Page 8 of Protector

“Just sit there. Do you want a glass of wine? Beer?”

She sat down in the chair at the small patio table. “Wine sounds good.”

I poured her a glass and carried it out with the steaks. “So, Red, tell me about yourself. Where’d you grow up?”

She’d just a taken a drink of wine and looked up in surprise. “Oh, I grew up in Denver actually. What about you?”

I placed the last steak on the grill and closed the lid. “Denver, the sunshine state. Gorgeous!”

Her nose wrinkled as she smiled. “What’s that?”

I shook my head. “It’s from a movie—Old School.It’s stupid. Anyway, I’m from the Galveston area. David and I grew up together.”

It was mostly true.

I’d already shared more with her than ninety-nine percent of the chicks I’d banged. The one percent was a therapist I had to see a few years back after a particularly hard case. I’d opened up to her and once our session was over, she’d opened up to me.

She took another sip. “I didn’t realize you guys went that far back. Do your parents still live down there? I know his mom does.”

I nodded. “My mom does.”

“And your dad?” she prodded.

I hadn’t spoken to my father since the morning after David’s wedding. He’d called me a traitor and a traitor to Michael Sullivan, Sr. was as good as dead. Grey or another biker had handled anything to do with me.

Last I checked, he was still making regular trips down to Beaumont to hook up with my mother though. I think that’d been the most disappointing thing. She’d done so well on her own, but then he showed up the night Patrick got killed and she’d immediately taken him back.

As if she hadn’t been capable of living on her own.

I’d told her about the cheating, certain that she’d change her mind, but she knew. Said she’d known from the beginning. They were no better than addicts—their drug of choice just happened to be the other person.

“Sorry, that was pushy. We can talk about something else.” Lauren was studying my face intently and for a minute I would’ve sworn she’d been able to read my thoughts.

I turned my back to her and began flipping the steaks. “What about you? Your parents still in Denver?”

This time her face fell, but she quickly recovered. “Um, well, my dads live outside of Austin. We moved to Texas in 2005 after they got married.”

Whoa.

I hadn’t expected that answer.

I turned back to her. “That’s a little intimidating.”

She cocked her head to the side as her smile faded again. “What do you mean?”

“I just meant that meeting one father is hard enough when dating a girl. Now, I’ve gotta meet two? I’ll be lucky to leave with my balls intact.”

She bit down on her lip and grinned widely. “I think you can manage.”

That was the thing with five-daters. They loved talk of the future and mention meeting their parents? Well, that was foreplay to them.

“So, I know you work at a dental office, but what exactly do you do there?” Satisfied that the steaks were going to be cooked perfectly, I closed the lid and rejoined her at the table.

Lauren leaned back against her chair and laughed. “How much time do you have? I’m the office manager so it kind of falls on me to make sure the place is running smoothly. You name it, I probably do it.”

I took a swig of my beer. “Did you go to college?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I went to Tech and got my Bachelor’s in business management. What about you? Did you go to college or just cop school?”