Page 75 of Secret Squirrel

“Again, you’re lazy. You literally waited around for someone else to do it.”

“Trust me, you don’t want my coffee. Zelda always made the coffee at home. Damn, it was good,” he said, staring off into space as he reminisced about something in his past.

Now that was interesting. I turned to him, leaning back against the counter. “Zelda?”

“Our housekeeper. She made the best food. She even sent me care packages when I was serving.”

“So, you’re a spoiled brat,” I surmised.

“I was not,” he said indignantly. “I put my own clothes in the hamper and everything.”

“Ah, but did you actually do the laundry?”

He almost looked offended that I asked. “Then Zelda would have been out of a job. How would that have been fair?”

“Yeah, you’re all heart.”

“I’m glad someone finally noticed.”

I wasn’t sure he was entirely serious about any of that. Kavanaugh was strictly against anything to do with his family. He hated them and everything they represented, so it was hard to believe that he would treat this Zelda woman like the hired help. I turned and got back to making the coffee. I was going to need it to get through this day.

“Rae,” Eli said as he entered the room. “Someone’s here for you.”

“Someone, who?” I asked, not bothering to turn around.

“Duke.”

I stilled just as I was about to put the coffee in the filter. Why would Duke be here? We had a strictly sexual relationship, and that didn’t include dropping by my workplace.

“Tell him to go away.”

“Yeah, I said you would say that, but he said something about an unanswered text. I guess the dude is worried about you.”

“Worried about me?” I scoffed. “Seriously? I’m at work—” I said, spinning around to see Duke standing in the doorway with a grin on his face.

“Baby.”

“Baby?” Eli’s eyebrows shot up in disbelief. “We’ve crossed intobabyterritory?”

“No,” I snapped. “Is there a reason you’re here?”

“Yeah, I sent you a text.”

“And I responded.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t get the answer I wanted, so I decided to come here.”

Kavanaugh smothered a laugh as he watched the scene unfold. “Dude, massive miscalculation.”

At least someone knew me well enough to know he shouldn’t have come here.

“Yeah, I’m not sure that was a wise idea. If I’d known you two were together—”

“Not together,” I corrected.

“Well, together when we’re fucking,” Duke grinned.

“It was one time!”

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