I’ll come too,” Frankie said with a tortured sigh. “If I hadn’t already promised my brother I’d go through with this, I’d cancel and drag Christopher to Vegas for a quickie wedding like Bug and Maylee had.”
“It’s not too late. You can . . .”
“Absolutely not,” Frankie interrupted with an odd laugh. “There’s too much riding on this for me to cancel now.”
“I don’t want you to cancel just for the simple fact that you’re going to force Blue to wear a dress and make Paula wear shoes for more than an hour at a time.”
“It’s not going to kill either one of them to deal, but from the way they’re bitching about it, I might murder them in the end anyway.”
“And that is a show I’d pay to see.”
???
KITTY
“Man, I’m so glad we got to take off for a bit. Jenn was making me crazy with the whole packing thing,” Boss admitted as we sat down at a table inside The Hangout, the bar that the Ares Infidels MC owned in Tenillo. “And then there’s her worry about the animals and all that. I get it, though. They’re like our kids.”
“Oh yeah,” I agreed. “Thankfully, Pandora can leave Kama and Sutra in their habitat at the shop, and the girls that work for her know how to take care of them. But you guys have an entire menagerie to worry about.”
