Page 69 of When Morning Comes Around

He cocked an eyebrow. “Set her mind at ease?”

She laughed. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“She’s ferocious, isn’t she?”

He chuckled. “That might be an understatement.”

“She cares about you. You’re one of her people, and she wants to protect you. She doesn’t know me. As far as she’s concerned, I’m a potential threat.”

He frowned. “She’s not… There’s nothing… She and Dalton are together.”

She laughed and rested her hand on his arm. “I know. She’s not interested in you in that way. But I’d guess that she loves you like family.”

He frowned. “I don’t think she has any family. I mean, she has Dalton.”

“I think she does. She might not have blood ties, but it sounds to me as though she thinks of you guys as her family.”

Dom glanced over at her. “You’re a smart cookie, aren’t you?”

She shrugged happily. “Maybe, in my own little way.”

~ ~ ~

When Dom walked into the gym the following morning, he had to laugh when he saw the guys standing around the front desk, and Sadie’s description of them came back to him – they really did look like a big man convention. Damon was standing with Cal and Dalton, and Russ was sitting behind the desk.

Dalton greeted him with a grin. “I’m glad to see that you’re still smiling.”

Dom gave him a puzzled look, not understanding.

“From what Taryn said, she and Sadie had a good time talking about you yesterday afternoon. I know Taryn enjoyed herself, but I didn’t know how Sadie would feel after having heard all your secrets. I take it that she didn’t give you a hard time last night?”

“No. I didn’t see her last night.”

“Oh, right.” Dalton cocked an eyebrow. “I guess I had the wrong idea. I thought that the two of you were in deep already.”

He shrugged.

Damon came to stand beside him. “Not everyone jumps in head first right out of the gate – just because Dom and I are twins, it doesn’t mean that he’s going to move right in with Sadie like I did with Jo.”

Dalton laughed. “I guess not.”

Dom smiled and let the conversation flow around him for a little while. They were talking about how they’d first gotten together with their women. He knew that Damon had stayed over at Jo’s place after their first couple of dates, and after that, Dom didn’t think that he’d ever stayed at his own house again – he’d effectively moved in with her. Dalton and Taryn had been neighbors for a while – and enemies for a while longer than that, but it sounded as though they’d moved in together as soon as they started seeing each other as well.

He tuned back in when Cal met his gaze and held it. “It was different for Terry and me. She had Elle and little Skye living at home with her. It took a while before it seemed right for me to stay over – and even before Terry felt comfortable leaving them at home and coming to stay at my place.”

Dom nodded. As usual, Cal was more perceptive than the others. It wasn’t an issue with Sadie yet – they hadn’t even been out on a date – but Dom was already acutely aware that they didn’t have a place they could go to be alone together. He wasn’t even thinking about spending the night together … Okay, so he had thought about it more often than he wanted to admit, but even before they got to that point, they couldn’t enjoy an evening at home together without company.

Neither of them had their own place. She was at her dad’s, and he was sharing Damon’s house with Jake.

Damon raised his eyebrows. “How’s that going to work for you and Sadie?”

He chuckled when Cal winked at him. That guy was good at steering the conversation where it needed to go.

“I don’t know. It hasn’t come up yet, but…”

“It sounds to me like it might be time for you to start looking for your own place,” said Dalton.

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