Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Not only do I cook, which you do as well, but I took multiple types of self-defense lessons, including weapons. I doubt I’d hurt myself with a knife while chopping up veggies.”
Zale burst out laughing. “There are some very healthy egos among you ladies.”
“I suppose it has to be me,” Zahra said. “I don’t mind at all. Hopefully the doctor is young and good-looking. If he is, all of you remember you didn’t want to be the one he looks after. You can just go into another room while he treats my laceration.”
“Zahra, you don’t have a laceration,” Stella pointed out. “The doctor is coming to treat Rainier’s wound, not your mythical one.”
“Well, jeez.” Zahra flung herself on the couch across from Rainier. “Do you see what I have to put up with? I sacrifice my reputation in the kitchen and I don’t even reap rewards.”
“The doctor is most likely an old man with fourteen children and twice that number of grandchildren,” Zale assured. “These military stations like the ones Raine tapped into, out in the middle of nowhere, they’re occupied by the has-beens. These guys haven’t moved in years.”
“Just my luck,” Zahra complained. “I’m never going to find a hot billionaire to rescue me from the perils of working behind a desk.”
“You love your work,” Stella reminded.
“That’s true, until there’s all this wedding nonsense, and then I feel left out,” Zahra said, although she didn’t sound as if she felt left out. She gave them a faint grin. Vienna wasn’t altogether certain Zahra planned to give anyone a fair chance at dating her. She’d considered Bruce, one of the businessmen in Knightly, but he was so shy he couldn’t even manage to ask her out. He stayed in the group, danced with Zahra and made it known to others that he considered her off-limits to everyone, but he never actually made a move.
Vienna had never understood why Zahra let the flirtation with Bruce go on for so long when it obviously wasn’t going to go anywhere. In a way, Zahra was protected from other men asking her out, and that might have been the answer right there. Zahra was fond of Bruce, but she wasn’t in love with him. How could she be, when Bruce just wouldn’t commit to even so much as an actual date with her?
“I’m sure Raine’s doctor is an old man, Zahra,” Zale reiterated. “So, you’re not losing out. These military types tend to just sit around and vegetate.”
Raine coughed behind her hand. “I believe my people beat your people to the truck.”
“Only because my people didn’t know about the truck,” Zale pointed out.
A ghost of a smile touched Raine’s mouth. “That could be true.”
“It would be kind of funny to have seen a standoff between the two factions,” Vienna said. “Both trying to be the first to tow the truck away.”
“Unless they decided to shoot at each other,” Harlow ventured. “Guys are kind of trigger happy. They don’t make any kind of sense at all.”
“I do want to point out one thing, Zale,” Raine added. “You were in the military for years. Technically, you’re still there. Operative. Ghost. SAG. Whatever branch you’re serving under, it’s in the military. So, you’re one of those military types who tend to sit around and vegetate.”
His eyebrow shot up. “Your point being?”
Vienna’s heart stuttered the way it did whenever she looked at Zale and saw that sweet, vulnerable side of him. It was impossible to think he could laugh at himself when one looked at his stony, expressionless face, and then he gave them his mischievous grin. It didn’t even matter that it failed to light his eyes, or that she knew he was skilled at playing people.
The women laughed. Even Raine. Zahra shook her head. “I suppose we can’t hope that Raine’s people will have equally hot men for us to ogle.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary for all of you to ogle hot men,” Zale said.
“Don’t be a tattletale and text Sam. Stella’s the worst when it comes to ogling,” Zahra confided. “She can’t help herself if she’s drinking. But he knows because he’s always the sober driver.”
“I’m ogling Sam, you monster,” Stella corrected.
“That’s true,” Zahra said, in no way repentant. “Long before you and Sam were a thing, you were terrible the way you made eyes at him and commented on how hot he was when he was driving us home from the Grill.”
“You said I didn’t make the comments where he could hear me.”
“How could you believe anything I said when I was every bit as drunk as you were? He wasn’t suddenly struck deaf. He was just too much of a gentleman to take advantage of the fact that you were always throwing yourself at him.”
Stella buried her face in her hands. “If you weren’t my best friend, I’d strangle you. I still might.”