There was a juvenile flash of triumph in Alex’s eyes and just-as-juvenile indignance in Will’s expression. “Your services are great, too, Will.”
I immediately dropped into a bout of lobster-red embarrassment. Because if you want to keep your romantic trysts under wraps, the best thing you could possibly do is thank a man for his services.
“Good Guardian,” I clarified, clapping Will on the shoulder. “You’re a good Guardian and you’re a good angel.”
There was a beat of dead awkward silence that I’m fairly sure lasted just under a millennium. Of all the times the earth couldn’t break open and swallow me whole.
“So,” I said, breaking the trance, “Will, what did you—?”
“What do you want, Will?” Alex broke in. “Lawson and I have a case to get through. Some of us like to protect the population from actual danger.”
There was a slight flare in Will’s nostril, then an equally as slight upturn of his lips. He raised his hand to eye level, a silver key on an Arsenal key chain pinched between thumb and forefinger. “I just needed to give you my key, love,” he said, his eyes focused hard on mine. I felt my mouth drop open as he looked over my head at Alex, then grinned supremely.
I spun. “I’m looking in on his bush. His plant. His house. Will’s going out of town and I’m watering his plant and thank you very much for coming all this way to bring me your key even though you live across the hall and could have very easily slipped it under the door.” I sucked in a huge breath.
“I know,” Will said calmly. “I meant to give it to you this morning at breakfast, but it slipped my mind.” He cut his eyes to Alex, then they flitted back to me.
“Headed out of town, huh, Will? Didn’t know Guardians got vacation. What are you taking—two weeks? Three?”
Will looked at Alex and back at me, then brushed a finger under my chin. “I’ll just be gone a bit. You’re a cop, right? I trust you to take care of my girl.”
I felt myself gape. “Your girl?”
Then I felt Alex’s arm as he slung it around me, the edge of his chin brushing the top of my head sweetly. “I always take care of my girl.”
Now I spun, fairly certain that one more gasp would send me into cardiac arrest. “Your girl?”
Neither seemed to hear me—or see me—as they held each other in steely glares. I was apoplectic, uncertain as to whether I would be in the middle of a massive fistfight or cuddle fest. I snatched Will’s key and mashed the down button on the elevator, then spun to point first at Will and then at Alex. “You’re an ass and you’re an ass,” I yelled, jumping in the elevator once the doors opened.
“Can you believe those idiots?” I screamed into my phone as I paced a bald spot in my office carpet.
“Yes,” Nina said. “What size do you wear?”
“Eight . . . ish. Ugh! I mean, neither Alex nor Will even raise an eyebrow and suddenly—”
“To be fair, Soph, both of them raised more than eyebrows. Or maybe it was you who raised their—”
“Not helping!” I snapped.
“Sorry. Are you more of a heather blue or a heather gray kind of girl?”
“I don’t know, gray, I guess. What the—are you even listening to me? They were acting like animals! One more minute, and one of them would have peed on me.”
“I’m listening, I’m all ears. I am. Have you ever actually watched the Home Shopping Channel? They have some pretty good stuff.”
“Neens!”
“Right. The guys peeing on you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, hoping to quell the ache that had started before it became a full-blown migraine. “It’s just that for like, my whole life, I couldn’t get a date. Not one!”
“I set you up with that one guy.”
“He was part goat, Nina.”
She harrumphed. “I’ve seen you eat. You might be half-goat yourself.”
“Remind me to drive a stake through your heart when I get home.”
“I wouldn’t fight you. This heat is killing me.”
“Nina?”
“Okay, I’m sorry. But Sophie, can you really blame two guys for fighting over you? Two incredibly hot, save-the-world guys? I mean, in the last couple of months, you’ve gone from sad and wimpy to uber-confident and gun toting. I mean, ask anyone. That’s hot.”
Even though I had just been called sad and wimpy, my toothy best friend spoke the God’s honest truth and it warmed me.
“Aw, Neens.”
“And you’re also just a little bit slutty.”
“Ms. Lawson?”
I was eyebrows up at “just a little bit slutty” when Dixon knocked on my door and poked his head in.
“Gotta go,” I murmured to Nina. “Dixon, hi. I was just . . . giving Nina her assignments.”
Dixon nodded. “She’s staying out of the light?”
“Yeah. Um, sit down, please. Can I help you with something ?”