Page 13 of Until Joy

July put her hand on my arm. She must have caught on that I was trembling. “Honey. How has Graham been acting toward you when he comes to lunch? Is he weird? Spooky? Creepy? Or really kind and flirty?”

I paused to think about it. “He’s not creepy. You’re right, he’s kind and flirty. He keeps asking me out, and I know I’m going to accept his offer one of these days. I love how he acts with Miss Laverne.”

“He’s a really good guy,” Kayan piped up.

“How do you both know Graham?”

“You know Wes and I are married, and I told you he leads the Broken Eagles MC. Well Graham is a member,” July explained.

“And my man, Z, is a member, so I’ve met Graham a few times.” Kayan grinned widely at me. “Joy, you sure do have a tiger by the tail.”

“A good-looking tiger.” July grinned wider.

“He is, isn’t he?” I breathed out. “All in his eyes. But you still haven’t told me what the boom is.”

Kayan sighed. “It’s a pain in the ass, is what it is,” she grumped, but her smile was huge.

July got a dreamy look in her eye. Now I was curious as hell.

“So, are you going to spill?”

“It’s love at first sight,” Kayan said. “Z just took over. I was living with the man so fast, my head spun. Then I was pregnant.”

“What?!” I screeched. That didn’t sound good at all.

“Don’t listen to her,” July soothed. “Z and Kayan were special cases. You know her now; do you think anything else would have worked with her?”

I looked at the woman sitting at the reception desk and laughed. “You might be right. What about you, July?”

“My driving almost made Wes get in a wreck. When he figured out it was to save a bird, he thought I was crazy. But he came to the clinic to adopt a dog, and that was it. He was the man for me.”

And now she had the cutest little boys in the world.

Still…

“I think you have it wrong. If Graham fell in love with me immediately, according to the two of you, he would have pushed harder for a date.”

The two women looked at one another, but neither of them said a word.

“What?” They still didn’t say anything. “Come on, tell me.”

July spoke up, her voice soft. “Joy, sometimes you act a little bit cautious.”

Kayan nodded. “It’s like you need a little bit of special handling is all. I wouldn’t be surprised if Graham has picked up on that.”

I frowned. How could July and Kayan know I still sometimes got scared? I thought I hid that.

“Don’t take that the wrong way, Joy,” July continued. “We’re not saying you’re a scaredy-cat or anything. Just that occasionally you get jittery if a door slams or something. It’s not a big deal. But Graham was the leader of a SEAL team. He’s trained to pick up on things like that. That might be the reason he’s going slow with you.”

“Huh.”

“But I bet you’re getting antsy, aren’t you?” Kayan said with a gleam in her eyes. “Whenever I look at him, I can’t help but look at his forearms. I really go for muscled forearms.”

I grinned. “I never thought I was into that, but yeah, he’s muscly all over. He usually wears a tight T-shirt, and I get to see how his back looks. I just want to rub against it,” I admitted with a slow grin. “But there’s something worse.”

“What?” they both leaned forward.

“He’s nice!” I wailed.