Read Online Sugar Daddy by Rie Warren - Free Book Online Page B

over her son’s ears, mouthing prayers in case whorishness was catching.
    Snatching Madam’s best back–Juicy Lube and Uberlube–I stabbed Addy with my eyes, which weren’t very effective weapons.
    Instead of taking a direct hit of humble pie, she grinned and shook out her long black beaded hair.
    While she inspected me under the guise of fixing my usual lunch of sweet tea and egg salad, I inspected the colorful pictures and helpful diagrams on the boxes.
    Between mouthfuls, I ignored her.
    “Y’all workin’ now?”
    I bent over my plate.
    “Y’all ready to say goodbye to Palmer, honey?”
    I steeled myself. “I have a job. I can’t talk about Palmer.”
    After adding my purchases to the account set up decades ago for my family, her brown hand found mine. “You don’t need to tell me nothin’. I can see y’all are workin’. Mmm hmm, workin’ for the man.”
    “How do you do that?”
    “What’s now?” She swept behind the counter.
    “How do you know?”
    “I jest do. So did my mammy. Y’all remember her?”
    “Some.” I glanced to the corner where the spindled rocking chair teetered on its own. “I recall her sittin’ there, smokin’ her pipe, noddin’ her head.”
    “Yes’m. Cassandra was her name on account she could see things like the Greek goddess. Her own mammy knew as soon as them newborn eyes of hers opened.” She laughed until her huge bosom shook with maximum Richter scale force. “Now, she also believed she could speak them tongues, talk to the animals and such.”
    “Why didn’t you marry? Why didn’t you have any children of your own?”
    “Some of us just is what we is.” She brushed it off, that hole in the heart I recognized. “I got me my man, in the off-season. An’ I like it that way. Got my place in dis world. I got my own chile right here.” She rubbed her hand over mine again. “’Sides, some things jest don’t take, do they?”
    No, they don’t.
    “You an’ me? We gotta settle ourselves with it.” Pulling me against her big soft body, she sent me on my way with a wallop to the back of my head. “Now git. Y’all got some livin’ to do.”
    * * * *
    I was as frazzled as my Honda–which wouldn’t even start in summer if I dared park anywhere but in full shade–when I saw Reardon waiting for me beside some unaffordable two-seater convertible.
    Transferring my bags to his car, guiding me into the passenger seat, he didn’t meet my eyes, and he definitely wasn’t meeting my lips.
    When I ignored him in return, he glowered in my direction, because he was way too posh for a simple glare.
    Reticent Reardon pissed me off. I didn’t sign on for this shit, I’d come into it for Reardon, romance, RAWR. “What? I’m not even late.”
    Shifting out of the parking spot with masculine ease that made me sort of want to ride him right then and there, he focused on the road, his mirrors and lastly, me, as we tore up 17 North. “You don’t understand, Shay.” His not-from-the-Kmart-collection sunglasses hid his eyes. “I don’t do this.” He waved a hand between us.
    “Because I do this all the time?”
    His impenetrable coolness cracked. “No, I–”
    “Y’all mean you’ve never taken one of your–”
    “I’ve never brought a woman to the beach house.”
    “Well, if you’re gonna sit there like a big baby, you can drop me off at home.”
    “Big baby?”
    “I meant baby ,” I purred, like his sleek car.
    That finally got big laughs. Hell, if I had to put this much effort into getting a smile, the payout on my investment better be big. And by big and payout, I meant his cock.
    We passed my local Circle K, and his eyebrows pinched together. “I didn’t think you’d come.”
    “Dude,” I said.
    He looked at me like I had a debilitating case of the crazies, which was fine; obviously he did, too.
    “Seriously, I’m a done deal.” I toed off my sandals and did the southern thing, sticking my foot out the window.
    “I’ve been thinking about