Kinley elbows Rhys in the ribs. “Do any of the guys you work with call me a ball and chain?” She’s tucked under his arm with her hand rubbing her round belly.
Rhys works for the FBI field office in Tulsa and manages a team of guys, all of whom have met her. She was his protected witness when they met three years ago and, in true Kinley fashion, she didn’t back down when she didn’t like something. The way he tells it, she made him jump through a couple of hoops.
He tightens his arm around her shoulders and smiles as he taps his finger on her nose. “Baby, they’re all too scared of you to say anything like that.”
Mason’s wife, Sloane, who is also pregnant, but not as far along, laughs from the other side of the table. “Aww, her bark is worse than her bite.” She puts on a fake serious face and nods as she says, “But she does bite.”
I wasn’t there, but I heard all about the fight Kinley and Sloane got into, sliding around on the kitchen floor covered in hot cocoa and pancake batter they threw at each other when Sloane and Mason first got together. That was almost five years ago.
“But I love you now.” Kinley blows a kiss over the table toward Sloane, who pretends to catch it in the air.
Jax pipes up next to Marley. “I would have paid money to see the cocoa and batter battle.” Which gets him an elbow in the ribs, making the team’s guy flinch. Jax is Mason’s best friend and one of his teammates on his black ops team. He’s always said his heart was Marley’s from the first moment he saw her.
They all keep talking and laughing, but I tune them out as I lean my elbows on the table and watch a red head move around people and tables carrying drinks. I’ve only been watching her for a few minutes before she stiffens as she’s setting beers on a table, her fingers brushing the back of her neck.
She turns, holding her drink tray in front of her like a shield, and her eyes bounce around the room before they lock on mine. Her thick hair is in a ponytail hanging between her shoulder blades, and the T-shirt she’s wearing tonight is light green, the Stony’s logo bending around the large globes of her breasts.
When she gives me a hesitant smile, I look away like the pussy I am.
“Hey! It’s Nora!” Kinley says as she sits up tall and starts waving her hand high in the air before she yells. “Nora!”
Fuck.
“Who is that?” Marley asks, looking between Nora, who is crossing the room, and Kinley.
“Tuck and I helped her a few weeks ago when she broke down on Highway Twenty. I’ll introduce you.”
Ducking my head, I focus on the battered wood grain on the old table I’m leaning on. Even though I’m not looking at her, I can feel her close to the table like a goddamn beacon trying to pull me in.
While Kinley is making the introductions, I lift my head enough to peek at her from under the brim of my hat. That smile. Fuck me.
She’s smiling at everyone as Kinley is rattling off everyone’s names, and then she says, “And you know Tuck.” Waving her hand in my direction, Nora’s green eyes land on me, her smile still bright on her face.
Tipping my head, I don’t smile back. When her smile falters because of my rudeness, I squeeze my linked fingers together to give myself something to think about instead of the guilt squeezing my gut.
Kinley asks her about her car and how things are going. I pretend I’m not interested, but I’m hanging on every word.
Nora’s attention is back on Kinley, and she groans. “It’s such a mess, so much so that Ryder tried to get me to buy a new car,but I just can’t part with mine. The parts are backordered, so right now I’m just waiting.”
I haven’t checked in with Ryder about her car, but I make a mental note to call him to get an update.
Trudy walks up behind Nora with our drinks and a guy from the kitchen with a large tray holding our plates of food. She huffs as she quips, “Why are you in my section? Don’t you have enough to do in your own?”
Nora flinches and quickly moves to the side so Trudy can take her place to set our drinks on the table.
Kinley’s smile falls as she narrows her eyes at Trudy like lasers, and her friendly voice takes a one-eighty in seconds. “I called her over here to say hi, do you have a problem with that?”
Good. She deserves it.
Trudy straightens, her shoulders squared and looks at Kinley with forced politeness. “Of course not. She has a tendency to wander, so I made the mistake of assuming.”
Nora’s eyebrows pull together in confusion, and she looks at Trudy like she wants to call her a liar. Instead, she looks back at the table with a tight smile, her eyes avoiding mine, and excuses herself.
Narrowing my own eyes at Trudy, I control the urge to tell her what to do with her assuming. I’ve never wanted to hit a woman so much in my life.
After Trudy walks away and everyone has their plates of food, Kinley shakes her head. “What a bitch. I’m only tipping ten percent.”
For the next thirty minutes, I passively watch Nora while listening to the conversation at our table. I never contribute much to conversations, especially when I’m trying to eat my dinner. I keep telling myself that I’m not sure why I even came tonight, but then I answer myself with a firm‘yes you do, you wanted to see her’, which just pisses me off.
