“Well, when he gets worried he gets bossy,” Ally said. “And, when he gets bossy, he gets annoying.”
Mandy perched on the edge of the couch. “I’m starting to feel guilty.”
“Why?”
“Because I promised him I would let him drop me off and pick me up at work,” Mandy said. “I broke that promise.”
“You’re not alone,” Ally said. “I picked you up. You were perfectly safe.”
“I don’t think he’s going to see it that way.”
Ally rolled over so she could watch her friend. “Where is he anyway?”
“They all went to that tent town thing with Jake today,” Mandy said. “I think they were taking supplies.”
“That’s nice of them,” Ally said. “Why do you think Jake hangs out there?”
“I think he’s donating his time,” Mandy said. “Grady said he served overseas, too.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Mandy said, patting Ally on the head affectionately. “You have a crush on him, don’t you?”
“I don’t know him,” Ally said. “I can’t have a crush on him if I don’t know him.”
Mandy waited.
“He is hot,” Ally said. “Don’t you think he’s hot?”
“He’s nice looking,” Mandy agreed. “Something tells me he looks good without his clothes on.”
Ally smirked. “Don’t tell James,” she teased. “He’ll have a fit if he thinks you’re fantasizing about another man.”
“I’m not fantasizing about him,” Mandy said. “I already have my fantasy. I want him for you.”
Ally made a face. “You want him for me? Why?”
“Because you’re the only one without a significant other,” Mandy said. “And I think James would be less likely to worry about us hanging out together if you were with someone like Jake.”
“He doesn’t want me with Jake,” Ally said. “You saw the look he gave me last night.”
“He just doesn’t want to think about you having sex with Jake,” Mandy countered. “I think he likes Jake and, after today, he’s definitely going to respect him more.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I know your brother,” Mandy said.
“That you do,” Ally agreed. “Although, to be fair, it was just over two weeks ago that you thought he was going to break up with you and that he didn’t love you.”
Mandy smacked Ally’s head lightly. “Don’t remind me of that.”
“God, you were so funny,” Ally said, giggling and holding her hand to her heart as she mimicked Mandy’s voice. “He doesn’t love me. He never did. I’ll never be whole again.” Ally lifted her hand to her head. “Woe is me.”
Both women glanced up when they heard noise at the door, finding four curious faces watching them.
“Ladies,” James said, striding into the room and dropping a pile of pizza boxes on the dining room table. “What are you doing?”
“I was reenacting Mandy’s freak out from last week,” Ally said, refusing to show shame.
James ran a hand down the back of Mandy’s hair, dropping a quick kiss on her forehead. “We’ve agreed not to bring that up again,” James said.
“I haven’t,” Ally shot back.
“You have now,” James said. “You owe me.”
“How do I owe you?”
“Because you knew I wanted to pick Mandy up at work, and you purposely did it just to drive me crazy,” James said. “Since I’m not going to yell and scream like I normally would, you now owe me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’re just lucky that she’s here and safe,” James said. “Because if she wasn’t, you’d be spending the night locked in the trunk of a car.”
“You’re such a big talker,” Ally said, glancing over at Mandy. “See. I told you he was Captain Annoying.”
Mandy bit her lower lip to keep from laughing out loud. James scowled at Ally. “Captain Annoying?”
Finn and Grady, both in the kitchen grabbing plates and napkins, started laughing.
“You have to admit, the name kind of fits,” Grady teased.
“I wouldn’t be so smug Lieutenant Haircut,” Ally said. “At least he’s the lead. You’re just a sidekick.”
Grady frowned. “Lieutenant Haircut? That’s just … stupid.”
“I think it’s awesome,” Finn said.
“You would, Private Whinebox.”
Mandy couldn’t hold in her laughter, and even James was joining in now. He motioned for Jake, who was unsure of himself and loitering by the door, to come closer. “Ignore my sister,” he said. “She likes to irritate us. She knows exactly how to drive each one of us crazy.”
Jake smiled, clearly a little nervous, but he stripped his jacket off and laid it over the back of one of the dining room chairs. “I have three sisters,” he said. “I’m used to it.”
“Ugh,” Finn said. “You have three sisters? How did you survive that?”
“I was the baby,” Jake said. “They doted on me and spoiled me, for the most part.”
“That’s much nicer than growing up with three older brothers,” Ally said.
“They also put makeup on me and put me in dresses when they were bored,” Jake said. “Trust me, I developed a thick skin as a child.”
Ally laughed gaily, moving closer to Jake so she could talk to him. “My brothers used to dress me up and make me play war games so we had even numbers for teams.”
“That sounds like a lot more fun.”
Mandy watched Jake and Ally interact, her smile getting wider with each shared life tidbit. While she was watching them, James was watching her. “I know what you’re thinking,” he whispered.
“I’m not thinking anything,” Mandy protested.
“Don’t you dare meddle and try to push them together,” James warned.
“Why not?”
“He’s too old for her.”
“He’s your age,” Mandy reminded him.
“Yeah, he’s too old for her.”
“She’s my age.”
“So?”
“So, if she’s too young for him, that means I’m too young for you,” Mandy said.
James dropped a short, hard kiss on Mandy’s mouth. “Maybe I’m a dirty old man.”
“I like him,” Mandy said. “And, more importantly, Ally likes him.”
“Ally doesn’t know him,” James said.
“Ally doesn’t know him yet,” Mandy corrected. “It’s going to happen.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.”
James sighed. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
Mandy slipped her fingers inside of James’ jeans and pulled him closer, causing him to shiver when he felt her fingers brush up against him. Mandy pressed her lips to his jaw, flicking out her tongue, and weakening his resolve.
“I want Ally to be happy,” Mandy said. “You do, too.”
“You don’t know anything about this guy,” James said. “You have no idea if he’s going to make her happy.”
Mandy glanced at them again, bright smiles on their faces, their bodies turned in toward each other. “He’s going to make her happy.”
James rested his head on top of Mandy’s, giving in. “What are you going to do now? You’ve set everyone in your life up. There’s nowhere else to meddle.”
“Heidi is still single,” Mandy said.
“I’m sure you already have someone in mind for her,” James said, chuckling.
“I do. Clint.”
James stilled, pulling back so he could gaze into the blue depths of her eyes. “That’s actually not a bad idea.”
“See,” Mandy said. “I told you I’m always right.”
James wrinkled his nose, cupping her face with both of his hands. “I’ve seen the light.”
Twenty-One
Everyone settled into different spots around the living room, with Jake and Ally sitting in adjacent chairs
at the table. When James moved to join them, Mandy snagged his belt loop and shook her head.
“Why don’t you stay over here with me?”
The look on James’ face was a mixture of irritation and resignation. “I can’t even sit at my own table?”
Mandy pressed her lips together, her eyes glinting. “Don’t you want to be close to me?” She batted her eyelashes coquettishly. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
“How?”
Mandy leaned in, whispering so only he could hear.
“You have an absolutely filthy mind,” he said. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Get us some pizza.”
After everyone was seated and eating, Mandy asked about their day.
“We took a load of stuff out there,” James said. “It just doesn’t seem like enough.”
“Well, what else can we do?”
James shifted his gaze to the table where Ally and Jake were chatting amiably. “Jake says that I’m looking too hard to fix things that I can’t fix.”
“Maybe you don’t have to fix things,” Mandy suggested. “Maybe you just need to make them better.”
“And how do I do that?”
“We’re going to figure out something,” Grady said from his spot on the floor. “I can’t just sit here and ignore it either.”
“It made me really sad,” Finn said. “It was like … .”
“Like you were guilty because you somehow escaped that happening to you,” James finished for him. “I know.”
“You shouldn’t be guilty,” Mandy protested. “You can’t wish worse upon yourself to lift others up.”
James knocked his head against hers lightly. “I know. You just don’t understand what it was like out there.”
“I understand wanting to change things,” Mandy said. “We can still change things. We may not be able to make them perfect – but we can change them.”
“You know, sometimes I think you’re an optimist and sometimes I think you’re a pessimist,” James said. “I can’t decide which one you really are.”
“She’s an optimist with a pessimistic streak,” Ally informed him. “She’s got both tendencies – just like you.”
James leaned back on the couch so he could see his sister’s face. “You have an answer for everything.”
“I’m one of the great thinkers of our time,” Ally agreed, winking. “That’s why you always come to me for sage advice.”
“Do you actually think your advice is sage?”
“Who fixed you and Mandy when she went off the deep end?”
“I said we’re not talking about that anymore,” James said. “She feels bad enough. We’re now referring to it as the misunderstanding, and calling it a day. I don’t think making fun of her because she was hopped up on medication and recovering from being blown across a parking lot is exactly fair.”
“We’re calling it the misunderstanding now?” Grady asked. “Is this like us calling what you did to her after that first night the incident?”
“Pretty much.”
Mandy was busily studying her empty plate. The shame she felt for her meltdown was profound. She’d never thought of herself as the kind of woman who had low self-esteem when it came to her romantic entanglements. She still wasn’t quite sure how she’d fallen so far off the wagon.
James slapped another slice of pizza onto her plate. “Don’t let it get to you, baby,” James said. “Ally is just trying to irritate me. She doesn’t care that she’s hurting you in the process.”
Ally’s mouth dropped open. “I’m not hurting her.”
“Take a look, Ally,” James said, his tone chilly. “Does she look happy to you?”
Ally searched her friend’s face. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Mandy said, avoiding the pointed gazes in the room. “I’m the one who had the meltdown.”
“I’m fairly certain we had the meltdown together,” James countered. “I don’t want to dwell on it. It was eighteen hours of horror, and we’ve put it behind us. Ally needs to stop bringing it up. I think that would make us all feel better.”
“I was just teasing her.”
“So, let me get this straight,” James said. “Your best friend was almost killed in an explosion. She could barely walk. Her body was a walking bruise. She was on medication that alternately made her sleepy and sick to her stomach, so she wasn’t eating. She had a few rough days, which I wasn’t exactly helpful with because I was doing every wrong thing I could possibly think of in an attempt to do everything right. And you think, given all of that, making fun of her is the best way to go?”
Mandy put a stilling hand on James’ arm. “She doesn’t mean anything.”
James ignored the blonde at his side, keeping his gaze fixed on Ally’s conflicted eyes. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I didn’t really think about it.”
“Well, think about it,” James said. “Really think about it for a change.”
The room sank into uncomfortable silence, with Grady, Finn, and Mandy exchanging questioning looks. James’ words were both harsh and cold – something he usually reserved for enemies, not his sister.
Jake was the first one to break the silence. “You know he’s just screwing with you, right?”
“What?” Ally was flabbergasted.
“He’s trying to get under your skin for a change,” Jake said. “I’m guessing you irritate him every chance you get. You might want to avoid getting under his skin by using his girlfriend as a weapon – at least for a little while. He doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor about it.”
Ally, confused, narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to teach me a lesson?”
James smiled widely, popping a piece of pepperoni from Mandy’s plate into his mouth. “It’s not fun, is it?”
Ally squealed irritably, launching herself from her chair and into her brother’s direction. “How could you do something like that? You know I’d never hurt her.”
James tangled with her, wrestling both of her wrists into his right hand. “I know,” James said. “I still don’t want you bringing it up again. Be nice to my blonde.”
“I loved her long before you did,” Ally said. “I have certain rights as the best friend.”
James shook his head, refusing to fall prey to Ally’s twisted logic. “Yes, but as the boyfriend, it’s my job to protect her. As your older brother, it’s my job to both protect and torture you.”
“I hate you,” Ally grumbled.
With one hand controlling Ally’s wrists, James used his other to tweak her nose. “Just be nice to my girl and I won’t have to embarrass you.”
“You can’t embarrass me without embarrassing her,” Ally said, her face smug. “Every embarrassing thing I’ve ever done has been with her.”
“She has a point,” Grady said. “I can’t think of one funny Ally story that doesn’t involve Mandy.”
“Like the time they toilet papered the principal’s house because Ally was convinced he was looking down Mandy’s top in his office one day,” Finn suggested.
“What?” James looked disgusted.
“You were already gone,” Finn said. “And that dude was a total pervert.”
“He looked down your shirt?”
Mandy shrugged. “That’s what it seemed like.”
“How old were you?”
“I was fifteen.”
James was furious. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have handled it.”
“You were already gone,” Mandy said. “And Ally and I took care of it.”
“By toilet papering his house? That doesn’t seem like a very good punishment.”
“We started the toilet paper on fire when we were done,” Ally said, her face red from the exertion of trying to escape from James’ grip.
“Wait, is this when you got arrested for arson? Mom wrote me about that when I was in Afghanistan. I guess I missed out on some of the key details.”
“We were never charged,”
Ally said. “Dad took care of it. The principal didn’t want it to come out in court that he was looking down Mandy’s shirt, so he refused to swear out a complaint.”
“It’s too bad you didn’t burn his house down,” James grumbled.
“The point is, I’ve had her back longer than you have,” Ally said. “I’m allowed to tease her.”
James tickled Ally’s ribs. “No. Tell me what else the two of you did while I was away. I like these stories.”
“We didn’t do anything,” Ally argued. “That was the only thing.”
“What about the time you two conned the quarterback by saying you both wanted to sleep with him and then stripped him naked and stole his clothes so he had to walk home in the buff?” Grady suggested. “I love that story.”
James wrinkled his nose, casting a curious look at Mandy, who was studiously looking at an empty spot on the wall. “Who was the quarterback?”
“No one.”
“Kip Jones,” Grady said.
“Isn’t he doing a dime up at the state pen in Traverse City for rape?” James asked.
“He is.”
James furrowed his brow. “Did he hurt one of you?”
Mandy shook her head hurriedly. “No. It was nothing like that.”
“It better not be,” James growled.
“He felt up our friend, Sherry, under the bleachers at a football game,” Ally said. “He took pictures and showed everyone. He even put some of them out on the web. He got what he deserved.”
James eased up his hold on his sister. “I’m going to let you up,” he said. “I have a feeling you might have a point about the friend thing warring with the boyfriend thing.”
“I always have a point,” Ally said, straightening her shirt and flicking James on the ear. “I’ll stop bringing up the misunderstanding, though. It’s mean, and I don’t want to be mean to Mandy.”
“Just me.”
“You deserve it,” Ally said, sauntering back over to the table where Jake was watching the exchange with amused eyes. “Besides, it’s a sister’s job to irritate her brother. You’re just going to have to get used to it.”
THE PHONE ringing on the nightstand jolted James awake. Mandy was asleep on his chest, her blonde hair spread out like a halo in the dim light of the bedroom. A quick glance at the clock told him it was early, a little before five.
Deadly Proposal (Hardy Brothers Security Book 4) Page 15
