Page 14 of A Perfect Holiday
Just the thought of anyone poking at my junk with sharp objects made me cringe, but I couldn’t take any risks with her, and I didn’t want to have that worry at the back of my mind every time I made love to her.
She cupped my jaw, soothing me. “Let’s save that to worry about if necessary, after we get the results. Everything will be fine,” she said, her voice firm.
I had been through too much to believe in miracles. And, even though we were talking and I was listening, trying tounderstand, that bigger hurt, like the proverbial thorn in the lion’s paw still throbbed like an unhealed injury.
I clamped my teeth together. Nothing could come of discussing it. She’d just say she was sorry.
I was worried that wouldn’t be enough for me.
Chapter Four
BOONE
After I took Verity to the doctor and she had all her tests, we picked up Duel, and I dropped her back home.
I called the office from my home phone since my cell was still at Booker’s, and Savannah answered. “Hey, boss. Jennifer told me you’d be out for a couple days.”
“Boss, again,” I grumbled, knowing that Jennifer, our receptionist knew nothing beyond the fact that I wouldn’t be at work, but I couldn’t tell Savannah any of the personal business. “Deke is having an influence on you.”
She chuckled, having fun razzing me. My affection for her and Deke got in the way of my grump. “Yeah, it was good to see him and Minnie.”
Deke and his older woman. I wasn’t one to judge. Hell, they were doing pretty good with their relationship, so I had no room to judge them anyway. “I should be there this afternoon. There are a couple of things I have to do before I come back. Is everything under control?”
“It sure is. Is everything all right, Boone?”
I thought about playing it off, but Savannah was a close friend as well as one of my staff. “Not really. Some personal issues that I won’t bore you with.”
Her voice softened. “You never bore me, Boone. Let me know if I can do anything for you. I mean that.”
“Thanks.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised later when both my brothers, River Pearl, and Aubree showed up on the doorstep.
Braxton grabbed me around the neck and practically strangled me. “I should deck your ass.”
“Look at that,” Booker said, “He’s really mellowing out. He didn’t say fucking ass.” He held out my phone. “Forget something at my house?”
I took it. “I have your bike and leathers.”
He lowered his voice, giving a sidelong glance to measure how far Aubree was from us. “I’ll get those later, but on the leathers…”
“Yeah,” I said knowingly, waggling my brows.
“As good as flowers, right?”
“Better.”
We bumped fists, and Booker grinned. “The womenfolk are going to discuss gallery stuff,” Booker said, “so that leaves us free to hash out the Santa thing.”
“No moonshine and boxing gloves,” River Pearl said, and Brax gave her a bland smile. “No, ma’am.” His tone was anything but cowed.
She narrowed her eyes at him, but he wasn’t affected. “Brax…”
Devilry glinting in his eyes, he said, “You’re getting really good with that death stare, woman, but you’ll have to go and take some lessons from Death himself to get me to change my mind about pounding some sense into my brothers,” he grumbled. “There’s no need to hash anything out anyway,” Brax said. “I’ll be the big, jolly guy. I’ve already told you I refuse to wear pointy shoes with bells on them.”
Booker crowded Brax and me toward the sliding glass door while River Pearl narrowed her eyes on my brother. Talk about someone getting a pounding…and I believed that gal could do it.
“Let’s go out back,” Booker suggested, but I knew they wanted to talk to me, and it had nothing to do with Santa or his elves. Braxton held River’s eyes and laughed softly when she set her hands on her hips, her eyes broadcasting her warning loudand clear. They looked like they’d be breaking out boxing gloves any minute.
