Page 46 of His to Protect

He scowled. “A calendar? An auction? You mean with, like, half-naked men around?”

“Think about it.” I leaned in closer to him, like I had a secret, even though there was no one else around to hear us. “Yes! It’d be perfect. Your restaurant would be in the background. We could do a group shot outside or something. So when people are flipping through the calendar, and trust me, those sell like my nana’s peach pie at a church festival, they seeyourplace in every shot. Women will line up—and some men,” I added with a wink in response to his growing scowl. “And they’ll want to come here to see if they can spot any of the firemen. An auction will bring in tons of people, women mostly, for a night of drinking and food. You can increase your clientele on days when there is no game, easily.”

He was silent for a moment, appearing to think it over. “I’ll think about it.”

“Okay.” I shrugged. It was a long shot, and I was a bit rusty with my ideas. Maybe meat-market auctions and sexy calendars were too passé.

“What other ideas do you have, though?”

“Lots,” I said, and let out a breath when I realized he wasn’t completely blowing me off. He really did want to hear my ideas.

By the time three in the morning rolled around, the tills were finally counted and we were just locking up the restaurant. My head was spinning with more ideas, even as I explained the ones I’d already thought of.

Declan and I had both been jotting down notes for the last hour. While he double-checked to make sure the door to the alley was locked, I had to cover a loud yawn. But we had at least a half-dozen inexpensive marketing and advertising ideas to follow up on in the next few days.

“So you did this kind of thing before?” he asked, resting his hand on my lower back. I let him guide me to his black pickup. He waited by the open door while I slowly climbed in.

“Sometimes. I did more public relations and helping business with their image, not as much marketing. It feels like it was in another life though.”

I wasn’t even sad to admit it. It was simply the truth.

My life before I began kowtowing to Kevin about everything seemed like another plane of existence.

“It’s too bad you quit,” Declan said, watching while I buckled the seatbelt. “You’re damn good at it.”

I turned to him and smiled. I didn’t know if he could see it in the darkness, but I did know he couldn’t see the butterflies that were stirring in my stomach from the simple compliment.

Because whether Declan knew it or not, that was the first compliment I’d been given in what felt like years.

“Thanks, Declan,” I replied.

His smile in return told me he knew exactly what he’d done.

As I watched him walk around the front of his truck and climb in, then start it and pull into the empty street with ease, I wondered how it was that he seemed to know me so well.

When I hardly knew who I was anymore.

—

My eyes jerked open and I blinked when the truck stopped moving. I jolted awake to find myself sitting in the cab of Declan’s truck in his narrow driveway. He was already walking around the front of his truck to get to my side. He opened my door before I unbuckled myself.

“I can’t believe I fell asleep.”

He held out his hand for me to take hold of. “It’s late. Or early, depending on how you look at it.”

I smiled and placed my hand in his, letting him help me down. “It’s a four-block drive.”

He laughed softly and let go of my hand, then set his at my back and ushered me toward the front door. “Takes a while to get used to this kind of schedule,” he said as he unlocked it.

We stepped in, me going first, and I couldn’t help but suck my bottom lip in between my teeth.

His hand on my back felt so good. Warm. Comforting.

Delicious in a way that shouldn’t be possible.

Perhaps I was still slightly sleepy.

Boomer trudged around the corner, welcoming us back home, as he tended to do every night.

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