“Funny,” I muttered. To his credit, he was obviously trying to catch his breath, and when he finally did, he stared at me while fighting the urge to crack up all over again as he shook his head with a shit-eating grin.
“Out of everybody who works in that department, Bratty Marty? For real, man?”
Bratty Marty.The name didn’t suit her perfectly. My hands flexed and tightened at my sides.
“Don’t call her that.” I might one day, if I ever had the opportunity to have her laid out on my lap, her ass in the air, ready for a spanking, but he couldn’t.
“Shit.” He scratched his long russet-colored beard. “It’s like that, huh?”
“It’s like…” My voice drifted to nothing, and I shook my head. “It’s like nothing,” I muttered, the words tasting bitter on my tongue.
“Hmm…” He nodded, then his attention moved back to the TV and we sat there for a long while as we pretended to watch some game. “She’s a good one, you know,” he said, and I groaned.
“Stone,” I started to say, but again, he put his hands up to give him a chance to explain.
“Hella mouthy, so much fucking attitude it could give anyone a fucking headache.“One I would happily take, part of me said, and the side of me that was still trying to fight what it felt when it came to her stayed silent.
“But she’s a good one. Pain in the ass, sure. Late as fuck, like it’s her religion and it’s a sacrilege to be on time and she’s devout. But she’s the one who starts collections when she hears someone in housekeeping is going through a tough time, the one who brings birthday cakes once a month to sing to the people having a birthday that month and …” His voice drifted off to nothing. I knew what he was doing. He wanted me to ask. If I broke and pestered him for more information, he’d make his point about me being into her.
“And?” I asked, unable to help myself as I glanced in his direction. His blue gaze met mine.
“She asked about you.” I blinked and fought the shit-eating grin that threatened to paste itself on my face. After I turned her down, she’d still asked about me. That had to mean something, right?Is she thinking about me?
“So,” Stone drawled out dramatically, snapping me out of my stupidly giddy thoughts,She asked about me.“Guess that alone, finding someone who might be slightly interested in your ass, is half the battle.”
“Fuck you.” I flipped him the bird and got up to get a beer, offering him one, too. What I didn’t do was ask him to share what she’d asked and what he said. If I did, I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of it.
We drank and talked about a ride we were going on soon to California. About forty minutes later, his phone rang.
“Stone,” he answered as I glanced at him. The second beer I’d just opened and was about to drink stopped midway to my mouth as something in the air changed. Stone was usually a mellow guy. I set the bottle down on the coffee table ashis features changed from calm cool and collected to almost menacing. “Fuck. Yeah,” he muttered. “No, you did the right thing. Thanks, Marty. I’ll be right there.”Marty or Mary? Who called him, and what the fuck was wrong?
“What’s up?” I asked. A knot of worry quickly formed in the back of my throat.
Shit, did he say Marty or Mary?
And if it was my spitfire, why was she calling Stone if something was the matter? She had my number.Because you’ve been avoiding her, dipshit, a voice in my head reminded me. “Fuck.” I wiped at my face as Stone stood.
“Mary’s not feeling good,” he muttered. I was still wracking my brain trying to figure out who had been the one to call and who was the one not feeling well. “I think her blood sugar dropped again. I’m gonna go down there and check on her.” I swallowed.
“Mary called you?” I asked, enunciating Mary’s name clearly, trying to figure out who called as subtly as possible.
“No, your girl did,” he shared with a shit-eating grin. He started to walk toward the door. So many damn questions clogged my throat, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay away now. “You coming, or what?” he asked over his shoulder, and my plans of sulking and overthinking before I jerked off to thoughts of Marty went out the window.
Less than ten minutes later, I was ready to kick myself in the fucking balls.
Marty was prettier, sexier, and so much feistier than I remembered. Everything I’d thought I remembered and so much more. Not that she spared me a second look after giving me a wide-eyed look when she spotted me behind Stone’s giant ass.
“You should go to the ER,” Marty repeated for the millionth time to her supervisor. My jaw clenched.
“Girl, who do you think you are talking to? I am old enough to be your mom. Relax. I’m okay. Once this juice sets in, I’ll be okay for the rest of my shift,” Mary tiredly answered.
“Bullshit,” Marty huffed under her breath. Stone shot me a look likereally, this is what you wanna sign up for?I wanted to, but I wasn’t sure if I deserved her.
“Watch it,” Mary clipped, snapping me out of my head.
This was what it had been like since we’d walked in. Marty scolding Mary and Mary putting Marty in her place. Stone stood beside me and started to move.
“Okay, I’m sorry, Miss Mary, but I am going to have to agree with Marty.” His voice didn’t leave any leeway for arguments.
