Page 58 of Saving Summer
“You were falling all over trying to get your parts covered,” she said as Jamie wrapped the white bath sheet around his waist. “If I’d waited, Summer could be dead by now.”
“And a plastic trinket was going to protect her—how?” Adam asked, entering the room, gun in hand, his parts covered by flannel pajama pants, his abs as noteworthy as the rest.
“In the right hands, a snow globe can be a deadly weapon,” Gray retorted, shaking the globe in his direction, and making it snow.
“Everyone okay?” Eve asked as she entered in a tightly belted silk robe. Zander and Cody, both fully dressed and armed to the teeth, were two steps behind her.
“Everyone’s fine,” Jamie said, the hand holding the towel around his waist white-knuckled. “Just didn’t expect to find Goldilocks asleep in my bed.”
“Didn’t anyone tell you?” Eve asked, shaking her head as she looked at Adam.
“No,” Jamie replied with a frown, and despite the beard scruff, Summer noticed the painful-looking bruise on the right side of his jaw. Someone had punched him in the face recently. “Nobody mentioned my room was occupied.”
Embarrassed to be the cause of so much trouble, she interjected, “I’m sorry I yelled. I—”
“Don’t apologize.” His eyes locked on her, Jamie’s voice came out gruff, the deep timber rumbling over her skin, electrifying the hairs on her arms and making them tingle. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Summer looked from him to the pick in her hand to Halia, still asleep in her bassinet. She’d been prepared to bash in his skull a minute ago. Had prevented him from getting a first look at his baby. What had she been thinking?
What wouldhebe thinking?
Oh God! Great first impression she’d made.
Panic started to bubble in the pit of her stomach, a sour soup threatening to spew.
“Is that a meat hook?” Cody asked, drawing her attention back to the assembled group.
“Hoof pick,” she blurted, her cheeks flaming red. “I kind of, uh…sleep with it under my mattress in case of emergency.”
“Smart,” Zander said.
“A gun would be better,” Cody replied.
“No guns,” Jamie barked, and all eyes turned his way while his stayed trained on her.
“Okay,” Eve said, making a shooing motion with her hand. “Everybody out before we wake Halia.”
Closest to the door, Zander and Cody were the first to leave.
“You okay?” Gray asked, coming over and squeezing Summer in a quick hug.
“I’m fine,” she replied after glancing at the man who’d woken her. He continued to stare, and she felt the intensity of his gaze against her skin. The memory of his hard body pressed against hers made her blush deepen.
“Alright, globe killer, let’s go.” Hand on the small of her back, Chase escorted Gray toward the door, pausing where Jamie stood rooted to the spot. “See you in the morning?” he asked.
Jamie turned his head, the two men locked eyes, and after a wordless conversation passed between them, he nodded. “Briefing at zero seven hundred,” he said. “I’ll be there.”
Gray grinned and threw her arms around his shoulders, capturing him in a hug. “Welcome home, dickhead. Mess with my friend again, and I’ll globe you to death, got it?”
“Got it.”
“Missed you.”
“Missed you too,” he replied, his expression softening as he patted her back.
They parted, and Chase grabbed Gray’s free hand. “Good night, bitches.” She waved the plastic sphere one last time in farewell before disappearing into the hall.
Jamie’s focus still on Summer, he hadn’t budged an inch. She swallowed her nervousness and stepped away from Halia’s bassinet. “Um, would you like to see your daughter?”
