12 Rounds

Chapter Nine

"Are you sure this is really okay, Livie?"

Liv glanced to her left warily, only to find Jo flashing her a wide, completely innocent smile that was anything but innocent. Her eyes shifted to the side mirror by her passenger side door, and felt her chest clench at the two motorcycles following right behind them.

"Sure," she shrugged. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Jo didn't miss a beat. "Well, I know you had plans with Mr. Wonderful tonight, and we kinda hijacked them. It's not too late to tell us to bugger off, and I don't know... we could sit in different booths on the opposite side of the restaurant or somethin'."

Liv lifted her eyebrows with some exasperation and just shook her head. Of course it was too late to tell Jo that she was, in fact, hijacking their plans. Like anyone actually thought her and Happy sitting on opposites of the restaurant wouldn't be more awkward than if they were in the same booth. She also didn't see the need to remind Jo that she'd conveniently shown up with Happy in tow right when Liv and Jax were about to head toward the employee parking lot, and invited herself along. Happy, apparently, hadn't really been given a choice.

"I'm actually surprised you even wanted to come along," she shot back instead. "Aren't you missing out on playtime right now?"

Jo just batted a hand her way as they pulled into Jumpin' Jack's parking lot with those two motorcycles following their lead. "There's plenty of time for that later. Besides, Happy's basically got it down to a science at this point. I swear to God, the things that big, beautiful man can do with his mouth and his hands and his tongue..."

So this was where things were headed tonight. But still, how could she have told Jo to mind her own business anyway? There was really no good reason why all four of them couldn't grab some food together. Besides, there was just a very, very small part of her that actually wanted to see how Jo and Happy would interact together in public. She had a pretty good idea how they were interacting in private, that was for sure.

"I don't need to hear about his tongue," Liv grimaced, but patted Jo on the shoulder anyway. "Or his mouth or his hands. But good for you."

"He knows what he's doin', I'll say that."

"And like I said, good for you."

Now, Jo cast her a sly side-eye as she shifted the car into park just as those motorcycles pulled up into the parking stalls next to them. "You might not have been that upset about us taggin' along tonight, but I know someone who seemed a little..." she tilted her head to the side in thought, "Miffed, maybe? No, that's not the right word. Irritated is more like it, I think. Oh! I got it! Pissed off. That's the one. He was pissed off."

Her emerald green eyes flicked just beyond Liv, where Jax had parked his bike and was right in the middle of unsnapping his helmet. While Jo wasn't entirely wrong in her assessment of Jax's attitude about her swooping in at the last second like that, there was no way in hell Liv would ever admit that out loud.

Irritated was closer to the way Liv would describe it, but pissed off worked too.

"You two have been talking on the phone a lot, haven't you? I have to admit, it's pretty sweet - the way he's being so patient with you, lettin' you set the pace and call the shots."

"Alright, Joanna. I'm only gonna say this once," Liv poked a finger at her, but that only made Jo's green eyes sparkle with amusement. "Do not make this weird. It doesn't have to be, but you're already in awkward territory, with weird right around the corner."

Jo's hands flew up in the air. "Alright. Alright. What's the difference between awkward and weird though?"

Liv just huffed out a laugh as she slung her purse strap over her shoulder and reached for the door handle. "You know exactly what I mean."