Lou folded her arms and somehow managed to jam them between her impressive breasts and her burgeoning belly.“I will when he does.”
Knox knew pissing Lou off would get him nowhere, so he took a deep breath, then another, in an effort to calm down.But it wasn’t working.Annoyed, resigned, he looked at Jesse.“You better talk.”
“Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”Laying a calming—or more likely restraining—hand on Knox’s arm, Jesse stepped forward.“Is Chloe a client?”
Sawyer’s eyes, dancing with mirth only a moment before, were guarded.“You know I can’t tell you that.”
The surge of anger hit Knox like a wave, propelling him forward.“The hell you can’t.”
“Knox,” Jesse snapped, his hand tightening painfully on Knox’s arm to keep him in place.
“It’s okay, baby,” Sawyer murmured to Lou, who had stepped in front of him when Knox moved.He dropped a kiss on her mop of hair.“Knox isn’t going to punch me.”
Knox wasn’t so sure of that.
“You sure about that?”Lou asked, eyeing the hands Knox had clenched into fists.
“Sure, I’m sure.First, because we’re friends.And second, because he’s too scared of you to try.”
Since both of those things were true, Knox unclenched his hands.“Sorry,” he ground out, shoving his hands into his pockets, and tried to think of happy things.Like the smell of fresh cut grass, the taste of a cold beer on a hot day, Sawyer bleeding from the nose…shit, not that one.
“You good?”Jesse asked.
Knox jerked his head in a nod.“Fine.”
Lou was eyeing him, not with suspicion but with curiosity.“You don’t look fine, sugar.You look a mite tortured.”
“Tortured,” Jesse muttered and dragged a hand through his hair.“Yeah, that sounds about right.Look, we probably shouldn’t have come.”
“But you did,” Lou said, cheerful now.“So we might as well get into it.Who’s Chloe?”
“She’s a…not a client, exactly,” Jesse began.
“We’re doing a restaurant reno for her aunts,” Knox put in.“She tends bar there.”
“Okay.She cute?”
Jesse looked helplessly at Knox.“Ah…”
“Was that a hard question?”Lou asked, then turned to Sawyer.“Is she?”
“Very,” Sawyer said.“Petite, short blonde hair.Kind of punky.Blue eyes.”
“Nice,” was Lou’s opinion, while Knox struggled with the ridiculous urge to punch Sawyer for noticing that Chloe was cute.“Did she hire you?”
Sawyer hesitated.“Honey, you know I don’t discuss client business.”
“Yeah, but look at him.”Lou gestured to Knox.“You ever seen him look like that before?”
Sawyer lifted his gaze to Knox, considering, and surprise lit his light green eyes.“Well, damn.”
“What?”Knox asked.
“She didn’t,” Sawyer said.“Hire me.I left it open, and she might contact me, but…”
“But what?”Jesse prompted.
“I don’t think she will,” Sawyer admitted.
