Page 27 of Made for You
Do you need a slap upside the head to stop thinking about this woman like that?
I smiled down at this little beefcake in my lap and watched as he destroyed the bottle. I’d learned the hard way I had to stop him midfeast and burp him, so I did that now, leaning him up and steadying him with my right hand while I patted his back with my left.
“You’re getting stronger, my man. Good work,” I whispered.
A sharp exhale drew my eyes to Nikki, who was indeed watching me—or at the moment, looking at James’s ridiculous little drool face. I quirked a brow to ask her what was up to avoid drawing attention to myself or risk Kenny making an obnoxious comment.
She shook her head slowly, a dazed quality to her expression. “Cute baby.”
I grinned, then dropped a kiss to James’s head. “The cutest. He’s the official Saint mascot baby, so naturally he’d be adorable.”
Her lashes fluttered like I’d done something to her.Interesting.It wasn’t that I worried she was immune to me. I knew well enough to know she found me attractive, yet something told me Nikki didn’t value physical attraction or chemistry as the main thing in a person she might end up dating.
Not that we were going to end up dating. She was my employee, and I had obligations. But. You know. For the sake of discussion.
“The people who are running late—they’re coming in person?” she asked, pulling me back to the larger moment of our meeting.
“They’ll do it by VTC—video teleconference. It’s basically a secure Zoom.” If she didn’t swoon at the sight of me with a baby, surely my riveting conversational skills would wow her and her actual genius brain. I consoled myself by watching James polish off the rest of his bottle in record time.
“Are they… abroad? I guess I hadn’t realized you all have people overseas.” Her gaze slid around the room, noting the various flat screens affixed high on the walls and finally the camera mounted at the far end of the room.
“Two are out of state, one is overseas. The Washingtons are on long-term assignment with a client who is spending six months in Singapore. Typically, we don’t have five out at once. Two are on personal security details and one is assisting with a K and R.”
Her brows jumped. “Wow. That’s… impressive.”
I nodded, hiding the smile that wanted to beam out at her like an idiot and instead kept a handle on the little zip of pleasure that shot up my spine at her words. “We’re finding it hard to keep people local. Not everyone is willing to travel, so that makes our ability to staff jobs that require it tricky, but that’s all part of building these first few years. We’re figuring it out, and with your help, I hope.”
She nodded, accepting that calling easily enough. I didn’t have a great sense of whether she was at all excited about the job, or merely accepting it as a stopgap. I could live with either, though selfishly, I wanted her to like it here. I had no illusions she’d choose to stay, but I didn’t want her to think my whole life’s work and the thing I’d chosen to prioritize so much I lost sleep over it sometimes got boring.
Tristan caught my eye and nodded to James. I chuckled, then stood and passed him the little chunk and the burp rag. Wilder got as close as he ever got to smiling at us, clearly only thanks to our devotion to his son.
Boots and Cookie popped up in one frame, and Hijack’s screen flickered to life on the other. Instantly, Wilder started the meeting.
I appreciated him taking the lead today. It had to be related to the intervention he and Kenny, Tristan, and Beast had staged a few days ago. Wilder’s word, like any of these people’s, was solid. If he said he was going to show up more, he would. Problem was, I didn’t feel great about him picking up the slack. There was a reason I’d taken it on myself. I was part owner in this business, and I didn’t have a baby.
“Right, Jaws?”
My attention snapped to the screen, where Boots waited patiently for me to respond. “Uh, right. Yep. We want the COAs for managing a crowd surge for sure. We may be able to employ them for other clients depending on where we end up.”
Next to me, Wilder nodded like he agreed, and Boots piped up. “Ms. Halter is handling it all really well. It’s just…” His brow furrowed, and he glanced at Cookie. “I don’t know. None of this feels healthy.”
Goose bumps prickled my skin. Boots was a seasoned operator, and while he was relatively new to personal security in a civilian situation, if he was saying something wasn’thealthy, that was cause for alarm.
“You want to pull her?” Wilder asked, clearly having the same instantaneous elevation of concern.
Boots shook his dark head. “No. I’m just saying it out loud, for the record, and the second it gets any worse, I’m pulling her.”
His jaw flexed, and I could see the frustration.
Jenna Halter had recently shot from hilarious comedic actress to superstardom when she’d thrown herself into the role of an Elfin queen in the latest high fantasy supernova of a film series. It’d been an oddly slow build for the series from what I could tell, or at least, forher, but now, she needed a personal detail. Since she was best friends with Wilder’s sister-in-law Callaway Rice, she’d come to us.
Delightful, but it presented problems. First, she was on a press tour for the film that was running her ragged, even with her short stop in Silverton for the premiere. Second, her management team and the producers had expectations that verged on unreasonable. And finally, she hadn’t been herself.
At least, that’s what Boots and Cookie had said. And while they weren’t longtime friends of hers, I believed they could sense a shift in her these last few months. We couldn’t technically “pull her” from anything, but we could put up a good fight. The fact that she’d gone with us and finagled contracting our guys for her security instead of the production company’s had already made waves, but I was happy to say Saint Security had come highly recommended by several voices the execs couldn’t ignore—particularly Jack McKean.
Anyway, none of us liked this situation, but we really had no say. The guys were on it, though, and so we’d watch and wait and see how the situation developed.
“Team Washington? How goes it there?”
