Page 50 of Stone
Mustering her courage, she took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay, let’s do it,” she said.
He chuckled under his breath. “I promise, you’re not walking into a den of lions.”
A den of lions, no, but a pack of huge, fit, good-looking, and mostly tatted up men, yes. Never in her entire life had she felt small, but the Falcon’s Rest guys gave her a glimpse into what it must be like for most women who were dwarfed by men. And as they all walked over to meet her, she couldn’t help feeling likea mouse. Not that they were predators—they all came forward with smiles—she’d just never had that much man and muscle focused on her at one time.
To her surprise, Simon stepped back and let Philly do the introductions. He slung a brotherly arm around her shoulder, grinned, and called out, “Everyone, meet Juliana Morganstern. Librarian extraordinaire, crusader against crime, and Stone’s woman.” She liked that he’d started with her name,thenadded the identifiers rather than introducing her as Simon’s girlfriend—not that either of them had used that title.
Then, one by one, as if in a receiving line, each man came up and either shook her hand or gave her a hug. She met Lovell, a stunning Black man easily eight inches taller than her, with watchful eyes and a somber expression. Then Superman, not as tall as Lovell, but with a charmingly tousled head of brown curly hair and stunning golden eyes, set off by his Mediterranean skin tone. After that came North. He was closest in height to her and the smallest of the bunch, but his dark eyes held a knowing that was both unsettling and fascinating. Following that, Juan stepped up to hug her—she decided he came by his name from his looks and charm rather than ethnicity. Scipio nudged Juan out of the way and hugged her as well. He appeared to be the oldest of the bunch, although not by much. The last four came in a blur—Dulcie, Wesson, Einstein, and Marley. Dulcie looked like the world’s biggest teddy bear and sealed that image when his ginormous hand closed so gently around hers. Wesson seemed like an all-around American boy—the type of guy who was probably the star quarterback on his high school’s football team. Marley had a mischievous glint in his eyes and a subtle Caribbean accent—she couldn’t tell from where, though. And Einstein, tatted up pretty much everywhere she could see, had a pair of eyes so blue as to be almost shocking, especially when set against his dark skin.
None of the men made her feel uneasy, none of them shot suggestive looks at either her or Simon, and most of all, they seemed genuinely pleased to meet her. They invited her to sit with them, but Simon declined, saying they were heading home. That earned a few chuckles but nothing that made her uncomfortable—just the kind of ribbing she’d expect from a sibling. Not that she’d ever experienced it, but she’d imagined it.
“Where are the women?” she asked both Juan and Marley, who’d hung back. “There were a few when I was here a couple of days ago.”
“Amber is in the kitchen with Dottie, where she prefers to be, and the others have gone to a movie. Some romance that everyone’s been talking about but I don’t know the name,” Marley answered. Juliana knew the one—it was the movie of the summer, although it held no appeal to her. Movies with romance—sex—made her uncomfortable. It was all Hollywood, but the scenes always left her feeling inadequate.
“Your dinner,” Dottie said, exiting the kitchen with a cake tin covered in foil, a glass bowl with a lid, and a bag. “Salmon and corn,” she said, handing the tin to Simon. “Salad and bread,” she said, passing the bowl and bag to her. “I threw brownies in the bag, too.”
“Thank you,” Juliana said. “This is amazing.” Her aunt and uncle had a cook, but Juliana could barely remember her. Not because she’d taken the woman for granted, but because the cook had learned that the easiest way to survive in the Morgan household was to stay invisible, and she’d been a master at it.
“Just enjoy it,” Dottie said. “That back patio of his is the perfect place to eat tonight now that it’s cooler,” she said with a nod to Simon.
“Which is right where we’ll head,” Simon said, setting a hand on her lower back. After thanking Dottie again and telling Philly,Viper, and Monk that they’d be back in the morning, he ushered her out to a different truck.
Too tired to ask, she climbed in, then took the food from him, setting it on the floor by her feet. “Tell me about the names,” she said as Simon backed out of the spot and headed down the long driveway leading to the main road.
“Short version or long?”
She laughed softly. “I’ll want the long version someday, but with fifteen of them, you only have time for the short version before we get home.” She paused, then smiled, noticing she’d referred to Simon’s house ashome. Presumptuous, but she wasn’t going to take it back.
“All right,” he said. “Here goes. Lovell is after Jim Lovell.”
“As in ‘Houston, we have a problem’ Jim Lovell?” she asked.
He nodded. “He was paraphrasing Jack Swigart when he said that, but yeah. Lovell is the most understated man you will ever meet. Nothing, and I mean nothing, flusters him. Then there’s Marley. He’s from Jamaica and loves Bob Marley. Is always listening to him.”
“I heard a hint of an accent but wasn’t sure where from. Is Philly from Philly then?”
Again, he nodded. “He doesn’t talk about it so much now, but he used to talk about that city nonstop when we were deployed.” He turned left onto the main road. “Mantis is named after the praying mantis—he has an almost preternatural ability to see things and read a situation. Viper is, well…”
“Well?”
He grimaced. “His is the most graphic-ish. He killed targets quickly.”
“Like a viper,” she said. It was hard to imagine the man with the easy smile and off-color sense of humor as Simon described, but she’d take his word.
“Wesson?”
“Some distant relative is the Wesson of Smith & Wesson.”
“Dulcie?”
“Sweet as sugar,” Simon replied with a grin. That name was easy to see.
“Einstein?”
He laughed. “He had to grow his hair out for an undercover op, and if he didn’t pull it back, it stuck up like all those pics of Albert Einstein.”
“Superman? He does not look like Clark Kent.”
