Page 72 of Passion and Payback

“Shows how little you can know about a person,” I snorted. “It’s not a long story. I got suspicious after the offer to use the condoms she brought. So I checked one with the classic fill it with water trick. Not that I needed to, I should have just looked at the packaging. She was about as subtle as a hot iron poker to the face.”

“God, she turned it into a pincushion, didn’t she?”

“It would have looked like a porcupine if she’d left the needles in.”

Brooke laughed, covering her mouth as it scared one of the cats sniffing at her ankles. “That’s...so bad. I mean, it’s bad enough to baby-trap someone, but if you’re going to do it, at least have the sense to besmartabout it.”

“Clearly, that was not her priority,” I said, thinking she was more right than she knew. If you were going to try to do something you most definitely should not be doing, then you needed to be as cautious as possible. And the more wrong the thing you were doing was, whether moral or legal, then the more cautious you had to be. I could only hope Hunter understood that; otherwise, we’d be in for a lot of trouble very soon.

“In any case,” she said, sliding her empty mug back across the counter. “I need to go see some ladies about adopting their cat before they head out of here.”

“Hopefully, you have better luck than Arwen seems to be having over there,” I said, watching as she chatted with the two men, one of which was holding a pretty tortoiseshell cat in his lap.

“Oh, she’s going to get them,” Brooke chuckled. “They’re apparently talking about the other roommate moving out soon, and she’s hinting that if they give us a time frame, we can hold a cat for them to pick up later.”

“Isn’t the point of this place to sell coffee and adopt cats out, and the second one to be done as quickly as possible?”

“Mmm, yes, but,” her eyes darted toward the door leading toward the back and smiled gently, “some people around here have soft hearts and would prefer the cats get adopted by people who fall in love with them. Usually the ones who form the first loving bond with them, even if it means holding onto a cat that we could give to someone else while we wait.”

“Yes, because you are certainly not the kind of person who would want something like that for these animals,” I said with a smirk. “You’re far too hard ass for that.”

“See? You can be taught,” she said with a wink. “And if you could go make sure that certain someone is actually doing his work instead of screwing around on World of Warcraft...again, that would be great.”

“I didn’t...know he’d subscribed again,” I said with a blink.

“Wow, you two are dating, and he’s already keeping secrets? Tsk tsk,” she chided, making to walk off before I could say anything to correct her assumption. That wasn’t going to happen, so I grabbed her arm before she got too far.

“Hold on a minute,” I said, pulling her back to her seat and raising a brow when she took a moment to decide whether to sit. “Who said anything about us dating? Or me being into him, for that matter?”

“I notice you weren’t surprised that I thought he was into you.”

“Brooke.”

She laughed, and I remembered how much I liked her laugh. It was rich and rang from her throat in the rare moments when she let it free. “Fine, fine, you’re right. He’s always been obvious that he’s a little into you. I always thought he was a lot into you, but toned it down. I always wondered what Lucas thought about that, but I never said anything.”

“Much appreciated,” I grumbled, making sure Rich was minding his own business, which he wasn’t. But he was doing an admirable job pretending to clean a machine. “And if you knew, Lucas probably knew.”

“I’m sure he did. He never seemed bothered, as far as I could tell, and it wasn’t like Hunter ever drooled over you,” she said, looking at me. “At least in public. I wouldn’t blame him in private. I sure did.”

“Brooke.”

She rolled her eyes. “And people say I’m serious.”

“About your job? Yes. Otherwise, not so much.”

“Look. Even if being into each other didn’t come into play, it’s obvious you two are close and have each other’s backs through thick and thin, hell and high water…all those corny phrases. If that translates into a relationship, you two have?—”

“Not once did I say we were dating.”

“Relationship, you two have, then good. After…” A shadow crossed her face. “After what happened to him, he deserves the chance to have something good in his life. You may not think you’re the best or even good, but I saw enough to know you’re not bad. Hunter clearly adores you, with or without sharing a bed, and he seems pretty good at knowing where to put his heart.”

I sighed. “Is this your way of giving your blessing?”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that, but yes,” she said brightly, then dropped her voice. “So, is he better in bed than me?”

“Weren’t you bothered about other people not doing their jobs? I asked with a sigh.

“Ooh, you don’t want to tell, which probably means it’s him. Oh well,” she said with a laugh. “Better you’re with the person you have better sex with now than wonder what could have been if?—"

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