Thunder - Willow Summers Page 0,6

said something about her level of desperation.

She flicked the card away. “Are you staying here right now, or what’s your living situation?” she asked Janie. “Just in case I want to get eight cats and use the spare bedroom for an asylum.”

Janie made a sound like “Meh,” and straightened up to take a swig. “I have a place for a while. I’ll stay with you tonight, and then you’re on your own. I got shit to do.”

“Yes. Paintings don’t paint themselves.”

“Nor do they sell themselves, which is the problem. Drink up, lady, so I can talk you into using an escort service, and then forever hold it against you.”

Two

Colton grabbed the metal door handle and swung it open, holding it open for the two older ladies behind him. He stepped wide, getting out of their way.

“Oh, thank you,” one of the ladies said with a big smile.

“Such a gentleman.” The other woman stalled next to him. “You don’t see that much anymore. One lucky young lady will have a great catch in you!”

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said, hoping they’d hurry along. He was on a tight schedule. He shouldn’t have tried to fit this visit into his day, but he’d had it. His side gig had long since gotten old, and it was time to pull the plug.

“And so polite. I’m smitten.” The other woman laughed and put her hand to her chest. “If it weren’t for George, I’d turn into a lion and pounce.”

“Cougar, Bernice.” The other woman looked skyward and shook her head. “And don’t hold your breath.”

“I can barely keep my breath as it is.” They laughed, and with one more grateful smile, they moved through the gym door.

Colton followed them inside, stopping at the check-in desk to wait for Dick to scan the women’s cards. When he was done, he nodded at Colton and settled back in his squeaky chair. “Hey, bub. How’d it go?”

“She was all over me.” Colton stepped off to the side and leaned against the counter, shaking his head. “From the word go, she was handsy.”

Dick’s brow furrowed. He swiveled his girth until he was facing the laptop on the counter. For most employees, personal computers were forbidden when working at the front desk. As the owner of the establishment, rules didn’t apply to Dick. If he was responsible for chasing customers away, so be it. That was his problem. Something he told the staff over and over when they complained about not being able to use their phones in the slow times.

Using the hunt-and-peck method, he jabbed the keyboard with his pointer fingers, then squinted at the screen. “Says here she’s got a boyfriend. She wasn’t looking for anything extracurricular.”

And then there was Dick’s side job, as the manager and bookkeeper of a very profitable business Colton and a few other guys had started up. A business Colton was about to leave forever.

Colton scratched his nose in irritation and looked out through the glass doors at the half-empty parking lot, his nerves getting the better of him. “Yeah, well, if she has a boyfriend, they must have an open relationship. It wasn’t twenty minutes in and she grabbed my cock. This was after I told her I hadn’t signed on for that.”

“Did you finish out the time?” Dick asked as Colton’s friend Dave walked around the partition separating the gym and the check-in area. Sweat dripped down his face and veins bulged across his arms, the intensity of his workout showing.

“Hey, brother,” Dave said, leaning heavily against the counter.

“Get off there! You’ll get sweat everywhere.” Dick reached below the counter with a huff and threw him a small white towel.

Dave snatched the towel out of the air and slid it between his arm and the counter, resuming his lean.

“That was to wipe off your face,” Dick grumbled.

Colton nodded at his friend while answering Dick. “I finished out the time and paid for a cab to take her home. She was trying to get me to stay at the hotel.”

“You don’t get reimbursed for that cab,” Dick said in a warning voice. “The rules are very clear. If you want to be the good guy, you do it on your own dime.”

“I’m not trying to get more money out of you, tight-ass. Relax.” Colton laughed before scrubbing his fingers through his hair.

“Another one, huh?” Dave asked, humor lifting the corners of his mouth. He found Colton’s struggle endlessly amusing.

“Yeah.” Colton shook his head, straightening up. “I asked her how her day had