Page 28 of The Sunny Side (Rojo 2nd Generation: Rojo Police Department #3)

B RAWLEY

I slid into bed behind Clancy and moved her hair aside so I could kiss her neck before I whispered, “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

“If you’re going to insist on waking me at the ass crack of dawn, it would be safer to do it with coffee in hand,” Clancy murmured. She pressed her butt against me before she said, “Or something else. Your choice.”

I chuckled before I said, “We’ve gotta be at the restaurant for breakfast in an hour. I thought about giving you another thirty minutes to sleep, but then I remembered that I enjoy my life and would like to keep living. That’s why I’m waking you up now, so you have time to do all the things.”

“All the things?” Clancy asked as she squirmed against me.

“It seems that I’ve created a monster, and as much as I’d like to take you up on that suggestion, I can’t. I need to let Max out to run for a while, and you’ve got to get ready.”

“Why don’t you let me make you breakfast instead?” Clancy asked.

“Saturday morning breakfast is a thing for my family, especially when we have Colorado family in town. I can’t skip it, babe.”

“Your family will be there?” Clancy asked, her voice no longer groggy. Oh, no. She was completely awake and alert now, and if the sharp tone of her voice hadn’t let me know, seeing her entire body go tense did.

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

“Which restaurant? What am I going to wear? I have to call my sisters! This is an important event, and I only have an hour to prepare?” Clancy asked as she sat up and twisted around to look at me.

“You’ve already met my siblings and the majority of the people I call my family, Clancy. There’s no need to get all worked up.”

“Worked up? Worked up ?”

I realized my error and quietly said, “Maybe that was the wrong choice of words . . .”

“When you say that your family will be there, does that mean your parents ?”

“I feel like you’re yelling at me in quotation marks right now, babe. I’m not sure it’s that big of a deal.”

Again, too late, I realized the error of my word choice when Clancy’s eyes got wide and she asked, “Are you going to introduce me to your mother, Brawley?”

“Yes.”

“For years, your mom thought I was an ungrateful little shit who didn’t even have the good manners to thank you for saving my life , and you don’t think I should be nervous about meeting her?”

Clancy was nearly screeching, and I knew she was teetering on the edge of something. Whether that was a breakdown or a homicide charge was yet to be decided, but I knew I should tread carefully either way.

“She knows that was all a misunderstanding, babe. And beyond that, I love you, and that means that she’s gonna love you.”

Clancy’s laugh was on the verge of hysterical as she hopped out of bed and darted toward the bathroom. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure she’s gonna love me!”

When the door slammed shut, I flopped onto my back and looked toward the bedroom door where I knew Max was waiting patiently.

“I think that could have gone better.”

As soon as Clancy was dressed, I walked her toward her house, trying my best to calm her down along the way.

It didn’t help that I started laughing when she said, “Do you know how lucky you are, Brawley Dumont? You’ll never have to have a meal with my father because I don’t talk to him.

The most input you’ll ever get from my family is from my sisters, and you already know they’re each at least three crayons short of a full box! ”

By the time we got to her house, she had her sisters on the way with wardrobe choices. She gave me a quick peck on the lips before she rushed inside to get dressed. I swear I heard her growl when I yelled, “Dress to ride the bike, sweetheart.”

I knew her sisters would come sweeping in on their brooms any second now, so I sat with Max on the porch waiting for them to appear. I was lucky. They arrived together, wearing pajama pants and faded T-shirts. They had Cupcake in tow, who was clearly eager to see Max again.

“She’s having a full-blown meltdown, so y’all are going to have to talk her off the ledge,” I warned.

“The pitch of her voice ruptured my right eardrum, so maybe you can explain the problem,” Darcy suggested with a raised eyebrow.

“All I got out of her was that you’d said you love her and now you’re going to offer her up as a human sacrifice. What’s that about?” Tansy asked.

“We’re having breakfast with my parents in . . .” I looked at my watch before I finished, “Forty minutes.”

“No wonder she’s freaking out,” Tansy said as she walked past me.

Before she got to the door, I said, “I’d like to ride the bike, so can you convince her to dress accordingly? Maybe even put her hair up?”

“That shouldn’t be hard to do,” Darcy assured me. “Especially considering that almost everyone we’ve met through you has that biker look.”

“What’s a biker look like?” I asked.

“They dress for comfort in denim, T-shirts, flannels . . . I’m sure your closet is filled with those things.”

“I think everyone’s should be. My parents are that type , so what else would she wear to meet them?”

“Good grief, you’re such a man,” Tansy muttered as she opened the door. “Take care of the dog.”

“Should we leave Cupcake with him?” Darcy asked as she followed her sister. “He’s clearly mental.”

“Max can watch both of them for us,” Tansy said before she stepped inside.

“That was low!” I said in exasperation.

“And so is your IQ,” Tansy said right before the door shut behind her.

“You know, Max, Clancy said not having to deal with her father is a bonus, but I think putting up with her sisters might be worse. At least I could punch her father in the face.” Max stared at me expectantly.

I knew he didn’t care about my problems, especially since his little girlfriend was with us and there was a tennis ball near my hand.

I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to get any sympathy, before I stood up and said, “Fuck it. Let’s go to the park. ”

◆◆◆

CLANCY

“Are you sure that I’m not going to embarrass you by wearing this?”

Brawley stopped walking, and when I kept going, he tugged on my hand to turn me around and then pulled me close to him. “It wouldn’t embarrass me if you pranced through this restaurant wearing nipple tassels and a blinking butt plug.”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only person who was shocked at that description, because just as I burst out laughing, the man sitting at the table beside us started choking.

Without even looking over, Brawley reared his arm back and slapped the guy between the shoulder blades and then rested his hand on my arm.

“Thanks, Little Bear,” the man at the table choked out before he coughed a few more times.

“Not a problem,” Brawley replied. His focus never left me, and his forehead creased as he said, “I love you for you, not for what you wear or what you look like. The list of things you could do to change that is short, and I know I’ll never have to worry about it.

I just want to assure you that nothing you could ever do would embarrass me. ”

I was a little uncomfortable now, not used to someone putting so much faith in me.

After years of backhanded compliments and downright insults about everything from my makeup to my hair, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to stop worrying about what people - but especially Brawley now - thought about me.

I couldn’t think of anything else to say other than, “I love you too.”

“You look great, Clancy, and my parents are going to love you.”

“I highly doubt it, considering our history, but as long as you love me, I think everything will be okay.”

“This is the new girlfriend?” the man at the table asked.

“Why aren’t you in the back with everyone else?” Brawley asked, ignoring the man’s question.

“Kim’s on a health kick and wants me to cut back on my sugar and carbs,” the man complained. “I had to sneak off to enjoy my pancakes.”

“You do realize that she’s gonna know you’re cheating on your diet, right?”

“How?”

“Because she’s a woman and knows everything,” I answered without thinking.

“That’s probably true,” the man said with a frown. “I’m sure it won’t have anything to do with my traitorous daughter narcing me out.”

The server that had just stopped at the table asked, “What’s it worth to you?”

“Rebel, I’m not sure what makes you think it’s a good idea to blackmail your own father or how you think you can accomplish it, but . . .”

“Same way I blackmailed Uncle Kale not even twenty minutes ago,” the young woman said without a care in the world. “It’s like taking candy from a baby.”

“I’m not sure where I went wrong,” the man said sadly as the server walked away. He looked up at me with the most confused expression and asked, “Should I have beaten my children more often?”

“You never laid a hand on any of them, and it shows. It’s a nature versus nurture thing, Clementine. It started in their DNA and blossomed with all the shit you taught them over the years.”

“I’m not sure you’ve got much room to talk, Little Bear,” the man said as his eyes narrowed menacingly.

“That look doesn’t work on me either,” Brawley said, completely unfazed. “We’ll talk to you later.”

“Oh, no! I’m not missing this for the world,” the man said as he wiped his mouth and then dropped the napkin on his plate before he stood up. He smiled at me before he nudged me with his elbow and said, “I’m gonna help you out, sweetheart.”

“No! Please don’t,” Brawley said frantically.

“Not such a big talker now, are you, Little Bear?” the man teased as he walked off. I hurried to keep up as Brawley dragged me behind him, headed toward the back of the restaurant.

The man pushed his way through a swinging door before he whistled loudly enough to do permanent damage to my ears.

“Attention, ladies and scumbags!” the man yelled as he abruptly stopped in front of us. “Our Little Bear found a woman who’s smart, other than her choice in men, beautiful, which is more than he deserves, and funny, which will make up for the sense of humor the boy inherited from his father.”