Her phone vibrated and Lacey dug into her pocket to pull it out. It was a text from Tony: “New owner’s here. Where the hell r u?”
Ben, the little boy who belonged to their only Filipina dancer, chose that moment to get jealous of all the attention Spiderbaby was getting. He burst out crying, raising his chubby little brown arms in a bid to be picked up, too.
So that was how Lacey ended up coming down the back stairs to the club with not one, but two babies in her arms, one of which immediately started tugging her dreads out of their haphazard bun, perhaps sensing she had no way to stop him, since her other arm was also full of baby.
The plan was to deposit both of them in her office and then invite the new owner to meet with her there, but she doubted she’d make it down the long hallway without dropping one of them. It felt like her arms were on fire under the strain of two fifteen-pound kids.
“Oww, Spidey!” she said, when he got a small handful of her hair out of the bun and yanked hard. “You need to stop.”
But then Lacey stopped in her tracks.
Suro was standing outside her office door, talking on the phone. However, when he saw her standing frozen at the end of the hallway, he said something to whoever was on the other end and dropped the phone into his suit pocket. He then turned to face her, his expression so stony she immediately intuited three things: He had tracked her down, he was the new owner of the club, and he was really, really pissed.
CHAPTER 6
AFTER tracking down Lacey and buying the strip club where she worked and lived above, Suro had expected to have the upper hand when he next met the woman who had dared to not only lie to him, but also stand him up in Montana. But when he walked into the club with Dexter on hulking-black-guy duty beside him, he found a row of scantily clad and heavily busted women, none of which were Lacey.
“Where’s the manager?” Dexter asked Tony, the old goodfella they’d bought the place from. “I thought she was supposed to be giving us the tour.”
Tony pulled out his phone. “She had a last-minute emergency, but she should be back soon. Lemme text her.”
At that moment Suro’s own phone vibrated in his suit pocket. He pulled it out and checked the number. It was his son’s school.
Still not having said a word to the old owner or any of the strippers, he stepped into a nearby hallway to take the call. “Nakamura.”
“Hello, Mr. Nakamura. This is Kate Lowell, the bursar at Rise Academy. I’m sorry to call you out of the blue like this, but I just got off the phone with Sparkle Winters’s mother. While I’m sure she’s very grateful for your support, she was also very alarmed we couldn’t tell her the name of her anonymous donor. So I’m calling you to make sure you don’t want to reconsider letting her know who you are to help put her mind at rest.”
“No,” Suro answered.
“Oh, okay then,” Kate said, sounding a little taken aback by his short answer. “I’ll let her know I relayed her concerns but that you wish to remain anonymous. Are sure you won’t reconsider?”
Suro told her the truth. “I’m sure she’ll figure it out soon enough.”
“Oh, are you two acquainted?” Ms. Lowell asked.
“Ow, Spidey! You need to stop!” Lacey’s voice came down the hallway, still soft and unmistakable, despite the stern warning she was issuing.
“I’m hanging up now,” he said, and ended the call with the bursar without further explanation.
But when he turned to face Lacey, he found the unexpected sight of her with a baby in each arm, looking like an overwhelmed mother in a high-collar button up shirt, a sweater vest, and black slacks. This impression wasn’t helped by the fact that her sweater vest had a large, noticeable hole in it and one of the babies had a hand wrapped around a chunk of her hair and was practically hanging off of it like Tarzan, Lord of the Babies.
“What are you doing here?” she asked Suro, sounding less surprised than exasperated.
But before he could answer, she deposited the little light brown baby into his arms. “Here, can you just take Ben while I…”
She used her now free hand to pry little Tarzan’s hands out of her locks. “No, Spidey. I said no!”
Spidey immediately burst into angry tears.
“Oh, my goodness.” She checked her watch and yelled through the slatted wall that stood between the hallway and the main club floor, “Girls, get on stage, please. The club should have opened fifteen minutes ago. And Candy, please stop flirting and meet me in my office to pick up your child.”
Candy, who had indeed been flirting with Dexter, one hand fully plastered on his large chest, turned to glare at Lacey, angry embarrassment written across her face. Obviously she wasn’t keen on her potential prey knowing she had a baby.
Lacey didn’t bother to wait for her response before letting herself into her office, which, to Suro, looked like it belonged to an accountant on one side, with several files and paperwork strewn everywhere, and a daycare teacher on the other, with a play pen, colorful foam mats on the floor, and baskets of toys. She set the baby she called Spidey near one basket, then took Ben from Suro’s arms and set him down on the floor.
“Go for it,” she said to both of them.
Then she stood just in time to confront a furious Candy. “I can’t believe you blew up my spot like that!” the heavily weaved dancer screeched at her, but as quietly as possible so Dex wouldn’t hear her.
Lacey rolled her eyes. “Well, I can’t believe you left two babies alone in your apartment to talk with a man who’s only interested in other men, so we’re even.”
Candy’s face screwed up. “He’s gay? How do you know that?”
Lacey shook her head. “Candy, please go open the club doors. I’ll be up later with Spidey and Ben to re-explain to you the terms of the co-op babysitting agreement and we’ll have a discussion about whether you want to remain a member.”
Candy who’d been smiling so sweetly at Dex just a minute ago, suddenly morphed into a neck-rolling stereotype. “Don’t tell me how to raise my child!” She shot a pointed look at Suro who stood surveying the situation with a cool, assessing eye. “We under new ownership now. And he might not let you run us like old Tony did!”
Lacey looked like she was about two seconds from slapping the much taller woman. But instead she repeated, “Open up the club and return to your apartment. I will be there soon to talk to you.”