widened. “You are?” He hurried around to the customer side of the counter swinging Sarah up and twirling her around. “I’m so happy for you, I truly am. Oh, don’t get so fussy,” he added as Pierce growled and looked two seconds away from dropping the trays he was holding. Kee set Sarah’s feet back on the floor. “If you don’t like people congratulating your lovely mate, then don’t go telling them good news.”
He smiled at the now flushed rabbit shifter. “I’m truly happy for you, Sarah. I’m happy for you both.” Pierce was growling again. Leaning into Sarah, Kee put a hand on the side of his mouth and whispered loudly, “Have you thought about getting him to the Doc? That stomach of his is making an awful noise.”
“Stop it.” Sarah slapped his shoulder with a laugh, before tucking her hand into the crook of Pierce’s elbow. “My mate is wonderful to me.”
“Exactly as it should be, Sensational Sarah.” Kee winked and then jumped over the counter so he was back on the serving side. “You have fun on your trip.”
“I’d better be going too.” Nick sighed and looked down the hallway to the office again. “Text me if anything exciting happens, or if you need a hand later on. I’ll be doing chores and will happily take a break from them to come in if needed.”
“You need more in your life than this bar,” Kee teased. Nick had told him when Kee first started at the bar that he’d spent more hours than he should’ve helping out when Cam first found his mate. “Maybe you should pop into Mrs. Hooper’s this afternoon. I noticed Paxton in there earlier stocking shelves, his muscles all rippling under that tight t-shirt he was wearing. I’m sure you could do with groceries.”
As Kee expected, Nick blushed. “Not much chance of sniffing him with his mother around,” he said quietly. “But… we’ll see. Later.” Waving at Dave and his friends, Nick left.
Dave came over sporting a spot of cream on his t-shirt and a gleam in his eye. “They’ve been in there a long time,” he said, plonking his glasses on the counter and tilting his head in the direction of the hallway. “They might need some coffee, or a drink or two, if they’ve been talking all that time.”
“You want me to go down there, so they’ll have to open the door.” Kee laughed as he poured Dave’s drinks. “I’m not losing my job just because you can’t handle not knowing what’s going on.”
“Ha, in my day, a boss didn’t fire someone for showing initiative.” But Dave didn’t take offence at being called out. He just laughed, and picked up his drinks, heading back to his regular table.
Chapter Three
“I don’t know where Austin is and couldn’t give a flying fuck if he was alive or not.” It’d been an hour and Cam hadn’t budged his position not once. Swapping the weight on his butt cheeks from one side to the other on the damned uncomfortable chair, Dian sighed.
“We were friends once, Cam. Hell, in my books, we still are. So, come on. I’ve saved your life before today and you know it. Doesn’t that count for something?” Gods, Dian knew his voice sounded gravely. He would kill for a drink. “I respect you not staying in touch after you’d left. Shit, the situation was crap, and you had every right to leave us all behind and have a life of your own. But you do know how things are. Austin’s gone. I don’t give a shit. Eagle here, he doesn’t give a shit about the man personally either. We’re just following orders. But if something did happen to him and you could at least point us in the right direction…”
“You know what I went through.” Cam’s eyes were almost black. “You know what the fucked up faulty intel cost me and my team. And when I got back, no one gave a damn…”
“That’s not fair.” Dian was not the type to back down either. “I gave a damn, but I was too late. I was on another assignment when you went through your shit. By the time I got back you were history. Austin wouldn’t tell me where you’d gone. I get it man. You went through hell. I’m not going to give you a song and dance about how I know what you feel or any of that shit…”
“Good. Don’t.”
“But we were friends, are still friends as far as I’m concerned.