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She totally understood the dogs’ response to Billy. He was alpha personified. He leaned down to pat them and just like Carter when he talked about Sabrina, she could practically see cartoon hearts floating around their heads. It was kinda adorable.
She shot a quick look at Jana and Simon and saw that her date couldn’t look more disinterested in the dogs, or Billy, but that Jana had a gleam in her eyes similar to Bonnie and Clyde’s as she watched the scene in front of them.
Hero worship.
Mr. 7G scooted past them and pulled the dogs with him.
“You were so good with them,” Jana commented as they all stepped into the elevator. “Did you have dogs growing up?”
Oh, no.
Maxi knew that this was a really sensitive subject. Billy had told her once, years ago, that he’d had a mutt dog who looked like Benji, named Bruiser, when he was a kid. But when he was thirteen, his mother had a particularly bad break-up and her ex-boyfriend stole all of their belongings, including Bruiser. At least that’s what she told him at the time. Later, he found out that she’d actually sold their stuff and taken Bruiser to the pound while Billy was in school.
Maxi’s heart still broke for him whenever she thought about it.
“One.” Billy smiled. “He was a good dog.”
They rode the rest of the way in silence and as they started to get off at the lobby, Maxi squeezed Billy’s hand. She just wanted him to know that she remembered.
“Miss Rizzo,” Carter rushed up to the group. “Thank you so much for the tickets.”
“I told you, it’s Maxi. And it’s no problem. Really.” Carter had been on an errand for another resident when she’d gotten home, so she’d left the tickets at his station. “We’ll need Mr. Marshall’s car brought up.”
Billy had given her such a hard time about parking it in the garage. It was like she was asking him to give up his first-born child. If you Googled “control issues,” she was sure that the image results would all be pictures of Billy Marshall. She’d almost laughed when he’d handed the keys to the valet and looked like he was going to throw up. Apparently, he didn’t deal with defeat well. Not that she’d ever seen him experience it. Personally or professionally. He’d never been defeated in the ring, and she couldn’t remember ever seeing him turned down in his private life.
Except by her. But she knew that he wasn’t serious. Flirting was in his DNA. And just like the splash zone at Marine World, any woman in his general area was in the flirt zone. She constantly reminded herself that she wasn’t special, just a female in his flirt zone.
As they waited for the SUV, Simon was on his phone. Jana was chatting up Billy, who looked to be engrossed in what she was saying, but Maxi noticed that his attention was elsewhere. Namely, on her and anyone who came near her. He was keeping an eye on the door, every resident that exited the elevator or entered the building.
He was here to protect her. Now all she needed to do was protect herself from falling even harder for him…
