Monk (K19 Security Solutions 7)

“You’re welcome. Although you should thank Monk, or maybe I should.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I’ll go rescue Ava from my girls who are now probably asking to get fitted for flower girl dresses for your wedding.”

Razor was distracted entering codes into the phones but looked up. “Wait. What? My wedding?”

She punched his arm and walked away.

“I AM SERIOUSLY OUTNUMBERED,” Razor said, walking over to the picnic table where Ava was still chatting with the girls and their grandmother.

“You could invite Monk to join us,” Saylor suggested.

“He already did,” said Monk, walking out of the woods and startling her.

“I told him we needed a cook,” Razor explained when Saylor looked back at him.

“Chef.”

“Right. Mom, meet Monk. He’s a chef, and Saylor has a mad crush on him.”

“Monk, this is my mom, Sally.” Razor introduced them.

After shaking her mother’s hand, Monk turned toward Saylor and winked. “I already know who you are,” he said, repeating his words from their phone call.

Saylor put her hand on her heart and smiled.

“Oh my God,” she mouthed at her brother, not really trying to hide it from anyone, including Monk.

—:—

“You’re pretty,” Monk said to Razor’s sister as he took a drink from his insulated water bottle.

“So are you.”

He smiled and looked over at the two girls. “Razor says they’re yours.”

“That’s right.”

He turned his head back toward her. “They don’t look anything like you.”

“I used to have blonde hair just like theirs.”

“Really?”

She laughed. “Hell no. Do I look like I used to have blonde hair?”

He shook his head; she was smirking. She’d caught him off guard, and not many people did. He liked it.

“Heard their dad’s in prison.”

“That’s good to hear,” said Saylor as she reached over, took the water bottle from his hand, and brought it to her lips. “I don’t keep track.”

He looked into her dark brown eyes. She had smile lines at the corners. He liked that too. He looked down the length of her, not hiding that he was, and then took his water bottle back and had a drink himself.

When he felt his cell vibrate, he handed the water back to her and pulled out his phone. He read what was on the screen and then looked over at Razor.

“I hate to cut the party short, but we need to leave,” the man said, without Monk needing to say a word.

Saylor stood, as did her mother. “Time to go, girls,” she said, hustling her daughters toward Ava. Monk watched Saylor hug the woman that he and Razor were keeping safe. After she did, Sally and the two little girls hugged Ava too.

“MONK WILL GRAB your bag when you’re ready,” Razor told Ava after the others had left.