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He chuckled. “You like the way I say thank you?”
“It makes me want to save you all over again,” she whispered.
“I’ll have to see what I can do about that,” he vowed. He kissed her and started showing his gratitude all over again.
chapter thirteen
“Brynn is fine. She’s sleeping and I’m not going to wake her up.”
Too late. Brynn yawned the next morning and realized Major wasn’t still in bed with her. There was an indentation in the pillow next to hers, but the covers had been pushed back and she could smell coffee. He seemed to be talking to someone.
“Why don’t you allow me to make that observation for myself, Deputy?”
Brynn groaned and let her head find the pillow again. Naturally her mom was here, and she was probably giving Major a hard time. She was surprised her mom hadn’t shown up the night before demanding to know what was going on.
She felt something jump onto the bed, and then Duke was nuzzling her. “Hey, buddy. Did you have a good time last night? I bet Mom didn’t even make you sleep in a crate, did she?”
When she watched Duke, her mother tended to let him sleep on her bed, snuggled up against her.
Duke’s body wiggled in excitement until he looked over at the pillow beside hers and sniffed all around it. Then he lay right down on it and stared at her, judgment in his doggy eyes.
“Hey, I get a private life, too.” Not that she’d had one for the last twenty years. Maybe ever.
“She’s sleeping in today,” Major insisted. “It’s the one thing she asked for, and I’m giving it to her. You can talk to her when she’s ready. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ve already picked up breakfast, and I have her coffee brewing right now. She’ll be well taken care of. I’ll make sure she knows you came by.”
And then the door shut. Forcefully.
She heard her mother groan and then the sound of her phone ringing. Of course, it was all the way in the other room. Major had spared her having to deal with her mother so early in the morning. It would be rude to make all that work for naught by answering her phone.
She could take the morning off.
When had she started viewing any interaction with her mom as work?
Despite the fact that she was outside, Brynn could still hear her mother’s voice loud and clear. “Brynn, dear, I understand you had an eventful night, but do remember that you have work to do. I brought Duke back, and I expect you to call me the minute you get up.”
“She doesn’t stop, does she?” Major stood in the doorway, two mugs in his hands.
He was the most delicious-looking man she’d ever seen. He’d put on jeans but nothing else. Those denims rode low on his hips, showing off the notches there. He had a light dusting of dark hair across his muscular chest and the hint of a beard coming in across his chiseled face. The dark look that had been in his eyes the night before was gone, replaced with an expression of satisfied indulgence.
“She’s spent much of her life steamrolling through,” she replied. She sat up, pulling the sheets around her.
He moved across the room and set the mug down on her side of the bed. “Did she wake you? I promised I’d let you sleep in.”
She glanced at the clock on the wall and chuckled. “It’s nine thirty. That’s the latest I’ve slept in a very long time. Though I was up pretty late.”
They’d made love again and she’d fallen asleep with her head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
It was the best sleep she’d had in forever.
He grinned, an adorably arrogant expression. “I won’t apologize for that.”
“Not many people are willing to take on my mom.” Most of her previous boyfriends were involved in the industry, one of them a client of her mother’s, so they tended to side with her out of pure fear.
“She is a formidable woman,” he allowed. “But she doesn’t have any control over my career. She can complain to Armie all she likes and he still won’t fire me. It took him long enough to find Landon. Strangely, not everyone wants to work in a town with more critters than people. The people are all eccentric, too.”
“I think this place is great. And Mom worked hard for that power.” She sipped the coffee, enjoying the rich flavor that came from the chicory Seraphina used. Just the smell brought a smile to her lips.
“She wasn’t always so confident?” Major asked, settling on the mattress.
Duke grumbled but nestled down between their pillows.
“She always seemed that way to me.” She’d been thinking a lot about her mom lately. Probably because she was thinking about her whole life. Something about this town and this job seemed to bring her to a crossroads. “She was always a force of nature. I’ve told you about what happened when my dad died, right?”
