“The job?” Spence asked.
Joe shook his head. His job was fulfilling and solid, and served the additional purpose of giving him his daily adrenaline rush as needed. “I’m fine,” he repeated.
“Yeah, so you keep saying.” Spence paused and then shook his head. “I’m around. You know that, right? We’re staying in San Francisco for the next few months.”
Not that long ago, Spence had fallen hard and fast for Colbie Albright, a YA fantasy author based out of New York. They’d been splitting their time between San Francisco and New York, but both preferred San Francisco and resided on the private fifth floor penthouse suite of the Pacific Pier Building where Joe worked.
Colbie had been great for Spence, making him seem more human than he’d ever been, and clearly far happier. Joe was glad for him, even if he didn’t completely understand the life Spence was making in the name of love. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the need or yearning to share his life but that he didn’t feel like he had anything to offer. As a hardened soldier turned security expert, he knew how to protect, but what else could he give to a woman? Teach her how to hold a gun? How to incapacitate a man in one-point-five seconds? Hardly things a normal person would want or need to know.
And he could give even less emotionally. After all he’d seen and done, he wasn’t even actually sure if he could open up or allow himself to be vulnerable enough to sustain a serious relationship. And what woman would want a guy who couldn’t? But not sure if Spence would understand, he simply nodded. “Thanks,” he said, and he meant it.
They fist-bumped and went their separate ways. Joe headed home, showered, and then got to work at two minutes past seven a.m.
“You’re two minutes late,” his sister, Molly, informed him from behind the front desk, where she ran the show at Hunt Investigations. She stood up and moved to her credenza to grab her iPad.
Her limp was more pronounced today than usual, which meant she was in pain, and an age-old guilt sliced through him. Not that he said a word. She got mad whenever he brought it up, but even worse than that, the last time he’d done so, she’d cried.
He hated when she cried. So they played a game he was very familiar with. A game called Ignore All The Feels.
“I’m aware that I’m late, thanks,” he said. He was the older sibling by three years, but twenty-seven-year-old Molly seemed to believe she was in charge of him. Which was not how it really went.
They’d grown up hard and fast. In their neighborhood, they’d had no choice. Their dad suffered with prolonged PTSD from serving in the Gulf War. As a result, Joe had been in charge from a young age. Being poor as dirt hadn’t helped any. He’d gotten in with the wrong crowd early, doing things he shouldn’t have in order to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies.
“Archer’s pissed,” Molly warned quietly.
Archer had a thing. Being on time meant you were already late. Being two minutes late was unforgiveable. Joe lifted a bakery box. “I brought bribes.”
“Ooh, gimme,” she said, using both hands to do the come here gesture.
Joe held out the box but didn’t relinquish it when she tried to take it. “Pick one.”
Again she tried to take the box, huffing out a breath when he held tight. “Whatever happened to trust?” she asked, relenting and taking only one doughnut.
“It’s not about trust. It’s about if I let my guard down, you’ll chew my fingers off to get to all the other doughnuts.”
“And?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Annnnnnd . . . you made me swear on Mom’s grave that I wouldn’t give you more than one doughnut per day.”
“That was last week.”
“Yeah. So?”
“So,” she said. “I was PMS-ing last week and feeling fat. I need another doughnut, Joe.”
He had looked death right in the eye more times than he could count but Molly’s tone was more terrifying than anything he’d ever faced. “You said you’d kill me dead in my own bed if I caved to you,” he reminded her.
“That could still happen.”
He stared her down, but she was a Malone through and through and she wasn’t playing. Between a rock and a hard place, he relented and let her take a second doughnut. Because who was he kidding? He’d never been able to tell her no.
“Thanks. And good luck,” she said, mouth full, giving him a chin nod toward Archer’s office. “He’s waiting for you.”
Great. Yet another battle to survive. Some days his life felt like a real-life video game. He headed down the hall to Archer’s office, where Archer and his significant other, Elle, were on the couch, arguing.
“I need the remote to show you my PowerPoint presentation,” Elle was saying.
Archer shook his head. “Told you I don’t have it.”
“You just don’t want to suffer through my PowerPoint,” Elle said.
Archer apparently pleaded the Fifth.
“You’re sitting on it, aren’t you?” she demanded.
Archer almost smiled. “Funny how all trust goes away when the remote’s involved.”
Elle sighed. “You’re impossible.”
“And irresistible,” Archer said. “Don’t forget irresistible.”
“Hmm,” Elle said.
Archer was grinning at her as Joe stepped inside the office to make his presence known because if he gave them another minute, chances were that they’d decide to settle this by getting naked. Yeah, they were polar opposites and drove each other nuts, but they were also passionately in love.
Which was great for them. Personally, he’d rather face battle. War he knew how to handle. War had rules. You fought. You won, no matter the cost.
Love didn’t have rules. And as far as he could tell, you couldn’t actually win at love.
He endured a blistering look from Archer that would’ve caused most anyone else to lose the contents of their bladder. But Joe didn’t scare easily. Still, he stayed a good distance back from the couch and tossed the box of doughnuts their way.
Archer caught it in midair and nodded.
Bribe accepted.
“Where’s everyone else?” Joe asked, referring to the rest of the team of guys who worked at Hunt Investigations.
“I postponed the morning meeting,” Archer said biting into a chocolate glaze. “Which you would’ve known if you’d been here on the hour.”
He was literally four minutes past the hour but he didn’t try to defend himself. Archer hated excuses.
“Heading to work now,” Elle said and walked to the door. “Oh, and do you know why it’s called man hours?” she asked, turning back. “Because a woman does the job in twenty minutes.” With that, she left.
With the box of doughnuts.
Damn. That’d teach Joe not to grab a doughnut when he had the chance.
“So what’s going on with Kylie?” Archer asked.
Joe prided himself on always being prepared, but this caught him off guard. “Nothing,” he said. “Why?”
“Nothing?”
Well, shit. Archer didn’t do small talk. Which meant he knew something.
“Let me help you out here,” Archer said easily. “There’s rumor of some sort of kiss between you two. Does that sound familiar?”
Jesus. That kiss had been in the alley off the courtyard in the pitch dark. They’d been alone, he was sure of it. “How the hell do you always know everything?”