“It’s all there. Had to hit up four different banks this morning to get it so I knew I’d be pushing the lesson times. Figured this was more important.” He zipped the bag and shoved it in front of me. “Also cleaned out my safe. Sucks if I get the urge to go Pacman Jones up in a strip club now. I’m out of ones.”
I placed my hand on the duffle.
“Probably for the best,” I told him. “That didn’t end well for him.”
“Only ’cause that dumbass wanted it back,” he shot back. “If I make it rain at The Golden Horse, those bitches can keep it. Once you commit to something like that, you need to follow through.”
Laughing under my breath, I slid the duffle off the counter and sat it underneath, tucking it behind a box of hats I still needed to tag with a price before putting out on a shelf.
“Thanks,” I said, straightening up and catching his eyes. “Means a lot, you doing this. Appreciate the cash, too. I didn’t want to have to write them a check.”
Jamie nodded as he leaned his elbows on the counter.
“Figured. Not gonna lie, felt cool carrying that bag around, like I was doing a drop or something,” he replied, grinning. “Smell of all that green got me hard.”
I stared at him, shaking my head.
“There’s something wrong with you,” I observed, eyes firm. “Seriously. You need help.”
He started laughing.
I wasn’t sure if Jamie was telling the truth or not, and I didn’t care enough to ask. In fact, the sooner we got onto another topic, the better.
I had something else I needed to talk to him about anyway.
“Thinking about moving out and getting a smaller place,” I shared. “Something that’ll work long term, room for kids when that happens.”
Jamie’s brows lifted.
“You being serious?” he asked.
I nodded with hands spread and braced on the counter.
“Makes sense to do it now,” I explained. “The way things are moving with Syd and with the pay cut I’m taking now that I’m not part owner, can’t afford that house every month. Want something I can easily swing that’ll work down the road, too. She wants kids. I wanna give them to her. Three bedrooms should be plenty.”
“Jesus,” he mumbled, shaking his head in disbelief and lifting his eyes from the counter. “Knew you two were serious, but shit, not gonna lie, I didn’t think you were talking about moving in together yet. Not sure this is normal, Dash.”
“Normal for us.” I shrugged. “Don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks.”
“I can see that,” he joked, then straightened to ask, “You telling me this so I can get my dad on it?”
Jamie’s father was in real estate. Most successful Realtor in North Carolina. He was pretty famous because of it. You couldn’t drive along the coast without seeing his face on one of those giant billboards off the highway.
It was how the McCade family made all their money before Jamie started competing and getting sponsored.
“Think he’d mind?” I asked.
“Fuck no. You kidding? Pretty sure Dad gets a boner every time he pulls up a listing.” Jamie tugged out his phone and started messing with it. “Need to know specifics. You want beach front? Big yard? Sex dungeon?”
“Doesn’t need to be beach front but keep it local. Good-size yard would be nice. Nothing less than three bedrooms and it needs to have a porch.”
Jamie lifted his eyes.
“You gonna take up knitting or something?” he asked dryly.
I cocked my head.
He shot me a dumbfounded look.
“Why the fuck else would you need to have a porch? You’re not an eighty-year-old woman.”
“Syd used to eat popsicles with her mom on her porch growing up,” I said, defending my request. “Lost that when her brother died and her mom stopped being much of anything to her anymore. Know that’s something she wishes she still had and I’m gonna make sure she gets it.”
He stared at me as I spoke, listening as if I were speaking another language, then continued staring when I was done and not saying anything back. Just slowly started grinning and looking too fucking pleased for his own good.
Great.
He was going to give me shit.
“If it doesn’t have a porch, tell him not to bother showing it to me,” I stressed, hoping to move on.
“You’re fucking adorable, Dash.”
I closed my eyes.
He wasn’t ready to move on.
“Jesus Christ.” Jamie laughed. “Anything else for Sunshine and her golden pussy? She want a white picket fence and a golden retriever with a bow around his neck sitting at the door?”
“Boxer,” I corrected, eyes opening.
“Say again?”
I looked at the classifieds sitting on the counter, then lifted my gaze to Jamie, stepped back, and crossed my arms tight against my chest.
He wasn’t getting that shit.
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “Make sure it has a fucking porch,” I insisted. “Three bedrooms. Good-size yard. Sex dungeon is optional.”
“Optional. We’re so different,” he muttered quietly, then looked back down at his phone and started typing.
The front door chimed open.
I lifted my head and watched Syd step inside, bright smile on her face as she waved excitedly, wearing white cutoffs that were tiny as fuck and showing all kinds of leg, a peach-colored tank that stretched over her tits and flat stomach, and cowboy boots that in no fucking way possible were sexy unless they were attached to my girl, making them the sexiest goddamn pair of shoes I’d ever seen in my life.