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I looked at him then. “And are you giving Theo a job?”
Dax grunted out a curse.
“Yeah.” He paused. “I don’t think so.”
I blinked. “Really? Dad, Theo’s an upstanding guy. His taste in girlfriends is questionable but… he’s good at what he does.”
Dad looked at me then. Really looked at me.
“It’s not just because of what Shondra did to you that I’m not hiring him.” He paused. “Theo’s a good kid. He just doesn’t have what it takes.”
I blinked. “What do you mean by ‘what it takes?’”
Dad looked at me. Then looked over at Dax.
“There’s just an air about a man when he’s got what it takes to make a good police officer,” he said. “Dax has it. Theo doesn’t.”
I looked over at Dax.
And saw it then.
Dad was right.
Dax did have it where Theo didn’t.
I’m not saying that Theo was a bad guy. He wasn’t.
He just didn’t have that same compelling energy about him as Dax did.
When Theo walked into a room, people noticed him.
When Dax walked into a room? People noticed, watched, and waited to see why he was there.
Dax was like a shot of warm whiskey straight to the heart.
Theo was like a quick gulp of Gatorade when you were hot. Good, but definitely didn’t affect you at all in the long run, and left you wanting more.
Dax would never leave me wanting more. He’d make sure that I got enough and keep making sure of that until he had nothing left to give.
“Ummm,” I said softly. “Okay.”
Dad laughed and pulled me away from Dax’s side, swallowed me in a quick hug, then let me go.
“We should go do dinner one night. Catch up.”
That was aimed at Peyton as he walked away, leaving none of us to reply because he was too far away.
Peyton finally looked at me then, her eyes alight with excitement.
“So tell me who Theo is, and why we hate him,” she ordered.
I fell in love with Peyton Tremaine that second.
I fell in love with Max Tremaine just a few short minutes after that.
It was sublime.
***
Peyton sat in her chair in Max’s assigned room, looking nervous but collected.
Dax looked bored.
I wondered why I was here.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go?” I asked then.
She scoffed. “You’re going to have to get used to this, honey. You’ll be doing the same damn thing when your dad goes next month.”
I hadn’t planned on being there.
“It’s major, after all,” she continued as if I hadn’t looked conflicted. “They put you under. Because no man is going to be able to deal with having something that large shoved up their ass without being under.”
“Unless they’re used to getting that on the regular.”
We all looked up as Max was wheeled into the room on the bed.
“Unless they want something that big shoved up there on the regular,” Peyton agreed. “But, there are certain risks every time someone is put under general anesthesia. The worst complication being death. So yes, you’re going to be there. Because, despite your dad being a badass, he’s going to have that second thought of ‘what if.’ What if he actually dies? He would want to see you before that happened.”
And that made me feel like absolute shit. Because she was right.
I’d heard that anesthesia of any sort was dangerous, and the worst thing that could happen would be death.
Now that I was thinking about it, I started to get nauseous.
“He’s still pretty high on the good stuff,” the man that was pushing him into the room said. “When he does start talking, it’s not going to make much sense yet. The worst of the talking has passed, though. He shouldn’t say anything too weird. That’s why we usually keep them in recovery until it has.”
Dax started snickering.
“So what did he say?” Dax leaned forward onto his knees.
The new position made the muscles in his arm flex.
I felt my belly tighten in response.
The male nurse turned to Dax and his eyes lit.
“Mr. January!” he replied loudly.
The room went silent for a long second and then Max started to snicker.
“Mr. January, will you suck my cock? Mr. January, you have a nice set of balls. Mr. January, will you inspect my…” Peyton was there to cover her husband’s mouth, letting everyone stand there in silence for a few seconds.
“Don’t lick me!” Peyton ordered harshly. “I will fuck you up, Max. Anesthesia or no anesthesia.”
“Can you sign my calendar? I’m not entering to get the vacation or anything. I’d just like to have your signature,” the nurse continued as if Max hadn’t thoroughly embarrassed him.
I would’ve cried.
Like, literally, I would’ve tucked and run.
“Sure,” Dax murmured. “But can you hit me up on the way out?”
The male nurse was already nodding. “Sure thing.”
Once he had Max in place, he turned to go, his eyes once again locking longingly onto Dax before he left.
