Ozzie flicked a glance at Dan, his expression turning contemplative before he pulled her into another hug. “There’s still my offer,” he whispered in her ear.
Penni’s heart melted for the guy. Just a little. He was a womanizer, a playboy, and never seemed to take anything seriously. But under all that swagger and mockery beat a true heart. “You know,” she speculated, “if you’re not careful, some woman is going to take you up on that offer someday.”
“Hey, dickhead,” Dan grumped, dragging her out of Ozzie’s embrace. “Keep your dirty mitts to yourself.”
“I’ll flip you for her,” Ozzie said, pretending to dig in his hip pocket for a coin.
“Wow.” Penni frowned at him. “Just when I think there might be hope for you.”
He winked and leered.
She sighed and shook her head.
“Keep your eyeballs to yourself too,” Dan warned, “or I’ll be tempted to plant one on your kisser. See how it affects that silver tongue of yours.”
“You wouldn’t hit a wounded man, would you?” Ozzie leaned more heavily on his crutches, wincing and rubbing his leg like it pained him terribly. Then a grin split his handsome face and he reached forward, dragging Dan in for a bear hug. He slapped Dan on the back so hard Penni was surprised Dan didn’t hork up a lung.
“Missed you like crazy, you sorry sonofabitch,” Ozzie said. Dan couldn’t see it, and Penni figured she wasn’t supposed to see it either, but for just a second Ozzie’s expression was heartbreakingly sad, almost…anguished.
“Whoa,” Zoelner said after he pushed Winterfield out of the vehicle. “Should we give you two a couple of minutes alone?”
“Don’t be jealous,” Ozzie teased, shoving Dan away and dragging Zoelner in to wrap his arms around him. “There’s enough of Ozzie to go around.”
Chelsea hopped out of the Hummer at the same time Boss rounded the front bumper. “What do you mean she arrived early?” Boss asked, going back to Ozzie’s original statement. “I thought she was scheduled to show in thirty minutes.” He checked his watch. And then his questioning expression turned fierce when Becky—who’d finished putting away the giant grinding tool and setting aside the sheet metal—squealed and hopped into Dan’s arms. She squeezed Dan’s neck and peppered his cheek with kisses while telling him how happy she was to have him home. Boss waited barely a beat before grumbling, “Okay, Mrs. Knight. That’s enough of that.”
Becky pushed out of Dan’s arms, rolling her eyes at her husband. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
“Well…yeah,” Boss harrumphed, crossing his arms and scowling dangerously.
Apparently the men of Black Knights Inc. were terribly proprietary when it came to other men putting their hands on their women. That Penni should feel a little zing of pleasure that Dan had treated her like she was his made her want to kick her own ass. She wasn’t some fawning heroine in a romance novel who needed to be the center of some chest-thumping man’s desire to feel complete. She was a modern woman who’d proved herself capable of anything and everything—without a man by her side, thank you. But still…there it was. That zing.
Someone should take away my Girl Power Club card…
“Well, you’ll just have to keep that green-eyed monster in check for, like, two more seconds,” Becky said, wrapping her arms around Zoelner’s waist and giving him a squeeze. Zoelner stiffened and patted her on the head like an older brother might do to a kid sister. But Boss didn’t seem to notice the platonic nature of the embrace.
“One Mississippi, two Mississippi,” he counted quickly, grabbing Becky’s arm and pulling her next to his side. “And where’s my warm welcome?” he demanded.
“You’ve been gone…what? An hour?” Becky reached into the hip pocket of her snug jeans to extract a Dum Dum lollipop. She used it as a pointer to indicate Dan and Zoelner. “They’ve been gone three whole months.”
“Still…” Boss shrugged. And if Penni hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have believed the huge, hulking beast of a man could pout. But he did.
Becky chuckled and wrapped her arms around her husband, laying her face against his broad chest. “There,” she said. “Is that better?”
“Yes.” A grin twitched at Boss’s lips, highlighting the scar that snaked up from the corner of his mouth.
It hit Penni again. Family. This was Dan’s family. And what would they think of her when they knew, what would he think of her when she told him that she—
“Good, great.” Ozzie interrupted her thoughts. “The welcome homes are complete. Now everybody scram, because Geralt is stalling her, but he can’t do it for too much longer. She’s already suspicious, and if we keep her standing around out by the front gate, it’ll make her even more so. Which is exactly the opposite of what this little show-and-tell is all about. We’re trying to assuage her suspicions.”