Just a City Boy (Midnight Train Series) by V. L. Holt Read Free Book Online Page B

how I looked in the dress. It was a keeper. I couldn’t wait for Friday now!
    Ray on my couch sunk my mood immediately.
    I glowered at him and stalked to my room, hanging my dress up and giving it one more loving caress before I reorganized the shoes in my closet. I could hear Ray in the living room surfing channels on the television and talking to someone on his phone.
    Ray had friends?
    Whatever. I thought I had a solution that would really work this time, and I waited patiently for my phone to start ringing.
    For dinner I made myself a johnnycake. When I opened the fridge to get the bacon out, I noticed the stuff I’d already fried up was gone. So were half the eggs. Again.
    I felt anger pooling in my gut. I closed my eyes and breathed out through my mouth, letting that frustration go. My phone rang!
    I answered with excitement.
    “Yes,” I said. “Yes!” I said again. “Absolutely, “ I said. I smiled wide when I clicked my phone off and turned the corner from my kitchen to the living room.
    “Ray, you going to be around for a bit?” I asked him sweetly.
    “Yes, what’s up?” he asked suspiciously.
    “Just wondered. Did you enjoy your little snack today?” I asked him.
    He frowned at me, as well he should. He knew I was being flippant. I wiggled my fingers at him and returned to my work in the kitchen.
    I wanted to scrub everything down before Friday. On Friday I worked a long shift at Lazy Eye’s, and then I was headed to Lonely Nights for the best job on the planet.
    Karaoke at Jack’s was where I warmed up to do my real job, the job I wished I could do every day all day, and not just in the evening hours between 7 p.m. and 1am.
    When my kitchen sparkled, I kept an ear open for steps in the outer hall. Sure enough, loud booming steps came up to the door. Ray stood immediately.
    “Are you expecting someone?” he asked incredulously.
    “As a matter of fact, I am Sugar,” I said. “Just stay put, I’ll get it,” I told him in my best Southern Belle voice. He sat bag down and slung himself across the couch like an afghan.
    I opened the door to an incredibly burly guy.
    “Here about the couch?” he asked.
    I swallowed and nodded. This man was ginormous. His shoulders almost filled the doorway and his thighs, wrapped in dark denim, were thicker than my waist.
    I gestured to the couch where Ray had suddenly decided to stand again.
    The big man handed me the money, then walked over to the couch.
    “You get that end,” he directed Ray who turned three shades of gray in a matter of seconds. He nodded and lifted, then glared at me as he and the gentle giant carried the couch out the door and down the steps.
    Ha! That should show Ray. I expected him to call his friend within the hour and to disappear himself out of my life.
    I clapped my hands together in satisfaction.
    I was going to miss my couch, I thought with a sad smile. But I pocketed the seventy five bucks. I wished I had done that three months ago, but oh well. Live and learn, as my mama used to say.

Chapter Eleven
    The drug test was clean, as Zack knew it would be. It was Friday night, and he was ready for his first night. A clean snug T-shirt had been provided for him, and all he had to wear were his black cargo pants and black shoes. The T-shirt read ‘Bouncer’ on it.
    He marveled at his good fortune. Whenever he thought back to the disaster that was his first and only attempt at armed robbery, he shuddered inside and his brain threatened to shut down or implode. If only every mistake was as easy to sweep under the rug. In a way, he was grateful that the Mickey Cobras had tried to make trouble for Lauren. Without them, she would have simply run off into the night, and he would remain on her radar as a dangerous criminal. At least now she knew him for what he was…a broken man with a broken life.
    Be that as it may, he had a decent job. He just needed to make it work. There were some safety protocols he’d gone over with his superior, and