“Call me later?” he asked.

I kept my eyes on Dex as his own gaze dragged its way from the low cut half of my shirt, and then up over my face. The corner of his mouth went up in a soft smile. “Sure will. Drive safe.” Then, I added for good measure, watching Charlie as I said, “Love you.”

Sonny must have mumbled the response to me but I missed it. The only thing I captured was the dial tone after he hung up. Because the man sitting next to me was watching me with those curious blue eyes.

As soon as I set the phone flat on the counter, I nudged my shoulder into his arm. “Just checking in with Son.”

That hot gaze ran over my face, my mouth, my cheeks, before making its way to stare straight into my eyes. “Got all y’alls shit straightened out?” he asked in a lower voice.

“Mmmhmm. I had to let him call you a dumb monkey to get his forgiveness but I doubt you care.”

Dex slid those long fingers over my wrist, circling the bones gently. “You happy he’s finally talkin’ to you again?” I nodded, earning a shrug. “Then I don’t give a fuck what he thinks, you know that.”

I did know that. Like I knew plenty of other crazy things. Like the fact that I’d offer up one of my dad’s body parts to ensure Dex’s safety. Leaning into him again, I pressed my mouth into his biceps. “Yeah, I know you don’t.”

“One stack of blueberry pancakes, and a double stack with a side of sausage,” our waitress appeared then, dropping each of our plates in front of us.

I thanked her and watched her disappear, looking around for the younger one I’d spotted talking to Dex just a few minutes before. But she wasn’t anywhere.

“I think I pissed her off,” Dex said abruptly, making me drag my eyes back to him.

He was busy cutting into the huge mound of pancakes in front of him, his tone casual.

“The waitress you were talking to?”

He lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. “She was annoyin’ the shit outta me. Don’t know why she’d think I’d care whether she likes my ink or not.”

My first thought was that the girl had run to the kitchen and spit in our food. Oh hell.

Dex cut into another thick triangle, eyeing me out of the corner of his eye. “Wouldn’t quit ramblin’ about how she wants to get tatted up, even after I told her my girl was waitin’ on me.”

It’d be the biggest lie in the universe if I said I didn’t get a thrill out of him calling me his girl. Was that a little barbaric? Maybe, but who cared? I didn’t.  “You can’t blame her, you’re pretty cute, Charlie. I’m sure plenty of women wouldn’t care that you’re with someone else.” As much as the thought bothered me, it was the truth.

An exasperated sigh made its way out of his pretty mouth. “Cute?” he said the word like he was torn between being disgusted and amused, ignoring my other comment.

All right, I could pretend too. “Excuse me, you’re a hot, virile, stud-muffin.”

He pinned me with a flat look that made me laugh.

“What? You are.” When his facial expression didn’t change for a long minute, I laughed again and poked him in the side. I wasn’t going to let my dad and his disappearance plummet my mood. He wouldn’t have that much power over me. And I definitely wasn’t going to take it out on the one person that was here trying to help me, no siree. “Fine, you’re just hot. Smoking hot. Not cute. Definitely not cute at all.”

Dex gave me that signature little smile before returning his attention to his plate. We took a few bites of our food before he finally spoke again. “You know there’s nothin’ and nobody you gotta worry about, Ritz.”

Here we go. I nodded but didn’t look at him. “I believe you.” I just didn’t want to carry around this fear that Dex would eventually get bored. He wasn’t my father, and every day I knew him better and better, that fact was cemented in place more firmly.

He plucked the fork from my hand before pulling it beneath the counter of the diner, setting it palm down right next to his groin. “Babe, you got me as much as I got you, and that shit’s not changin’, you understand? Not today, tomorrow, not ever.” He slid his hand over mine, cupping it firmly to the shape of his thigh. “Got it?”

“Dex,” I sighed.

“Ritz.”

“You can’t say stuff like that. You might get tired of me at some point.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I know exactly what I’m sayin’.  I know exactly what I mean. Yeah?”

He wasn’t really asking, I knew that. So I also knew it was pointless to argue with him, and at the same time, it was pointless to make excuses as to why he couldn’t care for me like that. I’d never know unless I let him. I squeezed his thigh and nodded. “Yeah, I got it.” For good measure, I smiled. “Cutie.”

“Ritz,” he groaned, but I could tell by the look in his eye he didn’t care.

“Just kidding.” Taking my hand off his leg, I cut a neat triangle out of my blueberry pancakes before muttering under my breath, “Not really.”

That got a snort out of him.

The younger waitress that had been harassing Dex before made an appearance right then at a table on the opposite side of the diner. So I took the opportunity to make Dex laugh again. I think I enjoyed the sound way too much. “Dex?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“She’s back,” I whispered, and then paused. “I think I’m going to need your keys.”

And as always, he didn’t disappoint me with the loud, loud laugh that burst out of my reserved, broody man.

~ * ~ *

Three days passed and nothing.

No trace of him.

That son of a friggin' gun had disappeared and my irritation had reached a level never before seen courtesy of my short-lived period. That's how pissed off and stressed I was—my period had lasted half the time it normally did.

"We'll find him," Dex had assured me about a dozen times a day.

The problem was that it was incredibly hard to hold out hope of finding a man that excelled at disappearing. We'd met with Luther's friend the day before but the older man hadn't seen him either. Luckily for me and everyone else, the normally moody man that drove us from Delray to Boca to Deerfield Beach, was optimistic enough for the both of us.

There's no way he knew we were in Florida, of that I was certain. Luther's friend had promised us he'd been discreet, so it just had to be a coincidence he'd gone somewhere else.

At least that's what I really hoped.

~ * ~ *

"Never heard of 'im," the older biker drawled from over the rim of his highball glass, drinking something that was all amber and no ice.

I felt like a balloon that had gotten stabbed with a needle. Deflated. Completely deflated.

Dex shot me a look before extending his hand out to the crazy bearded man. "Thanks, brother."

Another bust. Again. How many was that today? Eight different bars in and around Hollywood? Who the hell even knew there was that many kind of bars here?

I shook the man's hand just like Dex had, and followed him back out. The man had been the last of the three we'd made an effort to zero in on at the bar. Follow his lead, he'd said, and I had. But we were coming up with nothing. Four days in my home state and nothing.

This sucked.

The moment I'd climbed into the truck and shut the door, Dex cut me a glance before reaching over to grab my hand. "You feel like doin' somethin’ else?"

I was too old to pout and cry about how unfair this crap was, so instead, I threaded my fingers through Dex's and sighed. I want to find my dad. But that wasn't happening. This entire trip had so far been a dead end. No dad. Painful memories. And food from places I'd gone to with Will hundreds of times that suddenly didn't seem anywhere near as delicious as they had months before.

All this driving around did was make me miss my mom and yia-yia more. That was probably what led me to open my mouth and suggest something for the first time since we'd started our search.