Page 70 of Claiming Her Cougar
“Yes, he’s my father.Will is my uncle, and Liam’s my cousin.”
Liam coughs to hide his snort-laugh.I’m pretty sure if we had crayons at our table, Logan would have offered to draw Janet a family tree.
“Well, it was so nice to meet you, Logan.Great to see you, Liam.Daphne, Mallory, I’ll see you in the office.”With another fake smile, Janet walks away to peruse the pastry case.
“Not if I see you first,” I mutter.
Janet gets her Danish and coffee and leaves, giving our table a lingering glance as she walks out the door.Good riddance.
We decide Daphne’s going to ride with me.Liam is going to drop his Bronco off at his house, and he’ll ride with Logan to my house to go run with Ethan.I’d rather get the interrogation over with on the ride so we aren’t overheard by Valerie if she’s around.
No sooner have I pulled out of the parking lot when Daphne turns in her seat to look at me directly and asks the dreaded question.
“So, you were at Devil’s Den with Liam last night?”
I take a deep breath and release it slowly.“Yes.”
She bounces up and down in her seat and squeals.“I knew it!How was it?How long have you guys been dating?”
May as well get this over with.
“We’re not dating.It’s just a friends-with-benefits thing.We met and hooked up in Vegas when I went for that bachelorette party.It was a one-night stand.”
“What?I thought you just met at Thanksgiving!”
“We didn’t know each other when we hooked up in Vegas.”I’m embarrassed to admit this.Daphne is such an innocent.“We only exchanged first names, and it was a quickie in a dark corner of the club.We weren’t going to ever see each other again.Scratch an itch and all that.”
“So, you hooked up there and then randomly find each other here and have all these connections in common?”
I glance over to see Daphne sitting there with a dreamy look on her face and her hand pressed to her heart.Uh-oh.
“That’s so romantic!It’s fate that brought you back together!”She sighs.I bet she’s picturing her bridesmaid dress…or maybe a double wedding.Not happening.
“Vermin brought us together.It’s not fate, and it’s not romantic.It’s nothing.We both like sex, and it’s convenient.I don’t want people knowing our business because I don’t want anyone thinking I get anything at work because I’m sleeping with the boss’s son.”
“I understand that, but everyone knows how good you are at your job.You don’t need to sleep with anyone to get ahead.”
“Thanks.But you know how Janet and her crew of mean girls are.I don’t want to deal with it.”
“Yeah,” Daphne agrees.
I remember something.“Oh!You’ll probably meet my sister, Valerie.Do not sayanythingabout Liam in front of her.She made me swear to never date a coworker, and even though what Liam and I are doing isn’t dating, she’ll freak out.She just got out of a bad arrangement with a coworker, and it’s messed her up.”
“Oh no!Is she okay?”Daphne is so sweet.
“I hope so.She’s normally so strong, but this has really shaken her.”I grimace.“One more thing.I told my family I was hanging out with you last night.They think we were watching chick flicks and drinking wine because you had an argument with Logan.”I glance over apologetically.“Sorry.”
“Whatever.All good.”
I park in the driveway and chuckle as Daphne stares up at my house with her mouth hanging open.
“This is your house?You grew up here?”she asks in awe.
“You didn’t see it when you came to the rink?”
“No, we came from the tree farm, so we didn’t pass it, and I was focused on the barn.I didn’t look around.”
“Yep.It’s been in the family for generations.”
