Page 28 of Welcome Home, Cowboy
“Me.” Griffin smiled widely. “You haven’t been at Heroes as much lately. I hear you’ve been seen spending time with Julie Chandler.”
Lawson’s pace slowed. “You keeping tabs?”
“Part of my duty as one of your best friends. The unspoken part. Are you seeing her?”
“Ah, geez.” Lawson headed toward a bench along the waterfront. “I came out to exercise, but, fine. If you want to talk, we’ll talk. But we’re not talking about me. We’ll talk about you.”
Something shifted in Griffin’s gaze.
“See? It’s no fun being on the other side of things, is it?” Lawson laughed despite his mood.
“Point taken.” Griffin wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Just be careful, man. That’s all I’m going to say. You have a lot going on right now. It might not be the best time to…you know.”
Had Griffin been talking to Dr. Pierce?
“Having sex is fine. Great for stress actually,” Griffin continued.
Lawson frowned. “I’m not talking to you about my sex life.”
“Good.” Griffin nodded. “I think that’s good. I favor my sleep. Don’t want visuals of you and Kat’s sister doing the dirty deed in my head. Not that she’s unattractive. Quite the opposite, actuall—”
“Done talking about this now.”
Griffin laughed and jabbed an elbow into his rib cage.
Lawson doubled over. “Ouch! Is that part of your unwritten job description, too? Beating up fellow Marines?”
Griffin shook his head. “Let’s go. I wanted to get in at least two miles before I head to the kennels and run Jaws.”
“Two?” Lawson stood and shook his head. “Lightweight.” Then he left Griffin in a blaze of dust, knowing good and well that his friend would be by his side in a matter of seconds. Good. Griffin was a needed distraction from the things he was running from.
—
On Tuesday morning, Julie stepped into her car and sucked in a breath. And, unless her imagination was screwing with her, the scent of Lawson’s cologne still lingered in the driver’s seat from when he’d fixed her car last week. If not for it being the first day at a new job, she might be tempted to sit here another few minutes and just soak in the aroma of a gorgeous man.
A gorgeous man who was a mistake waiting to happen.
She parked at Beth’s home and got out for her first day of babysitting.
“Hi,” Beth said, smiling wide as Julie approached the screen door. “Right on time. I left my cellphone number on the bar and Lawson’s number in case of an emergency. I’ll only be gone for a couple of hours. I’ll have my phone on vibrate while I’m riding so the ring doesn’t spook my horse…Oh, and I left out some food to cook for Sabrina’s lunch. She’s on a grilled cheese kick right now, so that should be easy. She’ll try to get you to raid the secret stash of last year’s Halloween candy, but that’s a big no-no.”
Julie nodded quickly at all the tips that flowed from Beth’s mouth. And there were a lot. How hard could it be to take care of one four-year-old for a couple of hours, though? Didn’t you just feed them and put them in front of the television? Or play dolls until it was time for their nap?
“And don’t even think about trying to get her to nap,” Beth said, pulling her purse over her shoulder. “That’s probably not a fight you’ll win.”
“Oh. Okay. No problem.” Julie waved a hand. “We’ll be fine. Go.”
Beth gave her an assessing look, then smiled. “Great. Thanks. I’ll see you later.” She grabbed her keys and kissed Sabrina’s cheek as the little girl came storming back into the kitchen. “Be good to Ms. Julie, okay?”
“Okay,” Sabrina said in a sweet-as-nectar voice.
When Beth was gone, Sabrina turned to face Julie. “Yay! Mommy’s gone! Let’s go play!” Her voice was full of enthusiasm. She grabbed Julie’s hand and started dragging her toward her bedroom down the hall. “This is going to be so much fun!”
“Right.” Julie kicked her shoes off as she was being pulled down the hall. A couple hours—no problem.
Forty-five minutes later, Sabrina had “made over” Julie’s hair, which was now knotted and sticking out in varying directions. Julie also had a new manicure in glittery orange and a throbbing headache behind her left eye.
“Wheee!” Sabrina said, jumping on the bed and landing with a loud thud on the floor.
