Page 45 of Hot Shot

“Yes!”

Helena shrugs. “I kept asking you when we could watch again, and you ended up working late the last two nights, so I watched it myself.”

“You don’t do that!” He scowls. “That’s our thing . . . to watch it together.” He looks at me. “Right?”

“It is a thing,” I say carefully.

Helena snorts. “He just wants to be mad.”

Joe frowns. “I feel betrayed.”

I nod. “I get that. If that was your agreement, of course you’d feel betrayed. But she probably felt a little betrayed when you weren’t home the last two nights to watch it together.”

“Right.” Helena lifts her chin. “See?”

“That said, it’s not like she destroyed something you love,” I say. “You can still watch those two episodes and then you’re back to where you were.”

“I don’t want to watch them again,” Helena says. “And I plan to watch another episode tomorrow, so you better be caught up by then.”

“How am I gonna do that? I have to work.”

Helena gives him a tight smile. “You could be watching them right now instead of sitting here in the bar.”

“And leave you all alone here? Not a fuckin’ chance.”

“Why? Don’t you trust me?”

I swallow a sigh. This is stressing me out. If this kind of interaction is fun for them, well, they can have it. It would exhaust me. I’d rather be single than fight with someone every damn day. “You two need drinks!” I wave at Beck, who’s already on his way to take their orders.

Marco slides onto the stool next to me. “I ordered food for us.”

“What? What did you order?”

He grins, and as always that unexpected beauty flash hits me like a fist in the gut. “We’re going to try one of Sid’s new menu items. A burrito pie.”

“Oh. Okay.” Burrito pie? I ty not to let my doubt show on my face.

“We’ve been trying to improve our food menu. Sid’s not exactly a Michelin-starred chef, so it’s been a struggle.”

“Why don’t you just hire a better chef?”

He grimaces. “We might have to do that. None of us like firing people.”

“Really? You tough Navy SEALs? I would’ve thought you’d love barking out orders and kicking ass.”

“Ha. We can do it. We have done it. Seemed like a good idea to at least give him a chance.”

“That’s . . . nice.”

He frowns.

“Don’t worry, that doesn’t destroy your badass SEAL cred.”

He snorts. “Thanks. Good to know.”

“I didn’t get a chance to say this yesterday, but . . . thank you for what you’re doing with Julia.”

He looks away and shrugs.

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