Page 61 of Baby For The Billionaire Silver Fox

With that decided, I headed to work. Nothing like throwing around some freight in the mornings to get my blood pumping. Well, I guess there was one thing that would have been better, but she’d left in the middle of the night.

I worked up a light sweat helping unload the delivery truck. I changed my shirt before going out on the floor and grabbed a fresh apron.

I noticed a guy walking towards me, and I smiled at him. “Hey, Joel. Congratulations on the baby boy!”

“Thanks!” the new father beamed.

“I am delirious from excitement and lack of sleep. But he’s our precious bundle of joy, and our world has turned upside down—in a good way, of course,” he hastened to add.

“I can imagine. Can I help you find something?

“Yeah. Jenny gave me this short list, and I’m too fuddle-brained right now to remember where anything is.” His eyes looked feverish as he clutched my arm. “Help me, please.”

“Happy to.” I smiled. “First, show me some pictures of that new baby.”

As I finished helping Joel load his cart, I noticed a familiar face down the end of an aisle. It was Cyrus. He’d taken one look at me, picked up his pace, and moved along to the next aisle. I turned down that aisle from my end until I confronted him.

“Hey, Cyrus,” I said.

“Hello, I was just, um, getting something for my lunch,” he said, taking a step back.

“I’d like to apologize for being a rude SOB last night,” I stuck out my hand.

Cyrus hesitated, then shook it. “No harm done. We just had some laughs.”

“Anyway, I’m sorry. Can I help you find anything?”

“No thanks. See you around.”

I watched him walk out the door, noting he hadn’t bought anything for his lunch.

I waved at the checkers as I walked by. Georgia, the married flirt, blew me a kiss and batted her eyelashes.Still gonna stay far away from that, I thought.

She waved me over, and I went warily.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I thought you should know that guy was asking questions about you.”

“What kind of questions?”

“He wanted to know about your history, you know, before you came to live in Cooperstown. None of us could answer that.”

She froze. “Hey, I realized I really don’t know shit about you. Maybe you’re an axe murderer or something.”

I chuckled. “Do I seem like the axe murderer type, Georgia?”

“Noooo, axe murderers can’t be as handsome as you,” she drew out. “Anyway, he was asking about your military history. I didn’t know squat, and I told him that. You were in Afghanistan?”

My teeth clenched, and I didn’t answer her question. “Who was asking?” I ground out.

“That dude I just saw you talking to.”

I walked to the backroom where the freight was stored. I wanted to punch something. Here I’d just apologized to the guy, and he’d been nosing around asking questions about my past and didn’t say a thing. He didn’t ask me a single question to my face. Spineless.

I rubbed my hands over my face. I really wouldn’t blame him if he was afraid of me. I’d gone Threatening Neanderthal on him last night. Serves me right.

I paced for a few minutes, thinking about my tours in Afghanistan—the last one in particular. The old punch in the gut feeling hit me as hard as it always did when I thought about it. I needed to shake this off before I picked up the utility knife and accidentally cut myself again.I am here, and now, I chanted in my head about fifty times, slowing my breathing down. This finally calmed me.

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