Page 52 of Smooth Moves
“Hector!”
“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. Or should I say witness?”
“Oh, shush.” She ignored his laughter, hoping he was the only one who’d picked up on her attraction, and waved out the window as she drove away, pleasantly tired.
Not two miles from her house, her phone rang. Since she didn’t have fancy Bluetooth in her car and didn’t want to be pulled over for talking on her cell while driving, she waited until she arrived at her apartment building and parked before returning the call. Someone picked up.
“Hello? Who is this?” she asked, not recognizing the number.
“It’s me. Cash.”
The man simply would not give her a break. Either in reality or her fantasies, he kept appearing. The fatigue she’d been feeling after the date disappeared in a blink. “What’s up?”
“I need a favor.”
“How big?”
“Huge. I need you to come pick me up. I supposedly can’t drive.” In the background she heard someone say,You can’t, idiot. “And you can’t tell Reid.”
“Family drama. Color me intrigued. So what do I get out of the deal?”
He sighed. “How about an ‘I told you so’?”
“Done.”
* * *
When Cash saw Jordan, alone, not with Hector, he relaxed. Thank God he hadn’t interrupted anything. Or had he?
She pulled up in her crappy little car and got out, bustling to his side, her eyes narrowed on the ice pack he held against his aching head. “What the hell did you do?”
Next to him, Gavin Donnigan, his friend, his trainer, and a fellow Marine, laughed. “She called it.” Gavin gave her a bright-white smile, and only the knowledge the guy was totally in love with his girlfriend saved him from being shoved on his ass for standing too close to Jordan.
“Hi.” Gavin held out a hand to her. “I’m Gavin. Best damn trainer Jameson’s Gym has.”
“I don’t know if I’d say best,” Cash commented and was ignored.
“With those arms, I’ll bet. I’m Jordan.” Jordan smiled—at another man while Cash sat injured in front of her.
He glared.
She glared back at him then smiled again at stupid Donnigan. “So what happened?”
Before he could answer, the instigator of all the trouble walked out and joined them. “I’ll tell you what happened. Cash Griffith is my hero! He saved me from some troublemakers in the parking lot.”
“They weren’t just some troublemakers, Elliot,” Cash spoke quietly, doing his best not to aggravate his growing headache. One of the combatants had nailed him in the side of the head with a barbell and rang his clock. “Some assholes who were kicked out of the gym a while ago for being dicks—”
“And not the good kind. The bigoted, violent kind,” Elliot said with a wink at Cash. “But you tell the story, my hero.”
Cash flushed and ignored Elliot in look-at-me mode. He’d befriended the guy a few weeks ago, understanding his popularity since he’d clearly charmed Cash—who disliked most people. Elliot had a sincerity under the glossy charm of good looks and innuendo, and for some reason Cash liked the guy’s quirky sense of humor. Seeing Elliot the center of a gang beatdown hadn’t sat well at all.
Unfortunately, Jordan’s wide grin told him she’d caught Elliot’s flirting. God, he’d never hear the end of this.
“So, anyway, I was leaving when I saw three guys jump Elliot—and not in a good way,” he said before Elliot could expand on that. Elliot grinned and winced, and the bruises on his face aggravated the shit out of Cash, that he’d almost been too late to prevent serious injury. “Yeah, three on one, and all three of those pussies are as big as me.”
Gavin nodded to Jordan. “Ahem. Language.”
“Little Army’s heard it all before.” Cash raised a brow at her. “Right, Jordan?”
