Page 83 of Ugly Duckling
“Hey there, ladies,” he said as he took Lottie out of her car seat. “What’s this going on with your hair?”
I smiled. “She was a bit of a wild mess, and I was in a hurry. I had two clients today. We thought we’d bring you by some lunch, then we’re going to go pick up some new running shoes.”
“Take my card,” he suggested. “There’s no way she’s going to let you walk out of there without some for her, too.”
I snorted and followed him inside. “I agree. She walks out with pens, notebooks, and anything else that the funeral directors can give her when we go to my jobs. She’s like a magician. No one can say no to her.”
“Me included,” he groaned. “Chick-fil-A again?”
“I didn’t argue,” I admitted sheepishly.
He chuckled as he walked us into the school, using an ID scanner to scan a badge on the way in, and headed to the break room.
I smiled at a few of the guys we passed, and came up short when the same guy as last time was in the breakroom when we arrived. The one that made me feel slightly uncomfortable for kissing Gunner in the middle of the school hallway.
“Yates,” Gunner greeted the man. “You get everything done on your end?”
The way he said that last part made me inwardly smile.
Gunner might not have shown his displeasure outwardly with this man for not showing up and doing his job over the last few days, but I’d been around him enough that I could see the underlying tension in his shoulders.
To say that he was displeased with this man would be an understatement.
“It’s all done.” He nodded, his eyes going alert as I entered the room. “Lunchtime already?”
“Yep,” Gunner grumbled. “Are you going out with the rest of them?”
“I was going to, but I packed my lunch today, and my girlfriend said that she’d kill me if I went out to eat without her.” He sighed. “And since we share locations with each other, I try not to do it blatantly. We’re trying to save money for a house.”
I nodded.
I could see a girlfriend saying that.
“Interesting,” Gunner mumbled and set down the food.
Lottie scrambled into the seat that Gunner pulled out for her and reached into the first bag she could get to, pulling out a waffle fry the size of her hand.
“Little big for you, isn’t it?” Yates asked her.
“No,” she dismissed him and started to eat the fry, her gaze focused on the paper and pens in front of her.
Yates stood there awkwardly while we ate, and didn’t leave until his phone rang about ten minutes into our lunch.
I eyed Gunner once he left, and he shook his head. “I don’t know. That was weird even for me.”
My lips tipped up at the corners as I dove back into my salad with extra, extra protein. As in, two extra sides of nuggets. So many so that it made it no longer all that healthy, but at least I’d added a little bit of green to my meal today.
I really liked their nuggets, so sue me.
The rest of lunch went a whole lot better than the first part, also giving me the time to tell Gunner all about Jackson’s new fiancé.
“So what you’re telling me is that to better store the sperm, they suggested fertilizing your eggs. He gave you those fertile eggs in the divorce, and now they want the eggs back so that they can have their child. And they don’t care that that child would also then be your child?”
I nodded.
“Are they crazy?” He sat back in his chair, his tight t-shirt pulling taut over his belly.
I was momentarily distracted from what he was saying by the way the veins in his arms and hands pulsed.
