Stone: At Your Service (Carolina Bad Boys #1) Read Online Free Page A

pulling on the same pair of University of South Carolina sweats he’d been wearing for over ten years.
    I tanked the beer and went for another , checking my iPhone. There was an urgent message from the garage. Imagining fires, destruction, utter fucking mayhem, I opened the attached file . . . then wished I’d never been given the gift of sight. The knuckle-draggers obviously thought they were funny as fuck. They’d stepped out behind Stone’s to drop trow and shine their moons for the camera. I pushed the phone as far away from me as possible with a loud groan.
    Nicky looked over. “What?”
    I pointed at the cell with a firm shake of my head.
    Undeterred, he reached for the phone and reeled back when he saw the photo. In the next second, he fell all fricking over himself, laughing it up. “Ray looks like his ass could use a weed whackin’, dude, yeah?”
    I grabbed the phone back, quickly texting, “ All y’all are FIRED. ”
    “ See ya Monday, sport! ” Ray replied.
    “ Meatheads,” I muttered.
    Nicky continued to rock with laughter. Meanwhile, I was scarred for life. I ignored the rest of the buffoons ’ incoming bullshittery and settled back onto the bed, pressing the most used contact on the phone.
    “ Stone’s! At your service, y’all.” The sweet voice humming over the wire warmed my heart, her greeting not so much.
    “ Ma, you’re not supposed to answer your home phone that way. Gives people the wrong idea.”
    “ Joshy! We were wonderin’ when you’d call. You get to ’Lanta all right? You know those people out there drive like it’s the Indy 500. Like to take your life into your own hands. You stopped to eat, now, didn’t you?”
    I waited for her to take a breath. “Yes and yes, ma’am.”
    It didn ’t take her long to gather more speed. “You tryin’ to sweet talk me? Five days away is a long time to get into trouble. Now I know Nicky’s a good boy, but I don’t approve of you spendin’ all that time around all those ladies. Y’all best make sure to mind your manners and your morals.”
    Unlike everyone else on God’s green earth, Ma didn’t know I was playing Queer Eye for the Straight Guy .
    Nicky had heard her rant from half a room away. He shouted, “Hey, Gigi! Don’t worry, I’m keepin’ Joshy here under lock and key.”
    That calmed her down some. Nicky always had that affect, while I riled her up by breathing the same air, simply because I was, and always would be, her baby boy. Not that she was much for babying, unless it came to JJ.
    “ The kid there, Ma?” I asked.
    “ Oh, he’s sittin’ right here. Had him some pulled pork for dinner, your memaw’s old recipe, and a tiny piece of cobbler. And then we went to the Piggly Wiggly to get some Popsicles. I think he’s about tuckered out.”
    Tuckered out? JJ was gonna be bouncing from his sugar spike for the next three hours. I listened to the patter of little feet while my heart flip-flopped in my chest.
    “ Daddy?”
    It never goddamn failed. I shifted to the side of the bed and stared at the wall, quickly blinking. “Yep, I’m here.”
    “ Miss you, Daddy.” His squeaky voice cut a path straight through my heart.
    I cleared the gruffness from my throat. “Me too, kid. But you’re havin’ fun with Jamma, right?”
    That was the right tactic because he launched into a tale of all the crap Ma had already done—including a trip to Target capped off with a “gween shushy”—which I’d have to unlearn him from when I got home.
    “ And then Jamma lemme swim in the deep end of the pool wiffout fwoaties!” He finished on what he thought was a high note, but what gave me the forerunner of a heart attack.
    I imagined his mussed up hair, his hazel eyes he got from me. The fearlessness of the Stone family that had me worried like only a dad could be from those first wobbly steps and every day since.
    “ Can I talk ta Uncle Wicky?”
    I beckoned Nicky over.
    “ Hey, dude-man.” Nicky’s deep voice