Luscious (Topped #1)(16)

She shook her head. “I’ve had worse. Look, Miles and I can watch out for each other. You’ve got a place, right?”

Despite the events of the night before, she looked pretty and young. He probably looked really rough. “Yeah, but it’s really my brother’s guesthouse.”

She shrugged. “Digs is digs, Miles. You’ve got a place to crash and I have a car. Yeah, the restaurant might not have survived but Bessie did. And to think all those stupid mechanics wanted to put her down when she hit two hundred K. So between the two of us, we are practically a fully functional human being.”

“With three and a quarter legs.” The sarcasm was catching.

“Yep. We got those, too. And stop complaining. You’ve got a three-quarters bionic leg. What do you say, Miles? Can I crash at your place for a while and we can get the docs off our backs?”

He nodded and then winced. Damn, they were a sad couple.

Couple. He’d kissed her. It had been going somewhere until Mother Nature decided to try to kill them.

She slapped her hands together. “Cool. Then lay it on me, Doc. What do I need to watch for with the big guy?”

She and Will stepped outside, talking about pain medications and side effects.

“Is the restaurant gone?” They might have less than Ally said. They might be down two jobs.

Sean shook his head. “She’s exaggerating. We’ve got blown windows and some minor damage. We’ll be open again in a week, which will give you plenty of time to recover. I’m going to find someone else to do the desserts for the parties. You need to rest.”

Sean was hosting a birthday party for his wife this weekend. Two actually. There was a family party on Saturday afternoon and an adults-only party at Adam, Jake, and Serena’s that night. Macon had already planned a spectacular cake. “Don’t. I’ll be fine in a couple of days. I want to do it.”

“If you’re sure, but if you change your mind give me a day or two,” Sean said. “I’ll go let the crew know they can come in and see you.”

“Are there really a bunch of people waiting to see me?” Macon asked after the door closed.

Adam nodded. “Yeah, it’s not like home, buddy. These people give a shit. There have been times that we’re all we have so we stick together. Are you really feeling all right?”

“I feel like hell.” He smiled. “And I feel great, too.”

“Because of Ally?”

He shrugged. “She’s cool.”

Adam leaned over, his hands on the metal railing of the bed. “She was adamant about not being admitted, Macon. I got here right as the ambulance did and she was a little off.”

“Well, she’d just survived a tornado.” He felt off, too. And they were going to have a long talk about who was in charge when Taggart wasn’t around. She hadn’t obeyed his very reasonable commands.

Of course if she had, he might be dead, so maybe he’d rethink the lecture and make her some pancakes instead.

She’d also joked about his leg, so maybe she wasn’t entirely adverse to it.

“It wasn’t that and it wasn’t only about the money. I tried to explain workman’s comp to her. It would cover everything and I know damn well Sean is paid up, but she wouldn’t listen,” Adam explained. “She got really upset when they asked for ID.”

“If they get her ID they can bill her.” He thought he was starting to understand her. She’d been closed off, with all kinds of walls up, but he liked the woman who wasn’t hiding from him. She was funny and maybe the tiniest bit insane. It was like she’d opened up to him after the day’s incident with that asshat, Timothy. Or yesterday’s. “How long was I out?”

“A night. It’s almost noon. And I would bet a lot she wasn’t as worried about the money as she was handing over that ID. She didn’t want them to see it. I think she might be hiding something.”

His brother could be paranoid. It came with the territory. He worked in high-level security, the kind that sometimes got co-opted by the CIA. Adam had gone from being a soldier to being what their father called a mercenary. Now that he’d seen Adam in action, he would simply call him a hero. But he was a paranoid hero.

“I don’t think she’s trying to hide anything except the fact that she’s broke, and I have no room to complain there. It’s not like I’m rolling in it.” He stopped, coming up with another reason his brother might have a problem with Ally. “If you don’t want her in the guesthouse, say so.”

His brother’s eyes narrowed. “And if I said so? What would you do?”

“Get an apartment,” he replied.

“Shit, you want her.”

“I like her.” And he wanted her. She was the first woman he’d wanted in forever and that scared him because he hadn’t exactly tried having sex since he’d lost his leg. He’d been afraid his dick didn’t work anymore, but she’d fixed that problem. “I like her a lot.”

“Yeah, you like her in a ‘give up my nice house and go live somewhere scary because at least we’re together’ way.” He sighed and shook his head. “Of course she’s welcome. Sean says she’s passed all his background checks, so we’re good. Also, she saved you so her goodwill bank is full with me. She’s hiding something and it’s going to come out in the end. Do you want me to run a check on her?”