Page 20 of Jonas

“I swear I’ll hang a closed sign above my vag⁠—”

“Don’t finish that,” Cooper mercifully interrupted his wife.

“What is it with men and the word vagina?” Kira went on.

“Someone kill me,” I mumbled.

Coop didn’t mutter when he explained, “I have no problems with vaginas. I have a problem with my wife discussing her…lady parts in front of our teammate.”

I heard Derrika make a choking sound while she tried to cover her smile.

“Did he just say, lady parts?” Derrika asked, sounding strangled.

“I’m hanging up,” I announced, then did just that.

I set my phone down on the table and looked up at Derrika.

This was a mistake. Her smile was so big, so blinding, so beautiful, I was stunned inert. Obviously, this was the first real smile I’d ever seen the woman give because there was no way I would’ve missed the dimple in her right cheek. It wasn’t a deep grove, but the slight indent ratcheted up her appeal.

“Are they always like that?”

“I wish I could say no.”

Derrika’s lips twitched.

“Must be nice working with a team.”

As soon as the wistful words left her mouth, she looked like she wanted to pull them back.

“Tell me about the Wentworth connection.”

I knew a thing or two about a subject change. I should’ve let her have that play, but for the life of me, I couldn’t. The need to understand why sadness had crept into her gaze overwhelmed me.

“I will after you tell me what put that look on your face.”

“What look?”

Yeah, I knew a thing or two about deflection, too.

“The look that tells me you wished you wouldn’t’ve said anything about working with a team.”

Derrika blanked her face and made no move to regain her seat next to me.

“I know that look, too,” I informed her. “I mastered it by the time I was ten.”

“Ten?” she asked and lifted her right brow in disbelief.

The brow lift was cute.

“Ten,” I confirmed.

“That doesn’t sound good,” she softly muttered her understatement.

It wasn’t good. No child should learn how to hide—physically or emotionally.

But that was life.

“Your turn.”