Page 36 of Treat Her Right

Wynn lurched to her feet, feeling dreadful. “Ohmigosh. I interrupted your plans?” She looked between Josh who was smiling and Zack who was scowling. She ignored Bo.

Josh skirted the settee and again placed himself close to her. He even slipped his arm around her waist. She wasn’t sure what to do. “Don’t worry about it, Wynn. We meet nearly every week for lunch, so missing one now and then isn’t a big deal.”

Zack handed the sandwich to Wynn, who accepted it without thinking. Then he crossed his arms over his chest in a confident pose and said, “Josh, meet Wynn’s erstwhile protectors. Bo and Marc and out there in the grass with Dani is Clint.”

Bo and Marc nodded, but Clint was unaware of the additional guest. He was a grade school teacher with three daughters of his own and loved children in general. Wynn thought of him as a gentle giant, and smiled when she saw he was making Dani a flower garland out of clover buds.

Josh reached out to shake hands. He had his engaging grin in place, but his dark green eyes were alight with mischief. “Josh Marshall. How’re you all doing?”

“They were just about to leave,” Wynn said, trying for a not-so-subtle hint.

Bo just rolled his eyes. “Quit worrying, doll. We’re not going to manhandle your neighbor.”

Josh sputtered on a laugh. “Manhandle Zack? Of course not. You know he’s a paramedic, right?”

Blank faces stared at Josh.

“Well he is, and paramedics have to stay in great shape. So, don’t let him fool ya. I’ve seen Zack lift three-hundred pound men and carry them like they were infants. I’ve seen him work tirelessly through frozen snow for hours when cars piled up on the highway, and I’ve seen him go twenty-four hours without a single sign of exhaustion. He’s got more dexterity and physical coordination than you can imagine, and he—”

Zack interrupted to say, “Can leap tall buildings in a single bound? Is faster than a speeding bullet?” His tone was dry, his expression chagrined.

Josh laughed. “I don’t know about jumping buildings, but I’ve seen the bullet wound on your arm, so no, you’re not allthatfast.”

Wynn jumped on that verbal opportunity. “I’ve seen it, too. How did it happen, do you know?”

“Sure I know. I was there.”

“Josh,” Zack warned, but now that everyone had redirected their attention from animosity to curiosity—all but Zack who still looked plenty defensive—Wynn wasn’t about to back down.

And neither was Josh. “We were called to the scene of a riot. Buildings burning, glass everywhere, people down in the street.”

“Dear God,” Wynn muttered, easily able to picture the chaos. She’d never thought of Zack being involved in something so violent, and now that she did, fear swamped her.

Josh nodded. “Innocent people were cowering in alleys, afraid to move,unableto move. A woman had caught a stray bullet in the chest and she was just lying on the ground right in the middle of the worst of it, literally bleeding to death. Police were everywhere, SWAT teams were on the way. But we were afraid she’d die before we could get to her.”

Wynn already knew what Josh would tell her, and in that moment she felt herself tumbling head over heels in love. To hell with logic or time or background. Her heart knew all it needed to know; she sank down onto the settee with her very first case of weak knees.

Zack shook his head. “It wasn’t nearly so dramatic. Plenty of officers provided cover for me.”

“Not well enough,” Josh pointed out. “You took that slug to the upper arm. Actually,” Josh continued, “he got shot when he covered the woman with his own body, trying to protect her from getting hurt worse. No doubt her body couldn’t have sustained another serious injury.”

“It was all fine in the end,” Zack grumbled, and he started looking around for his shirt.

“Yeah.” Josh grinned. “As I recall she was so grateful to Zack after that. Really grateful, if you get my meaning.”

Marc and Bo chuckled in male understanding. Wynn rolled her eyes.

Zack said, “Shut up, Josh.”

“My lips are sealed.”

Zack finally found his shirt and pulled it on. Wynn mourned the loss of seeing his sexy naked chest, and she really wanted to examine that scar from the bullet more closely. “Dani said you were a hero.”

He grunted. “Dani is four years old and adores me, which is only right since I’m her father. Truth is I just do my job, the same as anybody else.”

Josh, still pretending to have zipped his lips, hummed a reply to that.

“Oh, knock it off,” Zack snapped. He took his sandwich back from Wynn and took a healthy bite.

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