happening to me, thus they were worried about me, and it gave me more fodder for nursing the hugest grudge I’d ever held, this being against said crackpot.
Through these thoughts, I shot her another grin, and after I had them, I said, “It’s unusual for a dude, but Smithie’s a multi-tasker.”
Carla gazed down at her ankle again.
“Can I call him?” I asked. “He’ll want to take you to the hospital.”
She gave me her eyes. “He wants to be around to look out for you.”
I jerked my head to Mo. “He gave me someone who’ll look out for me. If he knows you’re hurting, he’ll want to look out for you. And please, let me call him. If he finds out we didn’t tell him this, he’ll be ticked, at me. And I hate it when Smithie’s ticked at me.”
This was a lie. Smithie was all bark, no bite. I didn’t tick him off on purpose, but I didn’t avoid it should such an occasion arise.
Finally, I got a grin from her which meant I got out of my squat, smiling back, then moved to my station.
Mo, for the first time ever in that room, did not follow me.
He stayed close to Carla.
As I grabbed my purse to get out my phone, I watched out of the corners of my eyes and saw that he didn’t murmur reassuring words or offer to help hold the bag of ice or do anything but give her his solid, assuring presence.
But he gave her his solid, assuring presence. She was worried. She was in pain. And he gave her what he had to give.
All right.
Seriously.
I hoped that man was good in bed because I was totally falling in love with him.
I called Smithie to come and see to Carla.
After that, I turned, leaned back against my station, and watched Mo openly while I called my mom.
His silver gaze came to me.
And there it was.
A soft look from Mo.
Jeez, I so wanted to jump him.
I gave him a smile.
His eyes dropped to it, but he didn’t smile back.
And again, I wanted to pounce on him.
Mom answered the phone.
“Lottie? Is everything okay?”
She sounded awake and alert, but not alarmed. Just awake and alert even though I knew I had to have woken her.
This was because she was the mother of a Rock Chick and the Queen of the Corvette Calendar. She had a lot of practice with being woken up in the middle of the night, needing to do it and be alert.
“Hey, Mom. Sorry to call late, but Carla turned her ankle bad coming off stage tonight. Mo had a look at it and thinks she needs to have it checked at the hospital. She needs someone to go relieve her babysitter until she gets home.”
“Mo?”
Shit.
Wrapped up in all that was going on, I not only forgot about dinner on Sunday, I forgot I’d told Jet about Mo coming, but not my mother.
And obviously my sister had left relaying that news to me.
“My, uh…” I gave Mo big eyes.
His dark eyebrows shot up.
Dark brows that went with the dark stubble he normally sported (except at times like now, right after his shower, when he’d shaved) and then there was dark hair on his arms.
This possibly meant dark hair on his chest, and other, better places, something I could not wait to discover.
My thoughts turned to the choice he’d given me at our first meeting of being in the room with him while he showered. Considering current events, that was a choice I no longer had.
And that was a crying shame.
But indisputably prudent.
“New boyfriend,” I finished, my voice kinda husky.
His lips twitched before his attention turned because Smithie was bowling through the door.
The bossman didn’t even look at me. He went direct to Carla, concern evident on his face.
God, I loved that guy.
“You have a new boyfriend?” Mom asked in my ear.
I focused on the task at hand.
“She has a what?” I heard boomed over the phone before I could answer.
Tex was awake.
Not a surprise.
Definitely a wildcard.
Tex had no kids. Tex’s history was a long story, and not much of it, until he met Indy Nightingale, was good. And one could say, considering after he met Indy he’d been shot, clubbed in the head, kidnapped and blew up a warehouse, that wasn’t good for him either.
But Tex would tell you all that had been a hoot.
And Tex was the finest man who ever breathed.
But he was a character.
A booming character, in all ways that could be,