“I’m Von,” one of the men at the stools put in and my head turned to him. He was the dimpled one.
“Hi,” I replied. “I’m Gwen.”
He was already grinning and the grin got bigger when he muttered, “I know.”
Okey dokey.
“Von’s wife, Lucia, is a nurse, babe, she has a shift at Swedish this morning. The hellions who will eventually graduate to tearing up my place are his,” Hawk put in and I nodded up at him.
“Jury,” the other man at a stool added and my eyes went to him.
“Hey,” I replied.
“Your laptop work okay?” he asked and I suspected Jury was the firefighter and I also suspected he was on the cover of the Denver Firefighters calendar, picture used for the month of July, he was that hot. If the firefighters merged with the police officers and they did a group shot that included Lawson and Jury, the paper might spontaneously combust.
“Yes, thanks for getting that for me,” I said to him.
“No problems,” he muttered, staring at me. In fact, they were all still staring at me except Maria who was pouring coffee.
“Agustín,” Hawk’s Dad boomed, moving in my direction, a huge smile on his face, his looks so similar to Hawk’s it was uncanny and boded well for Hawk’s future. Hawk’s Mom was a knockout, his Dad, like my Dad, had managed to age without losing but a modicum of hotness. He lifted his hand and I took it when he went on. “Gus.”
“Gus,” I shook his hand, “Gwen.”
He let my hand go but kept smiling at me huge then his eyes swung to Hawk.
“Cabe, good taste. Nice eyes. Great hair. Fantastic ass,” he remarked and I froze in shock.
“Gus!” Maria shouted, swinging around as the male Delgado brood chuckled.
Gus turned to his wife. “It’s true.”
“Madre de dios,” she snapped. “That may be so but you don’t say it in front of her!”
Gus rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms on his chest. “Why not?”
Her eyes sliced to me then back to her husband and she swung an arm out to me. “Because look at her, you’ve offended her.”
“Um…” I put in hurriedly, “I’m not offended.” And I wasn’t, just surprised. I looked at Gus. “Cookie dough,” I explained. “My booty is carefully crafted from copious intake of cookie dough.”
“Whatever you’re doin’, sweetheart, it’s workin’.” He grinned then advised, “So don’t stop.”
“Divorce. D-i-v-o-r-c-e. Tomorrow. I’m callin’ my lawyers tomorrow,” Maria threatened and this seemed like a practiced speech.
“Woman, you don’t have lawyers,” Gus returned in a way that seemed practiced too.
Hmm. Maria and Gus bickered. This was somehow familiar.
“Well, I’m finding some!” Maria snapped then looked at me. “How do you take your coffee?”
“Milk and half a sugar,” I replied quickly.
“Half a sugar won’t help that ass,” Gus observed helpfully and Hawk’s body started shaking and I knew he was silently laughing
But that was when Maria turned swiftly, reached up, grabbed a mug and threw it at Gus.
Yes, she threw a mug at Gus.
Gus, clearly experienced with evasive maneuvering, ducked and the mug hit the counter and bounced off to fall to the floor, luckily unharmed because, seriously, Hawk’s mugs were kickass.