When We Met (Fool's Gold #13)(60)

Taryn grinned. “Don’t worry. I can handle this. Come on, Consuelo. You’re frightening the staff.”

Consuelo walked with her to her office, then stood in front of Taryn’s desk. She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck out her chin.

“You have to make it stop,” she announced.

“Okay.” Taryn sat down and motioned for Consuelo to do the same. The other woman remained standing. “Make what stop?”

“The people. The food. Do you know that we have over twelve casseroles in the refrigerator right now? And even more in the freezer. Women and children stop by without phoning. They want to know that Angel’s okay, and then they want to talk to me.”

Taryn didn’t bother to hide her amusement. “How horrible. They’re all bitches.”

Consuelo’s eyes narrowed. “Are you mocking me? Do you think that’s safe?”

“I’m feeling brave and tough.”

“Then you’re a fool.”

“Very possibly.” Taryn crossed her legs. “What do you want me to do about it? Angel is a member of the community. People care about him.” She decided the moment was too good to pass up. “You do realize they would do the same for you, if you were sick or injured, right?”

Consuelo took a step back and glanced around, as if expecting the walls of a trap to close in on her. “Shit. You’re right. That would be awful. They’re so nice and normal.”

“Disgusting,” Taryn agreed.

Consuelo’s angry stare returned. “You are clear that I could kill you where you sit, right?”

“Or pretty much anywhere else. But you won’t. Enjoy the food. I’m sure it all tastes good.”

“There is that,” she admitted grudgingly. “But they’re in my house.”

“Stay with Kent for the next couple of days.”

Consuelo’s eyebrows rose. “At his place? He has a child.”

“He has a teenage son who has probably guessed the two of you have had sex at least once.”

“Oh my God. You didn’t just say that.”

Taryn loved that the normally taciturn and tough Consuelo was living so close to the emotional edge. Oddly, it made her feel closer to her.

Taryn leaned forward and lowered her voice. “We’ve all guessed.”

Consuelo sank into one of the chairs and groaned. “I hate it here.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I don’t,” she admitted with a sigh. “It’s just hard, you know. To fit in.”

Something Taryn could relate to. “The niceness can be grinding.”

“Right? Having to say hi to everyone. Asking about family members. And they’re all breeding. Everyone is pregnant or getting pregnant or has just had a baby. Kent and I aren’t having kids.”

“I didn’t know you’d decided that.”

“We haven’t talked about it, but there’s no way.” Consuelo’s mouth twisted and her tone became wistful. “Unless he would like us to have a baby.”

“You’d be a great mother. You wouldn’t take crap and you’d love fiercely. That’s nice.”

Consuelo’s gaze snapped back to her. “Do not say that word when you’re talking about me.”

Taryn wasn’t sure if she meant mother or nice, but either way, she was willing to comply. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I should kill Larissa. This is all her fault.”

“It is and she’s apologized to Angel more than once. She’s learned her lesson. Leave her alone.”

Consuelo studied her. “Defending one of your own?”

“Yes.” It was one thing for Taryn to snap at Larissa, but very different for someone outside the family.

“Fine.” Consuelo stood. “You know I hate this, right?”

Taryn wasn’t sure if she meant the invasion by the town, the “niceness” of it all or the expectations she wasn’t sure she could handle. Regardless, she nodded.

“I do know. And you’re going to get through it.”

“I hope so. Because if I don’t, I’m not going down alone.”

Taryn laughed. “That’s the spirit.”

* * *

A WEEK AFTER the snakebite, Angel was feeling back to normal. Larissa had apologized so many times he was officially avoiding her—which was tough. Fool’s Gold was a small town.

Now, as he crossed the street to head to a meeting, he looked both ways. Not for cars, but for a specific blonde who still blamed herself for the snakebite.

He managed to make it to the building he wanted without an encounter. Something he considered a win. He went inside and gave the receptionist his name. A couple of minutes later, he was shown back to Raoul Moreno’s office.

Raoul had moved to Fool’s Gold a few years before. He was a former football player who now spent much of his life helping disadvantaged inner-city kids with his summer camp—End Zone for Kids—along with scholarships. Most of the latter were funded through his Pro-Am golf tournaments.

When Raoul had scheduled the meeting, he’d refused to say what it was about. Angel had read up on him. His training had taught him that a thorough background investigation could make the difference in any situation. But he hadn’t found anything that would indicate why Raoul wanted a meeting. His company was too small to benefit from a corporate bonding experience at CDS. Even if that was his point, he would have contacted Ford, who was in charge of sales. If he was looking to connect with more of his kind, Angel thought with a grin, he should have gone to Score.