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“I’d love to have you move in with me again, Lyrie,” he said with a sigh, using the nickname he’d given her in the first days after he’d found his sisters. “You know I would.”
“We’d kill each other.” She sighed, too.
Dawg shook his head, his gaze still heavy. “No, I don’t think we would now.”
Maybe they wouldn’t, but still, it wouldn’t work.
“I just need some time to think, Dawg.”
“Or some time to give that damned hound dog Graham Brock a chance to get to you?” Natches made the accusation as he rose slowly from his chair across the room.
She’d known it was coming, and she had known it was coming from him. It had been in his eyes as he watched her, silent, thoughtful.
“If it hadn’t been for Graham, she would have died, Natches,” Dawg snapped, surprising more than one of the men in the room. “He did the same thing I would have done if his sister were in danger. Waited and ascertained the level of danger before contacting anyone. The fact that Timothy’s contact in Washington learned of it was a lucky break for all of us.”
Lyrica hid her smile. He was trying so hard to convince himself that Graham wasn’t a threat to whatever virtue she may possess. He did that with her all the time. If he didn’t acknowledge the reasons for something, then he didn’t have to stress about something he was sworn not to interfere in.
“Come on, Dawg, you know better than that,” Natches laughed. “And you know damned good and well if he ends up seducing her then he’s just going to break her heart.”
“Then I can just kill him.” Dawg shrugged as though the thought of killing a man he considered a friend was everyday business, and he stared back at Lyrica with no change of expression. Somber, worried. “Grant knows how it works, Natches. He has a sister himself.”
She almost rolled her eyes. “Sorry, can’t see any of you seducing her,” she stated with amused indulgence.
“Not us,” Natches agreed, his expression easy, his laughter natural as he leaned against the wall and watched her with that damned knowing expression. “But, you know, one day, we might know when some hound dog is out to break her heart rather than cherishing her as he should. We might not step up and beat the shit out of him before Graham can figure out what’s going on.”
Did he really think she didn’t know each one of them so much better than to believe that?
She did laugh now. “Natches, you’re such a liar. You actually like Kye and interfere in her life just as often as you do anyone else’s.”
“True.” He nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. “Just remember one thing, sweetheart: It was Dawg that swore not to mess with the Romeos that come sniffing after you. Not the rest of us.” His gaze encompassed the other men who were watching the byplay with interest.
“Natches, perhaps you should remember,” she answered sweetly with wide-eyed innocence, “mess in my life too far, and Lexington will be seeing me on a regular basis, because I will move. Then you can deal with Dawg.”
“Shut up, Natches,” Dawg growled under his breath. “Just shut up.”
Natches’s eyes narrowed, his lips pursing thoughtfully at the reminder. She’d almost done just that when he’d sucker punched one of the bouncers at a friend’s bar a few years before because Natches had been told the man was kissing her outside before she left one night.
Actually, the bouncer had kissed her cheek and thanked her for helping him with his girlfriend as he walked her to her car.
“I’m heading home.” The weariness that had engulfed her for the past weeks settled over her shoulders once again. “Do what you have to do, but remember, I’m a Mackay, too.” She included each man in her look then. “And trust me, I can be just as damned stubborn as any of you.”
Moving to Dawg, she hugged him tightly for a minute. “Thanks for watching out for me.”
His arms tightened around her briefly before releasing her. Tim was waiting at the door as she reached it and she gave him a hug as well. Behind her, she could feel the eyes watching her, the testosterone-driven assurance that they could guide her life better than she could piercing her back.
“Tell your mother good-bye,” Tim told her softly as he released her. “You girls hurt her feelings when you just leave.”
She knew that. She’d always known that. But sometimes, her mother was just as controlling as her brother and cousins were. They just did it in different ways.
“I will,” she promised, moving back to smile at him chidingly. “It’s not like I won’t be back at some point, Tim.”
“Better be,” he grunted. “We like seeing your smile around here.”
He told all Mercedes Mackay’s girls that. He told Mercedes he couldn’t live without her smile.
Leaving the office, Lyrica went to her old room, hurriedly grabbed the few clothes she’d had Zoey pack for her two weeks before, and headed downstairs.
Placing her luggage next to the door, Lyrica stepped into the television room, where a guest had just risen from one of the easy chairs and was moving to the doorway.
