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“I already have a few ideas—”
Loud banging on the front door cut off his sentence. He groaned. “That’s Cutter and Luke.”
Charley slid off him and picked up her clothes scattered around the room. She headed for a small, private bathroom. “Tell them I’ll be out in a few minutes. I need to wash up.” Her face screwed up in the cutest way. “Oh, crap. You’re going to smell like what we just did. Don’t you want to wash up too?”
The banging sounded again. Dog grinned. “No time. Plus, I like having your scent on me. Keeps me ready to fuck you all over again.”
She rolled her eyes. “Animal.”
Dog laughed and pulled up his jeans. He hadn’t managed to get completely naked for this round, but he’d needed to have her in her new office. She’d spend a lot of her time in this room. He wanted her to have a clear memory of why she needed to quit work early. Every night. To be with him.
He opened the door to the office and crossed the small lobby to the front door. Cutter peered in the window, his hands cupped on either side of his face.
A flip of the dead bolt, and Dog opened the door. A blast of freezing December air entered.
Cutter burst into the room, Luke on his heels carrying a box of computer cords. Both had on heavy jackets. “’Bout time, asshole,” Cutter said. “I was beginning to think you weren’t here.”
“We were busy.”
Luke passed Dog and Cutter and entered Charley’s office. He was going to hook up all Charley’s computer shit.
Cutter grinned. “We catch y’all in the middle of somethin’?”
Luke audibly sniffed the air and chimed in. “Yes.”
Fuck. Dog hoped Charley couldn’t hear all this. She still wasn’t comfortable with how they shot the shit about sex.
She opened the bathroom door, and if the pink in her cheeks was any indication, she’d heard it all.
“Morning, Luke, Cutter. Thanks for coming to help. Can I make you some coffee?”
“That would be great,” Luke said, unpacking the boxes holding Charley’s computer equipment that were sitting around her desk. “This shouldn’t take me too long to hook up, but I want to make sure all your firewalls are strong enough. You know, I’ve been meaning to tell you how great it is you’re moving here. Can’t believe you found someone to buy your business so fast.”
Dog couldn’t either. When it had become clear he wasn’t going to jail and she was giving him another chance, they’d talked about her selling because of her health. He’d never thought she would accomplish the move to Edwards by Christmas.
Charley sighed. “Paul Charles and I went to college together. He’s been after me to sell since Daddy died, but I just couldn’t do it. I had this idea that the business was all I had left of Daddy, but Dog helped me see I have him here,” she touched her chest, “right with Momma, where he belongs.”
Charley left the office and powered up the Keurig at the heart of a small coffee station in the lobby. “And Paul is smart, hard-working, and he’s willing to keep the name, Charles Abbott and Associates, since his name comes first. He promised to merge my employees with his and only fire them for fault. I even got that in writing. I couldn’t believe he agreed to it, but he said he knew neither I nor my father would keep on dead weight.”
Charley put the coffee in the Keurig, slid a mug under the dispenser, and fired it up. “Cutter? Do you want some?”
Cutter grinned. “Naw, woman. Coffee ain’t gonna do it this morning. I want whiskey to warm me up. It’s cold as shit out there.”
“It’s ten in the morning, Cutter,” Charley said, her voice all proper, like how she talked to her employees.
Cutter winked. “It’s five o’clock somewhere.”
Charley grinned and returned to her office where she stashed the McCallan’s in her desk drawer. She pulled out a glass and the whiskey. “Luke, you too?”
Luke smiled at her. “No, thanks. Just coffee. I need a clear head for what I’m doing.”
“Dog?”
“No thanks, baby. I’ll just wear a coat.”
Cutter was right. It had been cold this week, and a front had dumped a few inches of snow across the valley. He was hopeful they would have a White Christmas for Charley’s guests. Her friend, Livvie, was bringing her family up for the holiday. Livvie had said she couldn’t imagine not spending her baby’s first Christmas with the little girl’s godmother. Charley loved Shelby like her own and looked wistful when she held her. As soon as Charley had her business running and they got the all-clear from her neurologist, Dog planned to plant a little bugger all her own in her. But first things first. There was a ring under the Christmas tree in her cottage with her name on it.
Charley brought Cutter the glass, and he downed the whiskey in a single gulp. He shuddered. “Shit, pretty lady, you ever get tired of this motherfucker, you bring that bottle and come to me. The two of us will make sure you have a damn good time.”
