I looked up at Tack and pulled again at his arm and again it was ineffectually.
“And you? Did your parents name you Tack?”
“No,” he answered.
“Okay then,” I turned to the boys, “since it’s nicknames all around, I’ll answer to whatever you christen me.”
“Whatever we christen you?” Dog repeated.
“Sure,” I told him on a shrug. “I invite you to be creative.” Dog and Brick looked to each other and grinned but I looked to Tack and demanded on a request, “Can you let me go? I have an Employee Handbook to write.”
“No,” he answered and I felt my eyes narrow. He ignored the narrowing of my eyes and went on, “Darlin’, this order is totally f**ked up.” And he shook the paper in his hand.
“I know that,” I informed him. “I told you I didn’t know what I was doing and I was going to screw it up. That’s why I brought the pen, so you could make amendments.”
He grinned. “Not enough room on this paper to write all the amendments, Red. How could you f**k this up so much when I wrote down everything I needed?” Then he shook the papers again, my eyes went to them and I realized the Sanskrit notes were his.
“Those are your notes?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“I can’t read Sanskrit, Tack.”
“It ain’t written in Sanskrit, Red.”
“You have worse penmanship than a doctor,” I informed him.
“I can read it,” he informed me.
“Of course you can, you know what it says. To me, it’s a bunch of scratches and squiggles and since I don’t know anything about car and bike parts, I couldn’t guess very accurately. So you need to take some time and write out the changes…” I paused and concluded with emphasis, “Legibly.”
“Eloise hired an office girl who don’t know shit about cars and bikes?” Dog asked Tack and I looked at him.
But it was Brick who answered for Tack. “Eloise hired an office girl who wears f**k-me shoes and skirts. Who cares if she don’t know shit about cars and bikes?” Then Brick looked at me. “You just take your time, sweetheart, you’ll get it.”
“Thanks,” I smiled at him, deciding to ignore his comment about my skirt and shoes being of the “fuck-me” variety. I thought they were cute and girly but I was a woman, they were men. Men, I knew, thought way different from women and most of these thoughts, I knew, centered around sex so obviously cute to a woman would be something else to a man.
“You need any help, I know all about car and bike parts,” he offered.
I kept smiling. “Thanks, that’s sweet.”
“That’s me, I’m sweet,” Brick smiled back and it was then I felt Tack’s body get tight. My head turned to look at him again and I saw that his neck was twisted and he was looking beyond Dog. My gaze followed his to two men walking from the door of the Compound toward our huddle. They were the two men Tack had been talking to the day before. And they were two men who didn’t look laidback and welcoming like Brick and Dog. In fact, they looked so not laidback and welcoming that they were more than a little scary.
When my eyes swung through Tack, Dog and Brick I saw that they, too, no longer looked laidback and welcoming and they, too, looked more than a little scary.
Yikes!
It was then Tack’s arm gave me a squeeze and I looked up at him to see his head tipped down to me.
“Back to the office, Red. I’ll be in in a minute to go over this with you.”
I saw his face was serious and although this was an order, it was voiced quietly, even gently and thus it felt weirdly sweet.
Therefore, I said quietly back, “All right, Tack.” I looked at the boys. “Later, guys.”
“Later, babe,” Dog murmured to me but his neck was twisted to the two men who were now close.
“Later, girl,” Brick muttered, he also was watching the two men.