“Does he do that often?” Hogan asked, hopefully looking at Ranger and not my dick. Then again, he could be planning an attack on it, so I couldn’t be too sure.
“He’s done it since he was a baby,” Garrett said from his position on the couch next to Rissa. “Usually it’s me or Raoul he does it to, but sometimes he just picks a random guy and shoves his head up in there.”
Realizing we were talking about him, Ranger moved away and went to walk over to Hogan, sitting down at his feet and waiting for attention. He was a big dog, granted, but he was the biggest baby you’d ever meet with four legs and a tail.
Sitting down in one of the chairs, Hogan reached out and caught Ranger right in the spot on his hear that he loved. “Don’t the other people mind?”
Deciding to risk it, I sat down next to Rose, hiding a smile when Rissa winked at me. At least her mom liked me. “A couple have said that he must smell their dog on them, but that just freaks me out.”
Humming in agreement, Hogan focused on what he was doing, not even complaining when Ranger leaned his full weight against his leg. After a couple of minutes, he broke the silence. “Look, when you’re a dad yourself, you’ll understand how hard it is to see your daughter with someone,” he began, finally looking up at me. “It’s never been a problem in the past, because she dated complete pissants who’d never last, so I could shrug it off. But with you, I know…” he stopped when Rissa cleared her throat. “Sorry, we know that it’s different, and it’s taking a bit of time to accept that.”
Leaning forward, I made sure I had his attention. “I get it, sir. And with what’s going on just now, it’s even harder. I can’t say I fully understand because I’m not a dad…”
Snorting, Garrett muttered, “At least, not as far as you know.”
Choosing to ignore the dick, I continued, “But I do care about Rose, a lot. The fact that the man that hit her is out there doesn’t sit well with me, and I’m doing everything I can to keep her as safe as possible.”
With a final pat on Ranger’s head, he sat back in the chair with an expression I couldn’t read on his face. “I know, and if I got my hands on that son of a bitch, I’d…”
“Do nothing because there’s a policeman in the vicinity,” Rissa snapped, rolling her eyes. “Where’s your head at? Leave the policing to the man who does it for a living and focus on making your daughter happy. He obviously loves her, or he wouldn’t be doing everything he is for her.”
I swear, you could have heard a pin drop ten blocks away with the silence that followed what she’d said, and the longer it stretched on, the more awkward it got. Did I say something? I’d never been in this predicament before, not even close to it. A glance out of the corner of my eye at Rose didn’t help me either, seeing as how she was staring into space.
After long minutes, I was finally saved by a knock on the door, signaling that the pizza had arrived. All the men in the room stood up at once, avoiding looking at each other.
“I’ll get the plates,” Hogan muttered, moving quickly out the room toward the kitchen.
“I’ll pay for the food,” I added, going toward the door, intending to give the delivery kid the biggest tip he’d ever get in his pizza delivery career.
Not saying a word, Garrett headed toward the kitchen, too, except the expression on his face was one of suppressed laughter. I couldn’t wait for the day he went through this shit, I was going to make sure it was torture for him.
I was focused on pulling my wallet out of my back pocket to pay the kid who’d saved me when I opened the door, so I didn’t see who was on the other side of it until I looked up.
And then the awkward situation got even worse.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“Uh, I may have told Mom what was going on,” Garrett called from the kitchen. “Surprise!”
I was going to kick his ass – the good side of it to even it up.Chapter FifteenRoseI thought by now that I’d definitely hit every stage of awkward possible. I’d been caught in bed with Raoul by my parents, they’d found his underwear on my bedroom floor, I’d had to make up a song about kicking Garrett’s ass in the bathroom, I’d been caught in the aforementioned bathroom with Raoul by my colleagues, I’d had my mom announce to everyone that Raoul was in love with me, Raoul hadn’t replied or said anything at all after that, he’d run to the door when he’d thought it was the pizza delivery guy… pretty much every stage of awkward should have been covered in that long list, right?