I couldn’t believe I was getting such a sweet deal. Not only did I have a job, but I had a boss who believed in me. We had an office kitchen and coffee, and I wouldn’t have to hike down the hall to take a piss. It was everything I could have asked for and more. To think, last night I’d been on the brink of giving up…
Seemingly oblivious to all the shit going on in my head, Morse scooped ground coffee into the basket and pressed the brew button. The machine whirred to life, filling the air with the smell of heaven. “That’ll be ready in a minute. Let’s get you back to your desk, so you can complete the paperwork.”
I had a fucking desk. I was so far over the moon, I felt high. That seed of hope I’d been trying to crush had not only sprouted, but the fucker was blooming. If it wouldn’t have hurt so bad, I would have danced a goddamn jig.
Once the legal shit was out of the way, we dove right into my duties. I would be checking websites for coding inconsistencies and making corrections. At first, I worried that I was in over my head, and my perfect opportunity would drown me. Thankfully, Morse was a fucking genius and had created an in-depth coding cheat sheet. He showed me how to find what I needed and shared all sorts of tricks and shortcuts with me before standing and wheeling his chair back to his own desk.
By the time I hit brew on the second pot of coffee, I had login credentials, a list of websites to go over, and a clear understanding of what I was supposed to do. Encouraged, I pulled up the first site.
Morse was right, and a lot of the coding came back to me. Between what I remembered and his cheat sheet, I was able to successfully fix one site before I had to ask him a question on the second one. As he started to explain the answer, I remembered the code and blurted it out.
He grinned. “See? It’s like riding a bike.”
Confidence boosted, I fixed the code and pulled up the next site.
Shortly after lunch, there was a knock on the door, and then Havoc, the club’s sergeant at arms, stuck his head in. The club’s muscle was a big man, who filled the whole damn doorway. “Hey Morse. Hound.”
We each returned his greeting.
“Morse, there’s a woman out here asking for you. Says she’s your cousin?”
Morse’s eyebrows rose so high they practically hit his hair line. “My cousin?”
Havoc nodded. “That’s what she says, but she sure as hell doesn’t look like you. She’s waiting by Link’s office. Want me to bring her back?”
“Sure.” Morse chuckled. “Why the hell not?” As soon as Havoc walked away, Morse stood, shaking his head. “My cousin? There’s no fuckin’ way any of my cousins are here.”
Havoc returned with the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen. Long caramel colored hair, a face that belonged on the cover of a magazine, curves for days, God couldn’t have crafted a more perfect specimen if He’d tried. Holding her head high, she strutted in with the confidence of a woman who knew she turned heads. Wearing a cashmere sweater, jeans, and high-heeled plush leather boots that looked like they cost more than I’d ever made in my life, the last place she belonged was in a motorcycle club.
Surprise and recognition flickered across Morse’s features. “Meals?”
Havoc must have taken that as a sign that everything was good because he left, closing the door behind him.
The woman stared at Morse. “I’ve always hated that fucking nickname. Any chance you could not call me it ever again?”
“Nope.” Morse laughed, stepping forward to wrap her in a hug. “Someone’s gotta remind you of who you are and where you came from.” They pulled apart and looked each other over for a moment before Morse introduced me. “Hound, this is my cousin, Meals, but all grown up.” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe it. “Damn. Last time I saw you, you were what? Fifteen?”
“Sounds about right.”
I stood to meet her as she turned to face me.
Gorgeous green eyes drew me in and held me captive for a beat before her gaze dipped down to roam over my body. It didn’t feel like she was checking me out. Her evaluation seemed more like some sort of profiling. It was almost sterile the distant way she seemed to calculate my worth or my threat level or whatever the fuck she was doing. I knew exactly what I looked like, so I expected her to disregard me as beneath her attention, but she didn’t. Despite my cheap clothes and rough appearance, she gave me a bright smile.
“Hound?” she asked, sounding genuinely interested.
I nodded, offering her my hand. “And your name?” Since she’d made her hatred toward her nickname known, I sure as hell wasn’t going to call her that.
Her smile widened, lighting up her eyes as she slid her hand in mine. Silky soft skin rubbed over my calluses and she squeezed my hand with a surprisingly strong grip. Something foreign yet welcome pinged between us. It was as if—after years of trying—I’d found chatter on an old radio frequency nobody used anymore. She was fucking fascinating, and I wanted to stay tuned.
“Mila,” she replied. “Thank you. Nice to meet you. Did my cousin give you your nickname? He’s kind of a sadistic asshole.”
Barking out a laugh at her unexpected response, I answered, “No. I earned that one in the Navy.”
“Meals here was a chubby baby.” Morse inserted. “She used to roll around in her walker with the tray loaded with snacks, always shoving something in her mouth. I was just a kid and thought my baby cousin,Amelia, was the funniest thing in the world. I started calling her Meals on Wheels, and it stuck.”
“See?” Mila asked. “Asshole.” She glanced over her shoulder at Morse. “Thanks so much for that demeaning explanation. I’m sure Hound can die a happy man now that he knows my nickname’s origin story.”
It was hard to imagine the beauty standing before me with her cheeks full of food, tottering around in a walker, but the tale was kind of cute. It gave me a peek into their relationship and family dynamic. The nicknames I’d overheard my family use for me were a hell of a lot worse. “Morse isn’t so bad,” I replied, unable to jump on her bandwagon after the man had just set me up with a job.
