Page 55 of Damaged Protector
Both men burst into laughter as Hawk handed me back the sheaf of papers. “Good idea. I thought she was going to shoot my kneecap off when I ate the last doughnut last week. Make sure to tell Shark your reasoning. He’ll get a kick out of it.”
“I will.” After one week on the job, I was feeling more comfortable around our boss, and he’d relaxed around me as well.
“Sit. I wanted to talk to you about something,” Cam ordered, and I took the chair beside my roomie. “I wanted to have a little party so you can meet everyone. What are your plans for tomorrow?”
“Oh, I was going to meet up with some people from my cohort. We were supposed to go last weekend, but the plans fell through. I can cancel though,” I added quickly.
“No, it’s cool. We can do it next weekend if that works for you.”
“Yeah, sure. Sounds good.”
Hawk was quiet, and when I looked over at him, he was scowling. “Who are these people you’re going out with?”
“Just some future classmates. Lauren, Megan, Connor, and Scott.”
“And how did you meet them?” he questioned, leaning back and crossing his arms over his broad chest.
“Well, we had an online orientation, and we all started chatting. Kind of hit it off. Lauren and Scott are from the area, but Megan and Connor just moved here too.”
“So you’re going out with strangers?” he asked, his tone outraged.
I refrained from rolling my eyes. Barely. “They’ve all been accepted to the same PT program I have. Everyone has to pass a background check, and you get rejected if you have any criminal history. Calm down, Dad.”
Ignoring that last jab, he demanded, “I want their last names.” Cam’s eyes flicked back and forth between us in amusement.
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“And you think you’re the boss of me?”
Hawk uncrossed his arms, threw his hands up in exasperation, and let them fall to his lap. “Cam, help me out here.”
I shifted my narrowed gaze to my cousin, and he gave an apologetic shrug. “Wouldn’t be a bad idea, Marshmallori. Just to make sure nothing slipped beneath the radar.”
With two sets of determined eyes staring at me, I relented with a huff. “Fine.” Cam slid a pen and a sheet of paper across the desk toward me, and I wrote down everyone’s last names. “Would you like their blood types and their mothers’ maiden names as well?” I asked with saccharine sweetness.
“If you have them,” Hawk replied without even a hint of a smile.
“I was kidding, you buffoon.” I caught a glimpse of white teeth before he shut down his smile.
“Pain in my ass,” he mumbled.
I hid my own grin and vowed to myself to annoy Hawk Gentry’s bossy ass as often as possible.
Chapter 16
“Come on, Mal. Let’s go dance,” Lauren said, grabbing my hand. “You too, Megan.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Meg said, trying to pull her hand away without any success, but Lauren was relentless.
“Am I going to have to feed you another shot?”
“No! I’ll go,” the other woman said, rising from her seat. “No more shots.”
Laughing, I couldn’t have agreed more. Lauren was a bona fide party machine, a tall woman with café au lait skin and stick-straight ebony hair that fell halfway down her back. With stunning bottle-green eyes, she rivaled Bristol in terms of beauty.
I’d always heard blondes have more fun, but I couldn’t imagine anyone having more fun than my new raven-haired friend.