“Sometimes, I’m tired and I need to crash,” I answered his earlier question. “Sometimes, I’m jazzed, and I need to hang to chill out. But I didn’t shower before I left tonight so I could get Auggie home and that means I feel kind of ick, so I need to shower and then go to bed. The girls are meeting me at my place tomorrow at noon to sort through some stuff.”
“Which girls?”
“Some of the girls from work.” I grinned. “The Dream Team. Pepper, Hattie and Ryn.”
“Lottie’s fix-ups,” he muttered.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “They’re my friends and I really didn’t…until tonight, when they got in my face, hurt that I didn’t call on them when things got crazy, I realized that I hadn’t put that together. They gave me their tips tonight. Because of them, in one night, I have enough to set myself back up.”
He didn’t appear as elated as that news should make him.
“It was super nice,” I told him.
“Have you done that for them before?”
My gaze moved to his forehead.
“You’ve done it before,” he said.
I moved my eyes back to his. “We look out for each other.”
“So, it was just your turn.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled.
“I gotta say, I’d hoped you had the day off so we could relax and do somethin’ fun, like go see a movie and then I could finally take you out to dinner. I figure it’ll suck, but in the end, it’ll put your head in a good place, if you know what’s goin’ on with your pad.”
“I’ll treat you to a movie and dinner after we sort through my pad.”
“You’re such a brat,” he returned. “I’m paying.”
“Danny—”
“And I’ll obviously be with you so I can look these women over for the sole purpose of giving the guys shit about them.”
I stiffened. “They’re awesome.”
“Yeah, and the boys are dragging their feet, like I did, and as it panned out,” he gave me a bit more of his weight before he took it away, “that was a stupid mistake.”
“Well, I made it too.”
“You so did. As you can see, I’m a nice guy.”
I started laughing.
He touched his mouth to the laughter on my lips.
Then we were both off the couch because Mag made that so.
And as was his way, he walked me to the door to Mo’s old room, holding my hand.
He stopped outside it, let go of my hand, but took me in his arms and brushed his lips against mine again.
That wasn’t the goodnight kiss I’d wanted but considering how it went with us, it was probably the wise choice.
“Shower, crash, I’m on breakfast duty tomorrow,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m on breakfast duty tomorrow.”
“Compromise, we’ll go out and hit brunch somewhere before we meet your friends.”
That was totally doable.
“Deal,” I agreed.
He grinned at me, bent and touched his lips to mine again, gave me a squeeze, murmured, “Sleep well, baby,” then he let me go and walked back to the living area.
“You too,” I called right when the TV went off.
I went into the bedroom, through it, right to the bathroom.
And during my shower, I didn’t think of all that had befallen me.
I didn’t think about the girls at the club and how much it meant, what they did tonight and how they made it clear what they felt about me.
I didn’t think about arguing with Auggie or how I belatedly realized he’d given me my first brotherly hug that did not come attached to gratitude that’d I’d done something to earn it.
And I didn’t think about Mag, our episodes that morning (both of them), his sweetness that night, and how warm it felt, not scary, not anxious, that every moment shared he might be the one.
No.
I didn’t think of any of that.
I thought of a woman named Nikki and how in the hell she’d let go of a guy like Daniel Magnusson.
Chapter Thirteen
Force of Nature
Evie
The next morning, I was at Mag’s coffeemaker, scooping in coffee, when the door to his bedroom opened, and he appeared in it, messy-haired, sleepy-eyed and cranky-looking.
Even with that last, my mouth watered.
Because he was messy-haired (and that hair!) and sleepy-eyed (and man, those eyes).
And bare-chested.
“You fuckin’ suck,” he declared.
That killed the mood and my eyes went squinty.
“What?” I asked irritably. “Are we now in a competition about who’s going to start the coffee?”
He didn’t answer.
He walked right up to me, pulled the coffee scoop out of my hands, tossed it on the counter, swept me in his arms and laid a wet one