Page 11 of Demo

Beyond the reception desk were empty shelves. Demo wondered if it was supposed to be a mini store or if it was supposed to maybe hold patient files? Like Angel’s tattoo studio, the clinic had a door leading back to, he assumed, the patient rooms. Angel’s tattoo studio was parallel to Paige’s across the street. Additionally, her studio’s entry was bigger in square footage. Given that, Demo could only assume that Paige’s clinic also had a smaller number of rooms than Angel’s tattoo studio.

If she had a full docket, how many patients could she see at once? Demo would assume only one, but then why would she need more than one patient room? It would have made more sense to find an office space with only one privacy room and maybe a small office. From other layouts on Main Street, Demo estimated two or three patient rooms in the back of Paige’s clinic. Unless the need called for an additional practitioner, why would she get a clinic this size?

Footsteps approached and Demo straightened in time to see Paige walking out from the back area. She wore dress pants with sensible shoes, a nice blouse that hung loosely, and a white lab coat. Her unruly brown curls were thrown up in a messy bun atop her head. She wore little to no makeup, but Demo honestly preferred that on women anyway.

But what brought a smile to his face was the number of pens in her hair. He’d seen the style before in the Asian culture with decorative chopsticks, but that was usually with one or two sticks. Paige had a total of seven pens of various styles and colors sticking haphazardly out of her mass of curls. It reminded Demo of when he’d seen someone absentmindedly leaving multiple pairs of reading glasses on their person.

She paused in the doorway, her shoes letting out a sharpsqueakat her abrupt halt. Paige blinked, looking for a moment like a deer in the headlights.

Then she shook her head slightly. “Demo, right?”

Demo nodded sharply. While the two of them knew of each other, Demo could not recall a time when they’d ever spoken to each other before. He’d always seen her at a distance.

As she completed her journey to the reception desk, Demo really took her in. Like him, she had a lean look to her. He was more height than muscle, built for speed over brute force. He’d been told more than once in his life that he had a swimmer’s body.

Like her shirt, her lab coat and pants seemed too big for her. Paige’s lean frame was almosttoothin. Unhealthily so. Her loose shirt hung awkwardly, not accentuating her breasts or hips. She had a belt around her waist that was tightened more than necessary and bunched her pants, which were clearly a size too big. With her feet now hidden by the reception desk, Demo couldn’t comment on her shoes, though he had a feeling they would be worn and not an expensive brand.

Demo thought back to the last time he’d seen Nelson and Michael. Lucky and Harper brought them around the clubhouse at times. His son, Scotty, was over the moon about not only having a new little brother, but also another baby on the way as well as new cousins. Per Scotty, bigger families were the best.

Even with Paige’s obvious money problems, he could not recall seeing the boys in clothes that didn’t fit or looking hungry. With how attentive many of his club brothers were towards children, Demo had a feeling that was something they would have noticed and brought to question long before Hannigan had shown up on their doorstep Saturday afternoon.

She was barely making ends meet, but the boys weren’t showing a lack of care or necessities.

Demo’s eyes narrowed on her too big shirt. Trailing up her slender frame, he spotted the edges of her collarbones just under her long neck to the sharpness of her jawline. Her skin looked naturally tanned but also pale in a way. There was no natural flush to her cheeks. Dark circles accentuated her eyes.

When was the last time she’d eaten a full meal or slept the entire night?

Here he was mentally complaining about his damn shoulder pain whenshelikely hadn’t eaten yet that day.

“If you’re here to pick up Abby, I’m sorry to inform you but you’ve got the wrong day. Her appointment isn’t until tomorrow.”

Demo blinked. “What?”

Paige raised an eyebrow. “Abby? Her appointment’s tomorrow.”

She thought he was here to pick up Abby? Hadn’t Keys made him an appointment? If it had been a bluff, maybe he could still get out of this without getting pricked like a pincushion. “I have an appointment,” he informed her.

Surprised, Paige reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. Was she doing all of her appointments and work from that small device? Why didn’t she have a laptop at least, even if she shared it between her personal and work uses?

“Are you Ron Snyder?”

He probably should have thought of that. Keys wouldn’t have made the appointment underDemo. He wasn’t Sonny or Cher after all andDemo Snyderwas just weird. Other than his dad and doctors, he was so used to being called ‘Demo’ that hearing his legal name from her lips sounded wrong. He didn’t like it, almost as if it lacked intimacy.

He blinked and internally huffed. Where hadthatthought come from?

Not wanting her to feel uneasy, Demo gave her a crooked smile. “Only if you promise to go easy on the needles.”

Glancing up from her phone, her chocolate eyes held a depth of amusement—and maybe even a bit of cockiness. “Don’t tell me the big, bad soldier boy has a fear of needles?”

It didn’t surprise him that she knew he was a veteran. Everyone in town knew that theVia Daemoniawere all former military. She was around them and Lucky enough to have picked up on that, even if the town still considered her an outsider.

Demo dramatically puffed up his chest. “Thisairboy doesn’tlikeneedles but tolerates them just fine.”

Paige’s eyes lit with interest. “Airman? I don’t think I’ve met anyone who was in the Air Force before. I know Lucky and Bear were Marines and Abby’s Bulldog was Army. Angel was Army too, right?”

Demo nodded, finding it interesting that she referred to Bulldog asAbby’srather than just using his name. Somehow, though, it suited their relationship.

“So you’re my first airman,” she said with a wide smile.

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