Page 63 of Flirting With Fire
I turned—not waiting to see what he did—to find all my men watching me. From the expressions on their faces, if this had been a test, I aced it.
“What are you looking at?” I demanded. “We’ve got work to do.”
“Chief Brannigan sent us over to see if you needed us,” Caleb said. He was the one guy who hadn’t really warmed to me since my arrival. Now though, he looked at me with approval. “But you had it handled, Chief.”
I gave him a curt nod, a bit choked up at his praise. “I meant it.”
“We know you did,” Ray Pérez assured me. “Not everyone thinks the same. But this’ll be all around the fiesta before the hour’s out. Our mamas and wives are gonna love you. You’ll see.”
“We’ll handle this,” White said, waving his hand at the vendor. “If he moves his truck…?”
“I’ll move it,” the guy promised.
“Or we’ll move it for you,” Skip growled.
I left them to it. They knew how to handle him. I spotted Dex watching the proceedings and loped over to him.
“You couldn’t have done anything better to win their support,” Dex observed as I joined him.
“I didn’t do it for that.”
“I know you didn’t. You had no idea they were there.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You watched me?”
Dex shrugged. “I came looking for you. I didn’t know how feisty the guy was going to get. I thought you might need help, so I called Brannigan and watched in case you needed me.”
I’d been oblivious to it all. “Thanks for having my back.”
“Always.” His smile was bright and focused on me.
I was not letting this man go. I’d wait as long as it took for him to feel the same way about me.
I finished my rounds, and Ray was right. Several women, wives and mothers, came up to thank me for supporting their menfolk. By the time I reached Dex’s salsa booth, I had a handful of sweet treats and had to beg a box from Destiny to hold them all. Of course, she slipped in a couple of alien butt cookies because, as she said, “You’re one of us now.”
Dex was in the middle of serving someone when I arrived. He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were ignoring me.”
“It’s been busy,” I protested, holding up my box. “I have presents.”
“Gonna share?”
“With you, always,” I said. I’d happily eat the cookies off his naked belly tonight with some additional cream. He could do the same to me.
“Is the salsa organic?” a woman asked, interrupting our heated stare.
“Yes, ma’am,” Dex said, tearing his gaze away from mine.
She seemed to take an eternity, then just as she left, a teenage boy loped over to us. I don’t recognize him, but Dex clearly did by his cheerful, “Hey, Chuck.”
The boy, maybe around fifteen with a mop of sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes, grunted at Dex, then turned to me. “Chief Jones? Chief Brannigan says it’s your turn.”
I blink at him. “My turn to do…what?” Had I missed an inspection for the fiesta? I thought I’d covered everything on the list.
“The dunking.” Chuck waved his hand, and I saw my Mom and Brannigan grinning at me.
“Oh no.” I groaned as understanding dawned. “You’ve got to be joking.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Dex’s huge grin. “Did you know about this?”
