Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“Dig in, sweetheart,” Donovan told her. “Oh, I have maple syrup and butter for the pancakes, too. Here you are.” To her shock, he sat on the bed facing her.
“Get off her bed,” Hayes snarled, walking behind him to grab his shoulder, almost as though he planned to shove him off.
Worry filled her. They weren’t going to fight, were they?
Donovan winked at her again. Then he climbed off the bed after grabbing a breakfast burrito and sat on the chair next to the bed.
“Aren’t you supposed to be relieving Kent and guarding the door?” Hayes muttered.
He was?
“Is that necessary?” she asked.
“It is,” Hayes told her firmly. “So this bastard should be out there doing his job.”
“Hey!” Donovan protested. “I should be allowed to eat.”
“Eat while standing outside,” Hayes ordered as he sat on the bed and reached for the knife and fork that was wrapped up in a napkin. He unwrapped them and started cutting up the sausage. “Go!”
Donovan grumbled but winked at her again. “I’m right out there if you need me, sweetheart.”
“You know, Kent was quiet and stayed out in the hall,” Hayes said.
“Well, that’s Kent’s problem,” Donovan said. “I’m a much more hands-on sort of bodyguard.”
Hayes stood and stared at Donovan threateningly. Donovan got up with a laugh and left.
“Hayes,” she said quietly.
“Yes?” He forked up a piece of sausage.
“You shouldn’t speak that way to your friends. It’s not very nice and what if he gets angry at you?”
He paused and studied her. “Baby, we’re work colleagues, not friends.”
“Oh.” Okay. It didn’t seem much better, though. “You could be friends. Maybe if you were a bit, um, nicer.”
Hayes snorted. But then he stared at her face. “You’re worried about this?”
“It’s good to have friends. And I . . . I want you to have friends.”
She didn’t want him to be lonely. And she sensed that he’d been lonely for a long time. She understood that it was likely due to May’s death. But there was a small possibility that it was also due to his . . . prickly personality.
“But to do that you might have to be, um, well, a bit, um . . . well, less . . .”
“Less me?” he said.
“What? No! I would never say that.”
Then she thought she saw his lips twitch and she glared at him. “You’re teasing me.”
He held up a finger and thumb. “You don’t need to worry about me, baby. I have friends.”
“Who?”
“Zeke. Been friends with him for years.”
Devi waited for him to say more. “Is that it?”
“Yeah, what? I need more than that?”
“Well, I suppose it’s a start. But perhaps more would help. You just need to be . . . well, maybe don’t snarl at them. It’s very lonely without friends.”
“Fine. If I get myself some friends, will you stop worrying?”
“Um, I suppose. But this really isn’t about me,” she told him. She didn’t want him doing this for her. He should do it for himself.
And then maybe he wouldn’t be so sad anymore.
He got to his feet and strode over to the door. “Donovan!”
“Um, yes? You know I was just teasing before, right? I’m not actually interested⎯”
“We’re friends now, got it?”
Her mouth dropped open in shock. Did he really just do that?
“We are?” Donovan asked, sounding confused.
Which was a very reasonable way to feel she thought since, you know, most people didn’t just bark out that they were your friend.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you can flirt with Devi. Do it again and I’ll punch you.”
She gaped at Hayes as he returned to sitting on the bed, facing her.
“He wasn’t flirting with me!”
“Of course he was. Bastard flirts with everyone.”
“Then it shouldn’t matter to you that he flirts with me.”
He gave her a stern look. “Nobody flirts with you. Especially not my friends.”
“And you can’t just tell someone to be your friend. I know I’m no expert in making friends, but even I know that much.”
He grunted. “Don’t know why not. Gets shit done quicker. Now, open up.”
He held the fork to her lips.
“What . . . what are you doing?” she asked, staring at the sausage. She’d figured that he was going to eat it.
“Trying to damn well feed you before this food gets cold. I sorted the friend thing. Now we need to get some food into you before you start fading away.”
He was impossible.
“What if I wanted the pancakes?” she asked.
“You can have some after you eat the sausage. Eat.”
“So bossy.” She took the piece of sausage, though. Because she was starving. “Beginning to see why you don’t have friends.”
Instantly, she felt awful. What was she thinking? That was mean when she really wasn’t a mean person. In fact, she detested mean people.
But to her shock, he threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, baby. That’s why I don’t have friends. But now you want me to have friends, well, I guess you’re going to help me make sure I don’t run them off.”