Protect Me Not ((Un)Professionally Yours 2)

Jazz’s head popped around the door and damned if the guy didn’t look disappointed to find Ty fully clothed. Ty bit back a chuckle but refused to relinquish his hold on this beautiful woman. She was his now, and he was never going to let her go.

“Heeey, guys,” Jazz said, with an apologetic wince. “Sorry to interrupt, only we’re getting really slammed right now. So, I was wondering if maaaaybe—?”

Okay, so Ty would probably have to let her go for a little while.

“Oh, my God, of course, I’m so sorry.” Vicki pushed herself off his lap without any hesitation, and Ty bit back a grin.

“I’m sorry, I picked a godawful time to do this,” he said when Jazz retreated, and she slanted him an absent-minded look, her mind clearly back in the shop.

“Sorry, what?”

Ouch, simmer down there, bruised ego. “I’ll pick you up after work?”

“You’re leaving?” she sounded flatteringly dismayed, and his ego perked up a bit.

“Well, you’re busy. I’d hate to—”

“Do you have to get back to work?”

“No, I’m on leave for the holidays.”

“Well, then, you’re helping out. You know the drill. All hands on deck.”

“Wait…what?” She was putting him to work?

“Come on, then. No time to waste.” She turned and exited the office. He followed and nearly walked into her when she stopped abruptly at the door.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in alarm, when she swung around to face him.

“Nothing, I just forgot to do this.” She went onto her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and tugged him down far enough to plant another kiss on his lips. “I love you, Ty. And I’m so damned happy you’re here.”

Linda, Josh, and Jazz accepted him back into the fold as if he had never left. And as he stood at that worktable next to the woman he loved—surrounded by people he cared about—saddled with the incongruous task of sprinkling glitter onto poinsettias, Ty could honestly say that he had never been happier, or more content, in his entire life.

Epilogue

Eighteen months later…

“These family nights are getting ridiculous,” Vicki complained, as she emptied a bag of chips into a bowl. “Jazz and Hugh hate each other. All they do is snipe and bitch. Chance and Colby aren’t much better. We should just stop doing this.”

Ty chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist, cuddling her from behind. “Jazz and Hugh should just shag and get it over with. I’d say the same about Colby and Chance, but I’m genuinely certain they’d kill each other if they did. Or maybe it’d be a black widow situation, I can totally picture Colby taking Chance out in his sleep.”

“Jazz and Hugh? No. Ew. Where are you getting that from?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Ty said, kissing the hollow below her ear before releasing her. “They may hate each other, but the sexual tension is off the charts.”

“Oh, God, no! That can never happen. They’re completely mismatched. Ugh, let’s not try to pair off our single friends and family, okay? Let’s not be those people.”

He laughed again and picked up the bowl of chips to place it on the coffee table with the other snacks. They usually had family and friends around once a month. This “family night”, as everyone had taken to calling it, had become routine since Vicki had moved in with Ty a year ago. Hugh, Bella and Pete, Linda and Danny, Jazz, Josh, Chance, and, as of six months ago, Colby—whom Vicki had met at one of Ty’s work functions and absolutely adored—attended without fail. It was an opportunity for everybody to get together, have a laugh, catch up. They most often met at Vicki and Ty’s place, sometimes at Bella and Pete’s, and once only at Chance and Colby’s house. Since those two had been absolutely terrible at co-hosting the event, it was kind of an unspoken rule to never have it at their place again.

“Are we going to tell them tonight?” Ty asked nonchalantly, as he set the table, while Vicki prepared dips for the crudités.

She stopped what she was doing and looked over at Ty who was trying so hard to be super casual. Trying…and failing.

Vicki’s pregnancy had come as a complete surprise to them. A happy accident after Vicki had gotten her days mixed up on their recent trip to Cape Town for Charity and Miles’s wedding. The confusion had resulted in her skipping her pill for a day. Neither of them had given the missed pill much thought until her pregnancy test had come back positive.

Ty was very happily settled in his new position with the company. He was so good at it; other security companies were now asking if he could be subcontracted in to help them improve their training modules. And Vicki was able to relinquish more responsibility at the shop to Linda and Jazz. Having this baby had been a no brainer for them.