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“And after that, hopefully I’ll have a temporary job for the day time so I don’t end up back on her couch,” Mike said. He had the same easy-going grin on his face he always did when he was enjoying himself, but Angel knew he’d deliberately stated he was sleeping on the couch to both reassure her father and give a hint to her mom. Bless him. “I think the interview went well today. I have Angel to thank, she introduced me to the owner of the temp company.”
I did?
“She’s so helpful and thoughtful, isn’t she?” Angel’s mom beamed at her.
“Mmm hmm, Adam’s a great guy and on top of finding a good, long-term temp job for me.”
Angel choked on her green beans. “Adam?”
Beside her, Leigh giggled, and Angel kicked her in the ankle.
“Yes,” Mike said, his tone of voice completely bland and so innocent he might as well have screamed he was in a trouble-making mood. “He seems awfully invested in making sure I don’t find myself back on your couch once I’m off of it.”
Both of Angel’s parents blinked and then their heads swung around to look at her.
Oh. Oh, he was so dead.
Angel
Knock knock knock.
“Come on, Angel, I said I was sorry! Let me in, it’s cold out here!”
“You should have thought of that before you threw me to the wolves!” She glared at Leigh, who was sprawled out on the couch in the main room, rolling with laughter. Mark, Sam, and Q weren’t much better. In fact, she’d already had to stop Sam from attempting to let Mike in the front door. They were all taking far too much amusement in her pain.
“I didn’t realize they’d take it that way! I tried to stop them!”
“Ignorance is no excuse!”
Mike’s one little comment, which he had made to tease her, had sparked a half hour long intensive interrogation of all three of them, but mostly Angel, as her parents’ hopes sprang up wildly.
“Angel, seriously, I’m cold! I’m going to break down the door in a minute if you don’t let me in.”
“Let him in, he’s big enough to do it,” said Sam. “And it is really cold out there.”
Grumbling, Angel yanked open the door and stared at Mike with all the aggravation she could summon. It was a little bit hard when he did look a bit blue around the edges and he was holding himself and jumping up and down a bit to try and keep himself warm.
“Are you going to behave from now on?”
Mike muttered something under his breath and then glared at her. “Yes.”
She eyed him suspiciously, pretty sure she’d heard something about spanking her in that mutter, but she wasn’t going to ask him to clarify in front of her housemates. Knowing Mike, he would, loudly and proudly, and that would open a whole new can of worms.
15
Adam
It was silly to feel relieved when Angel showed up at Stronghold without Michael, but that was exactly how Adam felt. Silly because they could use another set of hands that belonged to someone tall. Lexie was being a little tyrant about how many decorations she wanted hung from the ceiling above the bar and pretty much anywhere else she could find to hang things. Mostly hearts. Pink and red hearts. He was pretty sure she’d chosen the cheesy decor with no other goal in mind than antagonizing Patrick, since Lexie was not a pink and red hearts kind of girl, but all of them were suffering for it.
Surprisingly, Patrick was taking the decor in stride, something which clearly riled Lexie up. He was the only one not grumbling under his breath, which had Lexie muttering and shooting him suspicious glances. Adam wondered if Patrick was relieved Lexie had only brought cheesy decorations and not her cheesy boyfriend.
“Angel! Oh good, you’re here, did you bring the fabric?” Lexie sped over to give the other woman a hug, not even letting her strip off her coat. Angel hugged her back, her gaze flitting around the room, but even though he was only standing about five feet away she didn’t look him in the eye. It wasn’t exactly dismissive, it was more like being ignored. Either way he didn’t like it.
“Yeah, but I need help bringing it in. There’s a lot of it.”
Fabric? Dear god, what had they gotten themselves into now?
“I’ll help,” he heard himself saying, and had the satisfaction of seeing Angel look up at him with a startled and wary expression on her face.
