Always Loving You (Danvers #6)(19)
Oh, great, Gwen . . . truthfully, he’d been so caught up in Ava and Dom being together the night before that he had given little thought to the woman he was supposed to be dating. Moving on had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he had to wonder if he hadn’t just complicated an already impossible situation. Ava had been showing no signs of ever letting him out of the friend zone, and it had become more and more painful to pretend that he was content with that place in her life.
If he was honest, maybe he thought it might shake her up to see him moving on, but that hadn’t appeared to happen. Sure, she seemed sad when he stopped spending so much time with her, but she didn’t show up at his house naked and professing her undying love. Instead she had given him looks around the office that had made him want to slink off while apologizing for being such a f*cking prick to her. The fact of the matter was that time waits for no man, and he was getting older. Sure, he was only in his early thirties, but he was tired of spending his life alone. He f*cked when he felt the need, but that was it. There was no one waiting for him at the end of the day, and it had gotten old. He could admit that he wanted a wife and a family sometime in the near future. He didn’t still want to be sitting around ten years from now hoping that Ava would let him love her.
Yeah, it all sounded perfectly reasonable and rational. However, if that was true, why was he so conflicted about his master plan suddenly? Maybe the same reason he had yet to return Gwen’s call. As he pulled into the near-empty parking garage for Danvers and saw Dom pull up beside him, he gnashed his teeth. This wasn’t a good time to see his best friend. If Dom had any sense of self-preservation, he would crawl right back on his Harley and hit the road.
Instead the bastard walked over to his door as he opened it, giving a lazy grin at Mac’s closed-off expression. “Morning, bro. Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
Mac looked into the other man’s eyes and tried to talk himself out of the unfamiliar feelings of jealousy coursing through his veins. This was Dominic, his brother. He’d never hit on Ava. He knew how Mac felt about her. “Morning,” he answered, trying his best to keep his tone light.
“You’re here early,” Dominic said, looking down at his watch. “I thought you were having breakfast with your mom first.”
“Yeah, so did I. I ran into a little problem on the way and had to cancel.”
“What kind of problem?” Dominic asked, looking curious. No doubt, he thought it was something to do with their business.
Walking toward the doors of Danvers, Mac said, “Well, Ava decided to try some sidewalk skating and wrapped herself around the bumper of a parked car not far from my house. I saw the whole damn thing happen on my way.”
Dominic looked surprised before bursting into laughter. “Holy crap, that girl’s just not right, is she?” Before Mac could chew Dominic’s ass out for insulting Ava, even if what he said did appear to have some truth at the moment, Gage came swaggering across the lobby as they walked inside.
“Good morning, ladies. You two need some extra beauty sleep this morning or something?”
Mac grinned as Dominic flipped off their annoying coworker before he could work up the effort. Out of the three of them, Gage was probably the most laid-back. Their employees and every woman within a hundred-mile radius seemed to love his infectious personality. If there was ever any bad news to impart, Gage was nominated to do it. He could tell a woman her hair was flat, her shoes were ugly, and her butt was big and the woman would probably hug his neck and thank him. He was just that good.
Dominic was more of an “it is what it is and f*ck you if you don’t like it” kind of guy. And Mac was more of a details man. He liked making things work, making them better. His life mostly revolved around making the rules and seeing that they were enforced. After being in the military, he enjoyed structure and didn’t like it when things didn’t adhere to the norm. That was one reason that Ava’s sudden need to endanger herself doing something crazy was freaking him out. It was out of the normal for her, and he sure as hell didn’t understand it.
Yeah, he, Gage, and Dominic were as different in personality as night and day, but the differences worked well. Between them all, they had every aspect of their business covered. Mac had grown up as an only child, but along with Declan, these were the brothers of his heart. He couldn’t imagine loving a blood relative any more than he loved the men he had served alongside in the marines. They all had a tattoo that said “brotherhood,” and it wasn’t just an inked word to him.
Dominic jabbed Gage in the side as they walked through the door of East Coast Security. “Why are you so damn cheerful this morning? Get laid last night?”
Without missing a beat, Gage dropped into a chair in front of their bank of monitors. “Of course.” Then smirking at them, he added, “Didn’t you?” When they both just frowned in answer, he laughed. “Oh, come on. What’s so difficult about it? You see woman, pick up woman, f*ck woman, then repeat. If you two would stop sitting around talking about your feelings and buying tampons, you might actually get lucky. Tell you what, I’ll go out with you both tonight and be your wingman.”
Mac shook his head, then flicked his hand to Dominic. “Go ahead and do it before I kill him.” Gage looked around in confusion, but it was too late. Dominic jerked the chair he was sitting in backward and suddenly his feet were up in the air as he hit the floor.