One Hot December (Men at Work 3)

“I love the dress,” Ian said. “And I love you in it. But truth is, you’re sexier to me in your work clothes than anything else. Except naked.”

“You really do love me, don’t you?” she asked.

“You just figuring that out?”

“Yes,” she said.

“You’ll get used to it. Now get dressed. We have to go back to the party. Dad has a present for you.”

“Any other orders?” she asked as he let her down to the floor.

“Yes,” he said. “One more order.”

“And that is?”

He took her face in his hands and looked her deep in the eyes.

“Never, ever weld truck nuts to my car again.”

Flash sighed in defeat.

“Yes, boss.”

“One more order.”

“What?”

“Never, ever run away from me again,” he whispered. “Please?”

“Well,” she said, putting her hands over his. “Since you said ‘please.’”

Flash pulled herself together as best she could and Ian zipped her back into her dress. They returned to the party and found it still in full swing.

“Where have you two been?” Angie asked when she and Ian walked back in the front door.

“Went for a walk,” Flash said. “Got a little overheated in the house.”

“A walk? For over an hour?” Angie asked.

“Nice night,” Ian said. “Where’s my father?”

“Upstairs,” Angie said as she casually wiped red lipstick off Ian’s ear with her cocktail napkin.

“Um, thank you,” Flash said, blushing.

“Glad you had a nice ‘walk,’” Angie said with a wink before strolling away to the bar.

“I really do like your family,” Flash said. “They’re not at all what I expected.”

“They’re pretty cool,” Ian said as they walked up the stairs in pursuit of his father. “I’ll keep them. I might be getting more family soon.”

“Somebody pregnant?”

“No. But thanks to your sculpture of my mother, Dad finally talked to me about my other family, my mom’s family. And he told me he wants me to contact them.”

“That’s amazing, Ian.”

“I can’t wrap my mind around it. For years I was afraid to ask him about my mother’s family. I didn’t want to hurt him by bringing all that old pain up again. And then tonight we were looking at your sculpture and he just started talking about her. All thanks to you.”