“When I get tired, I can’t keep my thoughts organized. I’m trying to do that right now.”
“Ah,” he said, but she knew he knew she was lying.
This was their first night in Hawaii and she didn’t want to ruin it with sad thoughts or regrets. Living in the moment…that’s what she told Jillian she would do. And dammit for once in her life, she would.
“Ready for the best thing on this island next to pineapple and malassadas?” she asked.
Rory studied her for a second then grinned. “Bring it on.”
* * * *
Rory finished off his second pork ball and realized that Maura had just finished eating one.
The sweet, savory taste lingered in his mouth as he tried to figure out just what went into the delicacy. When he had left Ireland, he had discovered an entire world of different tasting food. Granted, he did have a soft place in his heart for bangers and mash, but a lot of their food was really bland. Thanks to the job, he and Zee had travelled the world over. They’d eaten in dives starving dogs would avoid and five star restaurants that had served presidents and kings. He was always intrigued in the way to cook things up, how they were made up. It was one of the reasons he had been good at making bombs once upon a time. It was all about what went into it and the execution…just different ingredients.
When he licked his last finger, he nodded. “You’re right. Those are heaven. I need to figure out how to make them.”
Zee looked at them from across the table as he ate his salad. “You two are disgusting.”
“You’re just jealous, Zee,” Rory said, but his mind went back to the treat they had just eaten. “I’ll have to play with it a little, but I think I can figure it out.”
Maura smiled. “Then, I will do anything for you if you can. I love those things but I have yet to find a place in Miami that makes them this way.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Just what would I get in return for making you these?”
She frowned and then again, he was reminded how literally she took everything. “I could clean your house.”
“No.” Zeke said. “You are not cleaning our house. You don’t know how to clean.”
She glanced at him and was going to open her mouth but something caught her eye. Rory followed her line of vision and saw a tall man striding down the row toward them. Waist length hair and strong Native American features of his face made him look fierce. Maura squealed and jumped up and ran toward him. He opened his arms and caught her in a big hug.
Rory couldn’t hear the man’s voice but he caught the smile and was on his feet before he knew what he was doing.
Zee caught him, wrapping his fingers around his forearm to stop him. “Slow down, love. It’s just the owner of Rough ‘n Ready.”
He glanced at Zee.
“Who?” he asked looking back at the man holding his woman.
His woman? Shit. That was not smart to be thinking. He looked at Zee again and noticed the way he was studying him. “What?”
Zee shrugged. “I don’t know if I ever saw you freak out over a woman before.”
Rory knew what he was talking about, but he ignored it. If he argued with Zee it would make him more suspicious. It was bad enough it took every ounce of his control.
“So, he owns the club. Does he have to paw all over her?”
Zee’s face went blank, then he laughed. “Oh, my, God. You’re jealous.”
“I’m not jealous.” He knew he sounded desperate as he counted backwards from ten. The man was still touching her and Rory’s fingers curled into the palms of his hands. Zee was still chuckling and with more than a little desperation, he said, “Conner wouldn’t be happy if we didn’t protect her.”
“Sure, love, you keep telling yourself that. Some day you might just believe it.”
Rory tossed Zee a furious glanced and headed off to Maura. He tried not to look so intent on reaching her, but something pushed him forward. He watched as Maura took a seat next to a rather largely pregnant woman. Zee caught up to him.
“That’s Micah’s wife, Dee. He is very happily married, so you don’t have to worry about them.”
“He wasn’t one of the Dom’s she was involved with?”
Why did that matter? It had never bothered him before but for some reason he couldn’t get the idea out of his head that this man had touched her. From the look he was giving Rory, he knew that he was being sized up.
“No. We met him when we had to came over on one of Conner’s old cases.”
He nodded as they finally caught up to the trio. “Micah, how’s everything?” Zee asked.
The man was tall—taller than either Zee or him and that was saying a lot. He continued to stand behind his wife’s chair. He didn’t appear to be doing anything but Rory sensed that the man continued to scan the area looking for threats. No matter.