Page 77 of Love at Teamsgiving
A second voice from the peanut gallery, Joey, calls, “No, you’re not.”
He grunts. “This was the best I could do this late without driving to the other side of Omaha.”
He gives Mikey a package. “We should’ve had cameras and a security system installed from the beginning.”
“But it says in my lease—” I start.
The guys look at me with surprise and all start talking at once.
“That surveillance is not allowed. Well, it was an amendment I got in an email, but?—”
Mikey’s voice rises above the others. “If the landlord wants his building to remain standing, we’re installing security.”
I nod, not about to argue with a bunch of guys who could star as mafia kingpins in a movie. Not this late at night. Not when I’m this exhausted. Not when I still want to kiss the brother whose gaze turns soft and says, “Let us help you, Junie.”
All the lights in the salon blaze as they make quick work of setting up the cameras, connecting to an app, and showing me how to use it. Mikey adds his information as a secondary contact to get notifications. As ever, we bicker about this, but in the end, I relent and let him—and by extension, his brothers—help me. Isomehow survived New York City unscathed, but have no idea what I’m up against in this small town.
I thank them all and Mikey says he’ll drive me home. We get in the car, but he doesn’t start it. He just stares at the salon as if whoever egged the windows personally offended him.
“You were serious about conducting a stakeout.”
“Quite.”
I say, “You must be tired.”
“Very.”
“Are you going to reply using more than one word?”
His lips part with laughter, but no sound comes out. “Depends on what you ask me.”
“Why are you so intent on helping me?”
He pulls his gaze from the salon, eyes landing on me. “You know why.”
My hair slides on the headrest as I turn to face him. Mikey’s dark eyes streaked with an amber twinkle in the low light.
He mouths,I love you.
I do the same and wonder when we’ll both be brave enough to say it out loud again.
Silently, he says,I want to kiss you.
I arch an eyebrow because he’ll have to do better than that.
After a beat, he says, “My turn. You owe me now.”
“I thought this was a volunteer mission.”
“Will you please take care of Burt Reynolds?”
“You mean Purr-t.”
“Fine. Purr-t.”
“What about your family? Can’t Joey cat-sit?”
“They’re flying out for the game and visiting some friends while in New York. I have the bachelor party for Shane, so I’ll be gone an extra day. Plus, Purr-t wantsyou.”
