“Glasses,”
“I’ll get it.” There was that sigh again. She left like a bother again. A feel she’d become well acquainted with her father. Every little thing could annoy him. Shay always felt she had to walk on egg shells around her father. Its why she’d learned to avoid him whenever she could.
Shay felt herself drawing into herself again. Going into her quiet mode that’s she’d perfected over the years. Her skin becoming a hard shell.
Shay didn’t know why but she felt like she did something wrong. He was acting aloof. He’d been welcoming before, dareshe even think flirtatious, and now a wall had come up between them. She felt like she couldn’t do anything right.
“What do you want to drink?” His voice was monotone.
“I’ll get it, thank you.” She kept her head down and held her hand out.
Drew handed over the glass without a word, making sure their fingers didn’t touch and went back to making sandwiches. It felt like he was avoiding her now. Even seven guys couldn’t eat all of these sandwiches.
Shay filled her glass with ice cold water. She almost sighed feeling the cool liquid slide down her throat. One sip turned into several loud gulps and in seconds the glass was drained. How embarrassing. She refilled her glass but took smaller sips this time.
When she came back to the counter Drew had already pulled out plates and bowls and filled his and hers. Her lip twitched seeing how overstuffed the plates were. Drew loaded her plate like she was a linebacker getting prepped for the season. There looked to be four sandwiches on her plate and the bowel was filled to the rim. It was going to be interesting taking it to sit down without spilling.
She was wondering where they would sit when she heard them before they entered. Several loud men all talking over the other. They piled in and stopped to stare at her. Shay felt the need to fan herself, damn each man was more handsome than the next. Had that been a job qualification. Who could fill out their t-shirts the best and had the best looking faces.
Sure they all had scars of some kind. One was missing his arm and had a prosthetic as replacement, but it no way deterred from their masculinity.
These men screamed military. Each had short hair. A few with a buzz cut. One man looked like he was missing an ear. Herheart went out to him. To all of the actually. They had fought and were injured protecting their country.
Drew’s confidence in them protecting her made total sense now. No wonder they went into business of protecting and extracting. This was probably a walk in the park for them.
“Want to offer a hand?” Drew growled maneuvering his body, practically standing in front of her blocking her view from the newcomers.
If Shay didn’t know better, she’d say Drew sounded jealous but that couldn’t be right. Besides a few heated looks last night he was treating her like a leper.
All six men offered to help at the same time. She’d never been waited on like this before. A girl could get used to this kind of treatment.
“And you made sandwiches for us?” The one missing his ear asked looking directly at her.
“Drew did.” She wasn’t about to take credit for something he did. “I did make some soup. I can make more.”
“No, no.” They assured her. “This is plenty for us.”
“Drew has a tendency to overfeed us.” The one with the prosthetic chuckled patting his flat stomach with his good hand.
“If you’re going to complain about it I can stop making food for you.” Drew stomped over to his desk carrying the two plates.
“What’s got his panties in a bunch?” Someone whispered loudly.
“Maybe he’d hangry?” Someone shrugged. She was going to have to learn names.
Shay grabbed her soup and precariously started making her way to join Drew at his desk when her soup and water were taken from her.
“Allow us.” The man smiled at her, revealing a dimpled cheek. If Shay were the swooning type she feared she would have. The man was devasting to a woman’s libido.
Shay almost felt short being surrounded by so many tall men. All of them were over six foot tall. They made her feel dainty instead of a tall freak. A girl could get used to this.
As handsome as they all were, they didn’t affect her like Mr. Brooding did. She felt a connection to him. A draw like a magnet.
“Thank you. I’m Shay by the way.”
“Greg,” He pointed to the man missing his arm. “That’s Barry,” He next pointed to the man missing his ear. “That’s Sam, always talk to him on his right side unless you don’t want him to hear you talking crap about him.”
“Ass,” Sam chuckled gook naturally. Shay found herself chuckling too. These men were easier to deal with than Drew. They seemed relaxed, less serious than him.
