Page 48 of Courting Danger

“Fair enough,” Pope replied. “Just don’t eat it all before I get home tonight.”

“Alright, give me a few to get my shit together,” Pope said and headed in while Ocean and Roan headed to the garage to get the rest of the supplies they needed.

“That one doesn’t believe in clothes, does he,” Sunshine said as Ocean came out of the garage with wax and a rag, still naked and completely unbothered by who saw him that way.

“No, he does not,” Danger replied, chuckling.

“How was the trip to Tulsa?” Mark asked.

“I wasn’t the biggest fan of the city,” Danger admitted. “But we passed through some amazing country on the way there and back. Was good to have nothing to think about.”

“Well, there’s no rush for you to get back in the office,” Mark said. “While you were gone, Kat and I had Teddy come in and straighten everything out in the bar; files are on your desk. He looked them over twice before he put them there.”

“Should have senthimto school,” Danger muttered.

Mark’s eyebrows shot up as he stroked his chin and grumbled.

“Might not be a bad idea,” Saint offered. “You said it yourself; he has a knack for knowing what will draw people’s attention. A business degree would give him options he doesn’t have now. You’d be giving him a chance to succeed without needing to rely on anyone else. Isn’t that the reason you didn’t kick him down the road?”

Mark nodded, rubbing his beard some more. “I’ll talk to him about it. He might need some help, though. It’s been decades since he was in school.”

“If he decides to do it, he can pop into the office whenever he needs to,” Danger said. “I’ll help him anyway I can.”

“You caught what you did there, right?” Mark asked.

Danger glanced down, unaware that he’d done anything. Barefoot, with empty hands he wasn’t restlessly rubbing against anything at the moment; he stood there confused about what Mark was referring to.

Saint shook his head when Danger met his gaze and smirked at him.

“I remember when Pope tossed a similar suggestion on the table,” Mark pointed out. “You’ve been making him pay for it ever since.”

Oh shit, realization hit with the force of an uppercut. Danger had never even considered whether going to school and expanding his business management skills were something Teddy wanted to do. He’d seen how good the man was at it,much the way Pope had watched him untangle the ledger at the diner one night when they’d dropped in for pie.

Mabel had been pouring over the thing, bitching up a storm because she couldn’t figure out where $212.93 had gone, because that’s what she was short.

Danger had offered to look at it out of boredom more than anything, since Pope had been engrossed in the evening news, which had never held any interest to Danger. By the time it was wrapping up, Danger had spotted the error. A payment to a vender, in the exact amount she’d been complaining about, had been entered into the ledger twice. Once at the start of the month, and once in the middle, both with the same invoice and receipt numbers.

She’d cursed a blue streak about wasting two hours and never spotting it before serving him another piece of pie, on the house.

“You keep letting that sink in,” Mark said. “From what I see here, it looks like you’re finally getting over it. Sorry to interrupt whatever the hell we interrupted. Looks like someone was having a good time.”

He inclined his head, so Danger looked down, searching his body, and sure enough, the telltale sign of a hickey peaked out from beneath the edge of his board shorts.

“Damn, haven’t had one of those in decades,” Danger admitted, chuckling.

“Careful now, you run around sounding old, and someone might think you can’t handle double trouble over there,” Saint said, gesturing to the pair working on opposite sides of Pope’s car.

At the moment, they were on their best behavior, but when Danger thought back to their earlier water war and what it had morphed into, he found himself grinning like a fool.

“I think he can handle it,” Sunshine said. “Just look at his face.”

Kermit snickered, which grew into full-on laughter when Roan started chanting “wax on, wax off.”

“It’s good to see you happy instead of walking around like there’s a storm cloud over your head,” Mark said. “Told you he’d be good for you.”

“And I already forked over my hundred-dollar acknowledgement,” Danger grumbled, though his smile never slipped.

How could it, when Ocean strode around the side of the car, dick swinging, as he rubbed wax over the quarter panel?

“Nope, shame is not in his vocabulary,” Sunshine said, chuckling. “Nor should it be. Better get moving or there will be nothing left for you to help them with.”

Nodding, Danger turned to join them just as Pope came out the door, backpack on his back, and hopped on behind Saint.

“Real food before dessert!” Pope called out before they roared away. “And leave me some mochi!”

The first part was open for interpretation; crab Rangoon counted as real food, after all. As for leaving him some mochi, Danger would tuck it away in the back of the freezer so they wouldn’t be tempted to get into it while they were pigging out.

As he knelt beside Pope’s bike and started buffing the chrome, he remembered the first time he’d done it and Pope’s praise when it had gleamed after Danger was through. It might seem like nothing to some people, just a menial task done well, but the acknowledgement was what mattered and the sweet, sweet bliss that accompanied it.