Free Burn For You (Boys of the South) by Marquita Valentine

drinking and shooting the shit.
    Mia burps.  I look at my daughter, and she grins. “That was a manly burp, sweetheart.”
    Cole nods his approval. “Good one.”
    “Takes after her Uncle Parker,” I remark.
    Parker grins and takes Mia from me, settling her against him. “Yeah, she does.”
    A part of me wishes they could come with me to Monaco, but Cole and Parker have responsibilities that cannot be neglected. As I glance at them, I wonder how long this will last. How long will we continue to get together every Tuesday evening—either at my house or theirs— and play Texas Hold ‘Em, before life gets in the way?

Chapter Eight
Landry
    I have never known a week to fly by so fast, yet so excruciating slow. I’m equal parts nervous and excited to be around Beau again. He’s flying me halfway around the world, just to watch his daughter while he races. My mind can barely comprehend it all.
    Today, however, I’m sad because it’s my last shift as a baby cuddler at Charlotte Baptist.
    “My dad asked me to get Remington’s autograph,” I tell Meagan. “I don’t have the heart to break it to him that it will never happen. Can you imagine what he would say to me?”
    “Oh yeah. He’d probably hope you’d want him to sign your boobs.” Meagan snorts, and I smack her lightly in the shoulder.
    “Sorry,” she says with an unrepentant grin and then lets it fade away. “You know, as soon as my mother found out about your job from Aunt Kimmie, she was all over me to talk to you about Remington. She actually wanted me to warn you about him.”
    I swallow. “Is he that bad?”
    “Oh, honey, he’s trouble, but not in the dubious-consent category. It’s like he’s a modern-day Don Draper, and he’s passing you the after-sex cigarette before you know what’s happening. Stay away from him. ”
    I frown. “Duly noted.” But what about Beau? Is he just like his dad? He didn’t strike me as exactly that type... and he seemed to be disappointed that things didn’t work out with Mia’s mom. A man who is just a player doesn’t care about things like that, right?
    “His sons are just as bad, except for Chase, but he only started behaving once he married Love,” Meagan goes on to say, making my stomach drop.
    I twist my hands on my lap, focusing on the road as she drives. That’s basically what Beau had said as well. “Oh, so stay away from Beau, too? That’s going to be hard since I’ll be his daughter’s nanny.”
    Meagan parks the car, hangs her staff parking sign on the rearview mirror, and looks at me. I can feel her eyes on me. “ Laaaandry ,” she sings out, clearly exasperated.
    “What?”
    “Do I have to give you permission to sleep with Beau?”
    I gasp and turn to face her. “No!”
    “You’ll sleep with him without my permission?”
    “Yes. No.” My face flames. “I’m not sleeping with him.”
    Her blue eyes dance. “You’ll use him to end your dry spell, then.”
    Beau Montgomery could so make it rain for me. “I’m responsible for watching his daughter,” I protest. “She’ll be my number one priority.”
    “But who’s responsible for you?” she teases. “You’ll be living in a foreign country, with a hot guy and,” her voice drops, “spending lots of time alone together.”
    “I’m not that kind of girl,” I say primly, and Meagan practically doubles over with laughter.
    “Oh God,” she groans. “You are too much and if I didn’t know you, then I’d think you were the biggest prude on the planet.”
    “I’m picky.”
    We get out of her car and start for the hospital. “You’re pitiful.”
    “Sleeping with a bunch of different guys doesn’t make me a woman of my generation.”
    Meagan stops me with a hand on my arm. “I’m not shaming you for being sexually inexperienced, Landry.”
    I’m not a virgin, but I might as well be.  Meagan knows all about my old boyfriend—the one who took my virginity after senior prom, and then broke up with me two weeks