Page 6 of September's Kiss (Loving the Curvy Girl)

Since she hadn’t, it was up to me to find her.

I entered her name into the database and waited as the software did it’s thing. Fortunately, September Brooks wasn’t exactly a common name, and there was only one result in the entire state.

The icon flashed, letting me know the data was ready, but I just stared at it for a minute, unable to click the button and invade her privacy. This was not the most ethical use of my access. And, I wasn’t sure how thrilled she be if I showed up at her house or work unannounced.

I blew out a sigh and closed the laptop. Then I opened it again. The icon still flashed merrily, offering me everything I’ve ever wanted with just a simple click of a button.

I slammed the lid shut again and stood up, walking out of the office and heading for the coffee machine. Most of the crew that had been standing there suddenly needed to be elsewhere. Only my brother stood his ground.

“Hey there boss,” Paul said, smiling wryly at me. “Rough weekend?”

“Piss off,” I growled as I switched out the pod and pressed the brew button on the coffee maker.

“Must have been a hell of a wedding,” he continued, ignoring my warning. He knew I was all bark. Professional hazard of working with family.

My brother’s and I own a private security company. We offer bodyguard services, private investigation and other jobs that require both brains and muscles. I’d started it when I left special forces and had brought on several family members and former Army buddies. It was a great gig, and we’d been wildly successful from the beginning.

Today though, it all felt empty. Every day had been the same for years. Get up, go to work, go home alone. Repeat. I’d joined the military at eighteen years old, served my time with the best men I’d ever met in my life, then got out and immediately got to work. There’d never been a woman in my life before. I’d never wanted or needed one.

And now, I couldn’t get one out of my head.

“Let me ask you something,” I said to Paul. “How long after you met Dolly did you know she was the one?”

“Whoa!” Paul said, his eyes widening. “Where is this coming from?”

“You know what, forget it.” I grabbed my coffee mug and headed back to my office.

“Dude, you’re thirty years old and you’ve never had a girlfriend or a boyfriend or…a friend you didn’t serve with or share blood with. That is not the kind of question I’m just going to forget. Did you meet somebody?”

He followed me into my office and shut the door behind himself, then sat down across from my desk.

“Did you?” he repeated, staring at me.

“Yes. No. Maybe…hell, I don’t know. There was a girl at Tommy’s wedding. We talked for like two seconds, she kissed me, then she was gone.” I shook my head. “This is fucking stupid. Get out of my office, I have work to do.”

“About that long,” Paul said, getting to his feet and heading back toward the door.

“What?” I stared at him, not sure what he was talking about.

“It took me about two seconds to realize I couldn’t live without Dolly.” Paul shrugged. “When you know, you just know…you know?”

He walked out leaving me to mull over those words of wisdom. I blew out a sigh and opened my laptop again. I was acting like a crazy person. There was no harm in looking. I could just poke around and see where she worked. Where she lived. I didn’t have to actually do anything with the information.

Before I could talk myself out of it again, I opened the database and started scrolling. It was a massive invasion of her privacy. I only hoped she would be flattered that I cared enough to look if she ever found out about it.

September lived on the other side of town, so it would be difficult to manage a casual encounter with any believability. But she worked at an independent bookstore about a mile from the office.

A little more digging showed that the shop was pretty small. Their clientele were all probably regulars, so it might look suspicious if I were to just show up there out of the blue.

I clicked around and found that her friend Geoff actually owned the store. Which meant he was probably there pretty often. A plan started to formulate in my head. It was a terrible one, but it might be my only chance.

“Paul!” I yelled. “Get in here. I’ve got a job for you.”

Chapter Five

~Ember~

“Well, you look far more bushy-tailed this morning,” Geoff chirped at me when I walked into the bookstore Monday morning.

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