Page 18 of Seizing Mack
“I’m just saying...”
“I’m not gay.”
“... because youwerein the Marines, and you live with a gay guy.”
“I am not gay.I have slept with —dosleep with — men, not women.”
“And youlikeit?” Dee asked with wide eyes.
Mack clenched her teeth so hard she was in danger of snapping a few molars. “Yes.”
“Oh. Okay.” She still didn’t look convinced, but Mack had had more than enough of the conversation. Thankfully, Jay glided in through the door in that moment, unwittingly saving Dee from wearing Mack’s hands as a choker necklace.
“Hello, ladies,” he sang. “How was little sis’s first official week as a working girl?”
“Exhausting,” Dee moaned dramatically, “but scenic. Did you give Tish my resume?”
Mack’s mood instantly brightened. Tish was Jay’s agent, a sharp, former runway model. Both Jay and Mack adored her; her passion for healthy, happy models over starved, miserable ones sent a lot of clients Mack’s way. If Tish thought Dee had potential, Mack wouldn’t feel obligated to keep Dee atSeize. It would be a win-win for everyone.
“I did,” Jay told her. “Tish said to expect a call in a week or so, maybe earlier to come in for some test photos.”
Exhaustion temporarily forgotten, Dee squealed, popping up off the couch and wrapping her arms around him. “Awesome, Jay. You are the best.”
“I’ve been telling Mack that forever,” he winked over Dee’s shoulder.
Mack once again said a silent prayer of thanks for her housemate. He was the sweetest, most likable man she’d ever met. Not only was he being very cool about having Dee stay with them, he actually seemed to get along with her. That made the man a bona fide saint in Mack’s eyes.
“Ussie!” Jay yelled suddenly, grabbing Mack around the shoulders and pulling her in close with him and Dee. Wearing a goofy smile, he stooped down, stuck out his tongue, made rock horns with the hand looped around her neck, and snapped a picture of the three of them on his latest and greatest i-gadget.
“Did you just call me a hussy?” Mack asked.
“No. I saidussss-eeee,” he clarified, drawing the word out.
“What the hell is that?”
Dee gave Jay a sympathetic look and skipped off to get a shower. He turned the rectangular device around and showed Mack the picture. Jay, as always, looked stunning. Dee looked professionally Photoshopped. In contrast, Mack looked like she just rolled out of bed after a three-day bender. “It’s like aselfie, but with all ofus. Hence the term,ussie.”
Mack snatched the phone from his hand and stared at him. “You’re shitting me, right?”
He made a big X over his chest. “I shit you not. Haven’t you ever taken one before? You know, with your unit or something?”
Brows creased in concentration, Mack thumbed the phone surface. “Sure. Every time we drove into a war-ravaged village we all gathered round the starving kids and snapped a pic for the folks back home.”
“You don’t have to be so sarcastic.”
“Sarcasm is a sign of great intelligence.”
He shook his head. “Do you have that embroidered on a pillow or something?”
“No.” There was no way she was going to tell him that she did, in fact, have it printed on a T-shirt, a parting gift from her last team. Nor would she ever admit that they almost talked her into getting it tattooed on her rear end. Thank God she went with the Celtic cross and Trinity knot instead. “And don’t dis sarcasm. It’s not illegal or socially frowned upon like, say, beating the crap out of people.”
He took a step back. “Sometimes you really scare me, Mack.”
She grinned wickedly. “You should be scared.”
“I’m terrified. Really. Now get that face over here so we can take a totally natural and unstaged picture since you just deleted the last one. You can post it on your Facebook profile so it looks like you have an actual life.”
“I don’t have a Facebook account.”
