Page 10 of Winter Wish

Good God, she was in love with him.

“What the fuck, assholes. Who are you?” Aaron shouted.

Jorie could barely focus on the conversation, which had turned into a low hum of masculine background noise, as that epiphanysettled in her heart. All she could think about was that she could have lost him, and now she needed to soothe and care for him. Jorie began searching for a clean tissue to wipe the blood from Ezra’s lip and assess the damage.

“Who the fuck names their kid Rooster?” Tobias demanded.

Rooster? Rooster. Pushing away from Ezra, Jorie tried to move around him, but he kept his arm looped around her waist as they headed for the defeated men together.

“You’re the one spreading rumors and badmouthing her around town,” Ezra growled.

“She needed to get her ass back home,” Rooster snapped.

“What are you doing here?” Jorie glared at the idiot she’d come to despise. Was he delusional?

“You’re supposed to be mine, Jorie. Not fucking some other guy. We had an understanding.” Rooster scowled at Ezra.

“An understanding? I moved twenty-five hundred miles to get away from you and my family’s bullshit. Good Lord, we never dated, never once hung out. I mean, you probably have more baby mommas than Eddie Murphy by now!”

“Who’s Eddie Murphy?” One of the dipshits sitting with him asked. Gah!

“Does Grizzly know you’re here? Never mind! I’ll call him myself.” Jorie yanked her phone out of her pocket, dialed, and put it on speaker. It rang three times before it was answered. Jorie didn’t wait for her father to speak.

“Daddy? Did you put Rooster up to this?”

The lengthy pause from the other end made Jorie wonder if the call had dropped, but then she heard her dad exhale cigarette smoke.

“Jorie, honey. Tell me you’re safe, because I have no idea what you’re talking about, and you sound upset.” Grizzly, staying true to his name, growled through the phone.

Jorie sighed in relief. For a moment, she feared her dad had gone behind her back and disregarded her wishes after she’d clearly told him she didn’t want anything to do with the man on the ground at her feet.

“Rooster showed up here, claiming me as his woman. You know how I feel about him! He attacked Ezra for heaven’s sake!”

“Who’s Ezra?” Her father’s voice sharpened. She heard the creak of his favorite chair beneath his bulk as he shifted.

“My boss.”

“Her man,” Ezra chimed in at the same time.

“I’ll take care of it.” Grizzly growled, and then the line went dead.

Chapter 8

Striding into the breakroom, Ezra dropped the bakery box of cinnamon rolls onto the Formica table and headed straight for the coffee maker. He grunted in appreciation as he followed the instructions taped to the cupboard, measuring out fresh grounds into the reusable basket Jorie had insisted was healthier for them and more eco-friendly than paper filters.

The girl was a coffee tyrant, downright sassy — something he secretly got a kick out of. Heaven forbid one of them didn’t follow the instructions. He was more inclined to acknowledge her process now that the glass carafe sparkled as he filled it to the appropriate line with fresh water. No matter who made it, each and every pot was fan-fucking-tastic. The guys had all made favorable comments.

Things had definitely changed, and for the better, since Jorie had come to work for them. There were little things he’d never have noticed otherwise because he’d never had anything to compare it with. Like a stellar cup of coffee. When Kirsty had worked here, she never cared what anyone else drank because she had one of those individual cup machines with those fancy flavored pods set up near her desk.

Yeah, Jorie had made their lives more enjoyable in so many ways. Even if he was currently suffering from blue balls, and she seemed to be delighting in that just a little too much over the last few weeks, he knew she was an asset to the garage and, more importantly, a blessing to him.

Christmas and the New Year had come and gone, and so had Jorie’s sister and father. Not even eighteen hours after Rooster and his friends had jumped them, Grizzly had arrived — without warning, of course — and he hadn’t come alone. He’d brought three of his brothers with him. His club brothers. They all wanted to make sure their princess was really okay. Ezra couldn’t help but curl his lip in amusement. Jorie hated being called “Princess,” Ezra would be sure to use it when she was being difficult.

She’d seemed surprised but cautiously pleased at her family’s arrival. She was even more relieved when the overprotective brutes finally went home. I don’t think she realized they’d come to take my measure; I’d gotten plenty of warnings about how I would suffer if I hurt her, and God help me if she stubbed so much as a cute little toe.

As for Rooster, shortly after Jorie hung up with her dad, he got his own phone call. The ass-chewing he received could be heard by all of us, even though the phone wasn’t on speaker. He and his buddies disappeared soon after, with only a few sulky glances from Rooster toward my woman, but he didn’t say another Goddamn word.

With her family visiting and a mother of all snowstorms complicating things further, work had piled up, pulling Ezra away. He and Jorie hadn’t gotten any time alone to explore things between them, but that was about to change.

---