Page 12 of The Maid

Gun looked back out at the small crowd and hollered. "Addie, baby, come 'ere."

Addie, baby. That had always been the name he used. Always. It went together. But they'd just re-met after so many years and he hadn't meant to say it. It had just slipped out. She stopped and turned to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed tightly together.

He crooked his fingers. "Come on. We won't bite. Bring your friend with you."

"What are you doing, man?" Jack hissed quietly.

"Relax buddy."

Addie looked across the room at the caveman summoning her. She narrowed her eyes, then turned away. He stood and walked to where she was. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

"I'm sorry, did you just yell across a room for me to come over here? Your Highness couldn't be bothered to stand up and walk over and find me?"

"You know, since I've seen you again, you've been nothing but pissy. Do you mind joining us for a second please?"

With a hand on her waist, she scowled, "I have not been pissy," she said as she followed him to the bar. He signaled for the bartender and ordered five shots of Tequila.

"Have so."

"Really? Did I look 'pissy' when I was talking to Roger, who was very charming, by the way."

Low-fucking-blow.

He growled and glared at her.

"Well wow. Talk about sexual tension." Sonia said with a high-pitched whistle. “Any who…I'm Sonia Pines, this is Adalyn Finney or Addie, I guess." She said to Jack and Connor.

“Nice to meet you, Sonia,” Connor said, and Jack merely smiled, awkwardly.

"So, I hear you guys go way back," Sonia said to Gun.

"Oh, is my girl saying sweet nothings about me?" Gun teased.

Sonia skewed her face. "Exactly! Except less of the sweet and more of the nothing."

The group all threw their heads back in laughter—including Gun. Sonia was so funny and outgoing, there was no way that poor Jack stood a chance.

The one drink turned into three more rounds and two hours. They all laughed and talked about nothing in particular while Jack awkwardly tried his hand at flirting. At one point, it was so obvious he had a crush on Sonia that Sonia put him out of his misery (or made him more miserable) and sat on his lap, pinched his cheeks, and ran her hand through his hair. Poor Jack didn't know where to put his hands, and his face was beet-red. Shamelessly, she took his hands and placed them on her shoulders. "Sweetheart, why don't you massage here for a bit?" She said wiggling on his lap, causing Jack to groan and the group to laugh harder. Even through all the teasing, Sonia did seem interested on the six-two, shy linebacker.

"You know, I can show you around Miami this week if you'd like," Connor said to Addie, and that's what halted the entire evening. Gun practically heard the screeching noise in his head. There was no way in hell that she was going to go anywhere with Connor.

"Oh…uh. Well, that's a nice offer but it's just that I don't really have much spare time."

"Oh, come on. Everyone has a few hours they can set aside for fun," Connor continued.

"I'm sure I will, eventually. But, right now it's all work," she said as her hand went the straw in her drink.

He was glad she had said no because he liked Connor, he really did. And, he didn't want to have to kill the kid. The team needed the offensive lineman, after all.

"So, anyway, it's getting late and I have a big day planned tomorrow," Addie said.

"You do?" Gun asked a little faster than he intended.

"Yeah, I'm finally going to unpack. I’ve been procrastinating but I refuse to live one more day with boxes in my bedroom." She took one last sip of her drink before pushing her chair back to stand. The noise caused Sonia and Jack, who'd been cozying up, to separate. She whispered something to Jack whose face was now an ungodly shade of red.

Sonia hopped up from Jack's lap. "Ready to go?" she asked Addie.

"Yep."