Page 50 of Harmless Scandals

“I appreciate that you feel the need to protect them, but I can assure you...”

Her voice trailed off when Jillian laughed out loud.

“What?”

“Oh,” she said between chuckles. “You almost made me wet my pants with that laugh.”

Annoyance and something close to fear curled in her gut.

“So, if not that, what?”

Jillian sighed. “Now, I have made you angry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. Part of it is needing to have someone else to talk to. As I said, without the guys there, I have no one to bug.”

“And there's no one else?”

She shrugged. “I like my space. I'm sure you understand.”

It was true, having her own space was very important.

“And you know it's hard to make friends when you work from home. A solitary job leads to a less than healthy friend list. Conner is on Maui with the guys until tonight.”

“Should you be left alone?”

She snorted. “I can handle anything that comes up. Plus, I do have friends, but many of them have jobs.”

“Ah, yes. Hard to find someone who can just take off for an afternoon and go running around.”

“My best friend, Conner's sister, lives in Miami. A huge percentage of my friends work at Rough ‘n Ready.”

“Ah, and so not much time if you're exhausted at the end of the day. Different schedule and all that.”

“Exactly. See, you get it. I'm getting on Conner's nerves. No writing, stuck at home. He is not used to a dependent wife.”

“Should have thought about that before he got you pregnant a second time.”

“I knew I was going to like you when I met you.”

Silence descended again.

“And the other thing?”

“What?”

“The other thing you were talking about. You said that it was one reason.”

“I just wanted to check you out more.”

“That's better. I deal better with up front questions.”

“Then we should get along just fine.”

“You're worried about Mick and Adam. I guess they told you we were involved.”

“Yes, but I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

She blinked. It had been so long since anyone had worried about her. At least, not unless she was involved with the person.

“I'm fine.”

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