Claim My Baby (Crescent Cove 2)

“On what, perchance?” His black eyebrow winged up and something quivered inside me that didn’t bear examining. “Your attempt to meet a man for illicit activities?”

“Pardon me for interrupting, but I couldn’t help overhearing,” Lumberjack said, his brows pinched together. “That’s not safe, Miss Evans. Unless you operate under a buddy system.”

I gave him a tight smile. “Call me Sage.”

Oliver leaned over me and gave Lumberjack a look that might’ve been deemed friendly, if one were optimistic. “Don’t worry. I’ll serve as her buddy.”

There was no stopping my snort. “You don’t have the slightest clue how. Do you even have any friends other than Seth and Ally? And they’re related to you, so they don’t even count.”

As soon as the snarky comments were out, I regretted them. Oliver brought out my sarcastic side, but that didn’t give me the right to be mean.

“I’m sorry.” I swallowed hard. “That was uncalled for.”

He was strangely silent, shifting his dark, unfathomable gaze to the window. “I do not,” he said after a moment, and my chest squeezed with regret and shame.

Since when was I so callous? That wasn’t me. Sure, I enjoyed sparring with Oliver, and our snippy relationship was different from any I’d ever had before. Generally, people liked me, and I usually felt the same. But from day one with Oliver, we’d been like fire and water, blending awkwardly at best. At worse, we bickered over every-frigging-thing.

That didn’t give me cause to be hurtful. Especially if he really did care enough about me to bother flying to Vegas—in coach, even—just to make sure I was okay. He wasn’t a man who did much extra for anyone who wasn’t one of his loved ones, and those were few and far between.

Warmth spread beneath my breastbone. Perhaps he didn’t hate me as much as I’d believed.

“Do you want to be friends with me?”

When he didn’t reply, I tried not to fidget. Or fill the space with babble.

He turned his head and caught me in a stare so intense, I might as well have been rooted in place. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

He simply nodded.

When he shifted away again, I released a long, shaky breath. Whoa.

“I’ll be your friend too,” Lumberjack offered, and as I glanced at him, I realized he was gazing at the side of Oliver’s head.

Oliver was abjectly ignoring him.

“Aww, that’s sweet.” I squeezed Lumberjack’s beefy arm and grinned up at him. “Me too?”

“O-of course.” The smile he flashed me was without guile.

The exact opposite of Oliver’s, and yet I felt oddly pulled to him. Was it because he was the first man I’d spoken to for more than a moment during my hookup quest?

Oliver, that is, not Lumberjack. Lumberjack was kind and seemed like a good person, but he stirred nothing in me. Not that Oliver did either.

Of course not. That would be lunacy. I hadn’t even had a drink yet. The minute that in-flight sign went on though, it was on. I couldn’t wait to enjoy my first experience with day-drinking. The occasional glass of wine with lunch did not count.

As for Oliver, I must be ovulating or something. There was no other earthly reason why he would do anything for me other than cause me angina.

Oliver leaned across my lap again, and his gaze dropped to my hand still clasping Lumberjack’s biceps for an instant before he smiled at the other man. “I’m a Leo.”

Lumberjack locked his jaw. “Uh, I don’t know signs and stuff.”

I didn’t know why I wanted to laugh, but I so did. “What’s your birthday?”

“July eleventh.”

“Cancer. You’re an empathetic man. No wonder you offered to be Oliver’s friend. You have a benevolent soul. Leos, however, can be proud and unwilling to accept help. They’re also arrogant and usually have flowing manes. Hmm, not so much with you.” I cocked my head and studied Oliver’s almost military-short cut. The front was longer, and sometimes swept into his eyes, only to be ruthlessly pushed back.

Like right now.