A Bride for Jericho Bravo Page 6

  “He seemed very nice today, your father.”

  Jericho grunted. “He had his come-to-Jesus moment last year. My mom left him. She made him clean up his act in terms of being such an SOB before she would take him back.”

  “Tessa said he was trying to change, to be a kinder person. She also mentioned that he was especially hard on you, when you were growing up.”

  Quickly and expertly, he racked the balls. “Well, maybe he had a reason. I was a tough-ass, badmouth kid. I never met a rule I couldn’t break—or an authority I didn’t mess with, just for the fun of it.” He broke. Two solids dropped. He moved around the table for his next shot.

  “Tessa said that you used to steal cars and that you went to prison for it.”

  He sent her a sideways look as he bent over the table. “That’s right. And I like your sister, but she talks too much.”

  “Jericho. You’ve got sisters. You ought to know by now that talking too much is what we do.”

  Another ball dropped. He straightened and indicated the rack of pool cues on the wall. “You need to choose your weapon.”

  They played several games. He was really good. But she ran the table more than once. She found herself getting used to his haircut, learning to like it. It made him look even manlier than before—if that was possible. And the sight of him bending over that pool table, sighting down his cue, one powerful tattooed arm out straight, green eyes focused, sharp as a bird of prey…well, that was really something to see. It made her heart beat faster, made her feel a little breathless, truth be told.

  The second time she won, he got them each a beer and they sat on the long rawhide couch together, between the chess table and the one with the poker chips on it.

  She told him how she’d learned to play pool, in her family’s bar at home, The Hole in the Wall. “I learned to play poker at The Hole in the Wall, too,” she said. “My grandpa owned that bar for decades. And then my Uncle Jared and Aunt Eden took it over. Aunt Eden opened a restaurant next door.”

  He was watching her, his gaze moving from her mouth to her eyes and back again. She liked it—liked his gaze on her. It made her feel kind of warm and lazy. Kind of excited and content, both at the same time.

  And then he brought up SA Choppers. “The job working out for you?”

  She gave an eager nod. “I love it. I really do.”

  He smiled. “Your eyes are shining.”

  She laughed. “It’s just…I don’t know. It’s got lots of variety. There’s never a dull moment. The customers are great, lots of attitude, you know? But in a good way.”

  He was watching her mouth again. “You like attitude?”

  “Well, I grew up with a lot of attitude around me. The men in my family are kind of famous for their wild partying ways. They liked to drink to excess, play cards for high stakes—and maybe enjoy a nice bar fight to cap off the night. My dad and his brothers settled down eventually. But my two younger brothers and my male cousins are all showing promise of being just as bad and out of control as my dad and my uncles ever were.”

  He lifted a hand. She thought he was going to touch her and she realized she wanted him to. But then he just shifted his beer to that hand and drank. “You smile when you talk about them.”

  “Yeah. It’s easy to appreciate them from eighteen hundred miles away—and we were talking about my job at SA Choppers….”

  “That’s right. We were.”

  “I think I can build the gift shop area into a profitable sideline. I read somewhere that sixty percent of the revenue at West Coast Choppers comes from the gift shop they have in front—and yeah, I know, West Coast Choppers has Jesse James and he’s famous and all, but you’ve got quite the reputation yourself. I really think you should take advantage of the merchandising opportunity.”

  He chuckled. “Well, you’ve got five weeks left to show us how we’ve been missing the boat.”

  “That’s what Gus says, more or less. As soon as I’m on top of the basic stuff, he told me the gift area is mine.”

  “You and Gus…I noticed you been going to lunch together.”

  She didn’t like his tone and she spoke sharply in return. “What? Something wrong with that?”

  He looked at her for a long, slow moment. And then he shrugged. “It’s just…the women love him. And he loves women. All women. I’ve known him half my life. He was married once, for over twenty years. I knew his wife, Karen, a really great woman. He never looked at another lady while she was alive.”

  Marnie’s throat felt dry. She swallowed. “She died?”

  He nodded. “Of cancer.”

  “When?”

  “Eight years ago.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “Yeah. He really loved her and they were happy and since her, he never gets serious about anyone. It’s all just good times for him.”

  She stared. “You’re…you’re warning me? About Gus?”

  “Don’t play it like you’re surprised.”

  “I’m not playing it. I am surprised.”

  “You and him had lunch together every day last week.”

  “We work together. He’s teaching me the job.”

  “And that’s all he’s teaching you?” He was scoffing at her.

  She just didn’t get it. “Yeah. Really, Jericho. I like him. He likes me. We work together. And I don’t see why it’s such a big deal to you.” She was starting to get pissed off at him. And she didn’t want that, didn’t want them on bad terms again when they seemed to have reached a kind of peace between them. She took a deep breath and purposely gentled her tone. “Gus is…wise, you know? I like him a lot. But we’re just friends, seriously. Nothing more.”

  His eyes were cold, unbelieving. “You say that.”

  “Yeah. Because it’s true.”

  “Well. Okay.” He seemed doubtful, but ready to let it go.

  Her curiosity got the better of her. “Does Gus have any kids?”

  He drank from his beer, tipping his big head back, his throat working as he swallowed. Finally, he looked at her again. “No.”

  “What? Suddenly it’s all a big secret?”

  “Gus doesn’t like to talk about his wife or the kids they never had.”

  “Ho-kay. So I’m not asking him, I’m asking you.”

  “Look. Wake up. Karen McNair is not the point here.”

  She sat back away from him. “Jericho. Sheesh. Sorry.”

  He eased off the hostility. A little. “I just don’t want you to get hurt. Seems to me you been through enough lately.”

  “Gus is not going to hurt me. I don’t know why you keep insisting that he will.”

  “Well, hey. It’s your life.” He stood. “We should go. I smell dinner.”

  And that was it, end of convo. She followed him back down the hall to join the others, wondering about the wife Gus had loved and lost, the kids he’d never had.

  And also why, every time she and Jericho made peace, something new happened to get one of them ticked off at the other again.

  Monday, Gus and Marnie had lunch together, same as every day the week before. The whole time they sat in the coffee shop, Marnie longed to ask him about the things Jericho had revealed the day before.

  But Jericho had said that Gus didn’t like to talk about his wife. So Marnie kept her nosy personal questions to herself.

  Back at work, Gus let her handle the job on her own. It was fine. The rest of the day went off without a hitch. She had a great time, dealing with the customers and also joking around with the guys from the shop whenever they came up to the front to talk to a customer or clarify an item on an invoice.

  By Tuesday, Marnie was ready to spiff the place up a notch. Desiree, she had learned, was a good worker, but not real anal about the way things looked or the mess on her desk. Marnie liked a tidier work space. Between customers, when the phone wasn’t ringing, she gave the gift area a thorough cleaning and then rearranged it to be more enticing. After lunch with Gus, she cleaned out Desi
ree’s desk and filed everything that wasn’t nailed down.

  And every time she rang up a sale, she asked if the customer wanted anything from the gift shop before she ran the total. She really did some selling using that approach. Not so much if the customer was alone, but girlfriends and kids ate it up. They all wanted an SA Choppers skullcap or sweatshirt. At the rate she was selling, she was going to need new merchandise long before Desiree’s return. What they had back in the storeroom wouldn’t last very long.

  When she and Gus went to lunch that Wednesday, she proposed ordering from other sources. She explained that Tessa had some really good connections in California for getting logo clothing and such.

  Gently, he reminded her, “It’s only for six weeks, angel. Don’t go getting too invested.”

  She knew he was right. Still, she felt sort of crestfallen. It was important to her, to make a difference while she was at SA Choppers. Even if it was only to help them see that they were ignoring a potential gold mine in the merchandising area.

  Her disappointment must have shown on her face because he relented. “Tell you what. You look into it, work up some figures. Then we’ll talk.”

  She tapped her plastic glass of iced tea against his Pepsi. “You’re going to be so glad you gave me the go-ahead on this. I promise you, Gus.”

  “Angel, if it makes you happy, it tickles me pink.”

  Jericho had had enough.

  He’d tried to warn Marnie about getting so involved with Gus and she’d blown him off, given him the innocent eyes, the oh-don’t-worry-we’re-just-good-friends crap.

  Just good friends.

  Right. He didn’t believe it. Damn it, Gus ought to know better. The woman was family and she was just coming off a major heartbreak. She didn’t need another guy to take advantage of her weakened state.

  He was going to have to deal with Gus on this, which was why he was waiting up in front when she and Gus got back from lunch Wednesday.

  “Got a minute?” he asked his partner when the two of them came in, laughing over some private joke or other.

  Marnie slanted him a questioning look, which Jericho was careful to ignore as Gus signaled him into the front office. Once they were both in there, alone with Chichi and Dave, Gus shut the door and went around the desk, stepping over Chichi, to drop into his chair. “All right. Talk to me.”

  Easy for Gus to say. But now Jericho was in here, staring across the piled-high desk at the man he would trust with his life and the lives of everyone who mattered to him, he hardly knew where to begin.

  Eventually, Gus tried again. “Rico, if you got a problem, we can’t deal with it unless you tell me what it is.”

  Jericho yanked the spare chair around and sat in it backward. “It’s like this. You been to lunch with Marnie every day since she started working here. What’s that about?”

  Gus sat very still. In the silence of the small room, the sounds from the shop—loud music and louder machines—seemed to swell in volume.

  And then the older man threw back his shiny head and let out a long, rich, rolling laugh.

  Jericho resisted the urge to leap free of the chair, power across the messy desk and grab his longtime friend and mentor—his salvation, really—by the throat. If Gus had been anybody else…

  But he wasn’t.

  Finally, Gus said, “You’re some kind of fool, Rico. But you’re not a stupid fool. Not anymore. Right?”

  Jericho got the reference. Back in the day when trouble was his middle name, Gus would always say to him, You’re a good kid deep down, Rico. But when you going to get the stupid out of your system? And when Jericho got out of prison and Gus gave him a job, the older man had asked, So is this it? The end of your stupid phase?

  He had sworn that it was.

  “No,” Jericho said with dangerous mildness. “I’m not a stupid fool. Just a fool, period. I guess. Because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  A silence. Then, disbelieving, “You don’t know.”

  “No, Gus. I don’t.”

  “I say you do. Somewhere inside that thick head of yours, you know exactly what’s going on here.” Gus paused. And then he chuckled. “You’re not going to admit it, are you?” He leveled that dark gaze straight at Jericho. “I’m not the threat to that sweet girl’s tender heart, not the one you’re worried is going to hurt her. You know that as well as I do. You need to get over yourself, man. She’s a grown woman and capable of making a choice for herself. Just make your move. Let her take it from there. My bet is you won’t be disappointed. She likes you, too.”

  “My move.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “But I’m not—”

  “What? Interested? You know you are. Good enough? Sure, you are. Just do it. Ask her out. If she says yes, take it one day at a time. That’s how all important things happen, Rico. One damn day at a time.”

  Chapter Five

  Marnie didn’t know what Jericho and Gus were talking about, locked up together in Gus’s office like that. But she had a feeling it probably wasn’t anything good. Jericho had looked so grim before he followed Gus in there. And Gus hadn’t seemed all that happy either.

  But then, after maybe five minutes, Jericho came out.

  She turned from the counter, asked softly, “What’s going on?”

  And he pretended he didn’t hear her, just brushed right on by her and through the door into the shop. Really, he could be so aggravating sometimes.

  Later, when Gus came out with the dogs at his heels, he told her not to worry. “Everything is fine, angel. Just fine.”

  She didn’t believe him. Something weird was going on. She could feel it.

  At three, Gus relieved her for her afternoon break. She got a pink lemonade from the vending machine and went outside to sit on the stone bench beneath a scraggly Chinese pistache tree on the edge of the parking lot. It was that time of year, clear skies and mild temperatures. Nice to be outside, in the dappled shade of a tree, even a pitiful-looking one.

  She admired the various whips in the lot—an early-fifties Chevy, chopped low, painted metal-flake yellow; an ancient Ford pickup with a giant front grill of shiny chrome, the body painted metallic watermelon red. Some of the guys really put a lot of time into their rides.

  Jericho was halfway across the parking lot before she realized he was coming her way. She suddenly felt nervous, just watching him come toward her. His square jaw was set and his eyes…she couldn’t read the look in them.

  A shiver of fear went through her. She had to resist the sudden, silly urge to jump up and take off at a run around the perimeter of the lot, headed for the open gate.

  He came and stood above her, his big body blocking the shop and most of the parking lot. “Marnie.” He stared down at her, a muscle twitching his jaw, his mouth kind of set.

  Was he mad at her for some reason? Sheesh. She really could not figure him out.

  She lifted her lemonade and took a long, cool sip before she answered him, stalling partly to take the edge off her strange nervousness. And partly to show him he didn’t scare her. She set the lemonade down on the bench hard enough that the plastic bottle made a thwack of sound. “What?”

  He swore then, under his breath. “Look. Would you…?” He seemed to run out of words.

  “What?” she asked again.

  He did more swearing. “I know this is a really bad idea and probably the last thing you want to deal with right now.”

  She got up and stood facing him. “Jericho.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  He lifted one giant, muscled arm and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not really sure what I’m talking about either.”

  That struck her as funny for some reason. Or maybe it was just that she needed a way to ease the weird tension between them. She laughed.

  He let his arm drop to his side and gaped at her. “You think this is funny?”

  She was
still laughing. It seemed to get funnier and funnier. She shook her head, pointed at him, laughed some more.

  That was when he reached out and grabbed her by the arms. He did it gently. But the sudden move surprised her nonetheless.

  She stopped laughing. She stared up into his leaf-green eyes. She heard herself whisper, “Jericho…”

  And then she understood. Out of nowhere, it all fell into place for her.

  He…liked her. In that way. He wanted her.

  Wanted her, specifically.

  The very idea of that seemed completely impossible—and yet so deeply satisfying, both at the same time.

  Because, well, she wanted him, too. She hadn’t realized it until that moment, when he grabbed her and looked down into her eyes and everything suddenly shifted, when she saw that all of it, this edgy thing between them, made the most amazing kind of sense.

  He was just what she needed in her life right now. Danger and heat and a certain raw tenderness.

  She surged up on tiptoe as he lowered his head.

  And then they were kissing. Wildly. Passionately. His tongue was in her mouth and his huge, hard arms engulfed her. It was so good. She hadn’t felt this hot and bothered since…

  Well, come to think of it, she’d never felt this hot and bothered. Maybe in high school, but that was so long ago. Who remembered? She and Mark had been together since dirt and what she had with him just wasn’t about sex. They were companions, best friends forever, not passionate lovers.

  Mark…

  She thought his name, felt the ache of loss in her heart, and then rejected it. She concentrated on this, now. This was everything she hadn’t even known she was missing. It was so good. The way Jericho’s hard chest crushed her breasts, the taste of his mouth, the scent of his skin.

  He smelled hot, like a fire. A fire burning, for her.

  But then, he pulled back. Just like that, out of nowhere, he put her away from him. “I’m sorry,” he said in that low, rough rumble that sang along her nerves, a tune that seemed to have been written for her and her alone.

  Another burst of laughter escaped her. “Sorry? Don’t be sorry. Just shut up and do that again.”