“There’s coffee?”Daisy came running in.Not running,exactly.She looked like a princess skipping through some meadow.Except shehad crazy sex hair.“Please tell me you got…”
Brianna held out a covered cup.“White mocha nonfat withextra foam.And I got Nate a regular old coffee because I didn’t know how hetook it.There’s also a flat white if you prefer, and I brought a bunch of hamand cheese croissants because I figured the big guy could eat.I asked Mrs.Ward to give us whatever she thought her husband would eat.It was a lot.”Shegave him a smile.“Hi.You look way different than when you were fifteen, and Ikind of thought you were hot then.”
“Bri,” Devi said.
Daisy waved her off.“No, it’s okay.He’s a work of art.Look all you like.I can share.”
Nate raised a brow.
Daisy blushed.“Not like that.You’re pretty and stuff.Idon’t want you to dim your glow because I might get jealous.We’re not going tobe like that.Now I told you not to hurt Da.He’s delicate.”
“I’m not delicate.”Liam closed his eyes.“Except when itcomes to this.For the sake of all the heavens, girl, put some clothes on.”
“She is perfectly covered for a young woman who had hersleep horribly interrupted,” Avery argued.
“Well, she needs to get dressed because we’re findinganother bodyguard.One who doesn’t take advantage of her,” Liam shot back.
“That room is sacred,” Ian said with a shake of his head.“It is a temple to my marriage.”
“Then you should have locked it up.”Nate didn’t see theproblem.
“And from what the twins have told me, we suitably honoredyour marriage, Uncle Ian,” Daisy said with a sparkle in her eyes.She’d securedthe sheet, and it honestly looked like any number of formal gowns he’d seen.Itdraped over her gorgeous body.Of course most of those gowns wouldn’t smelllike sex.
Damn, he wanted her again, and they were standing in a roomfull of her relatives.His brain was all Daisy all the time.
“The twins have told us many tales,” Devi said, her nosewrinkling.“Like whenever they hear that old band playing, they know theirparents are going at it.It’s horrifying.”
Ian’s eyes narrowed.“I’ve got two words for you, niece.Taylor Swift.”
Devi gasped.“No.That’s just because Dad likes her.It’snot…ewww.It ruins so much music for me.”
“Ian, everyone’s used the jukebox room,” Alex pointed out.
“I’m not getting another bodyguard.”Daisy got in the middleof her parents.“Nate did a great job.He made me hide, and then I thought itmight help him if I called Aunt Charlotte and told her Uncle Ian was about toget sniped.I knew Uncle Ian would be here because he is always in the middleof drama.I was going to call the cops.Bringing in the authorities would havecaused more chaos, but Aunt Charlotte begged me to give her a couple ofminutes.And then I went to check and I saw that Da was being an asshole.”
“Daisy, language,” her father admonished.
Daisy shrugged.“Well, you’re already mad at me for having asex life.I don’t have to pretend to be some perfect princess so you’ll stilllove me.I can be me.I can be honest.Nate did an excellent job.”
There was one problem with what she was saying.Heappreciated the support, but she’d disobeyed.“Which you shouldn’t have seenbecause you are supposed to be locked in the bathroom waiting for me to giveyou the all clear.”
“Well, I couldn’t hear anything.I think those rooms arelike noise canceling or something,” Daisy complained.“We should get whateverit is at The Hideout.Sometimes the privacy rooms get real loud, if you knowwhat I mean.Also, do you think we could ask the board to get a room with ajukebox?Because it’s the exact right height.”
Ian put a hand to his heart.“Not my jukebox.”
Alex snorted.
“Right height?”Her father had gone pale.“You shouldn’thave been in dat room at all.You were supposed to stay in the apartment, whichhas two bedrooms.”
“I mean, if you think about it, he can probably protect herbetter if they stay in the same room,” Brianna offered.“A lot of my mom’sbooks fall into the only one bed trope.”
“I assure you there are plenty of beds in this place, andthis ain’t one of Serena’s romance novels,” Liam shot back.
“I don’t know.Let’s see.Childhood friends take one look ateach other after a decade apart and fall madly in love,” Avery began.“Soundslike a romance to me.”
Liam wasn’t finished.“How about this scenario?Assholecan’t handle the military and comes to America to find an easier life and takesone look at an innocent girl and sees a meal ticket.”
Ian groaned and looked to his best friend.“We can’t savehim.You want to break into the Scotch?It’s going to be a long day.The twinsfinally dug Zach out of the rubble and they’re on their way back, so I have tosit in on them complaining all afternoon.Have you ever listened to a whinycaptain yell about how a bomb exploded and he got caught for days in theinevitable landslide it caused?It’s a lot, man.And it’s not like Lou didn’tinvent an extremely long straw to keep the fucker hydrated.Kids are soft thesedays.”
