“Dani?” Julian prompted.
“Who’s Dani?” Celine asked, coming up to join them.
“Zach’s new little friend.”
Zach almost smiled at the “little.” She would hate that.
Celine pouted. “Well, we’ve all been there, darling. Good luck to her.”
Zach glanced around the room and realized with a flicker of horror that he had indeed slept with all three of the women at some point or another. Thankfully, quite a while ago, but all the same—what did that say about him? He was a total whore!
Celine was a blond, Marie a redhead, and Theresa a brunette. All were beautiful. He couldn’t help but wonder if Julian had specifically picked them to give him a choice of colors. Christ, did his friend really consider him that shallow?
And he didn’t want Dani in the same grouping. “Dani’s different,” he said, and then wished he hadn’t, as the whole room focused on his words.
“How different?”
“And who is she?” Celine said. “Julian told us you were out here with nothing but a couple of burly bodyguards and needed cheering up.”
“Actually, Jake called me before his wedding, suggested we might visit.”
Trust Jake. He must have called Julian after he’d suggested Zach invite people over. Before Jake had decided he could be trusted with Dani.
Now what? They were all watching him with eager expressions. “Dani is one of my bodyguards.”
Julian raised an eyebrow. “She looked a little…small.”
“She’s a dog-handler. She comes with two extremely large Dobermans.”
“Really. And…?”
“And what?”
“Come on, Zach. Humor us.”
What could he say about Dani? He didn’t want to talk about her. He wanted to talk to her. “Dani is a sergeant in the army. She was wounded fighting for her country, and today she put her own life at risk to save a little girl who was drowning.”
They all stared at him as though he’d sprouted an extra head.
“So I’m guessing she’s not after a part in your next movie then,” Celine drawled.
He grinned. Celine had always been upfront about what she wanted—he actually liked her for it. “No, she’s not after a part in a movie.”
“And where is this paragon of virtue?”
He frowned. “I don’t know.”
“But I’m guessing from the expression on your face and the way you keep glancing at the door that you’d like to find out.”
“Yeah.”
“Go, then. We’ll entertain ourselves.”
Night had fallen, but the moon had not yet risen as he left the house. The dogs ran up to him out of the shadows, but sniffed him once and then bounded away. Skip wasn’t with them, so he guessed Dani wasn’t out here.
Perhaps he should have warned his guests to stay inside, but the dogs wouldn’t harm them, just maybe scare them a little. And he presumed Simon must have said something when he let them in.
He could hear murmured conversation from the guesthouse but didn’t recognize Dani’s voice. He found Gary and Simon sitting across from each other playing cards. Dani was curled up in the corner of the sofa, legs tucked under her, head resting on a cushion, Skip on her lap. She was fast asleep.
A wave of tenderness washed over him.
“She’s wrecked,” Gary said. “Today took it out of her.”
Zach knew he was referring to the talk afterward rather than the life-saving. He didn’t want to wake her; she looked too comfortable. Instead, he sank down on the sofa beside her and picked up what he presumed was her half-empty beer bottle, took a gulp.
She turned in her sleep and snuggled up to him.
“You want to play?” Gary asked and held up the deck.
“Why not?”
An hour and two beers later, Dani lifted her head from his lap and blinked sleepily. “Did I miss something?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.
“Nothing important,” Gary said. “Just Simon and me beating the shit out of your boyfriend.”
Zach didn’t think anyone had referred to him as a “boyfriend” in too many years to remember. He quite liked it, especially coming from Dani’s friends. He stood up and stretched. “Come on, I’ll take you to bed.” He didn’t wait for her to get up, just scooped her from the sofa and held her against his chest.
“Night, guys.”
He carried her across the lawn to the house. She was so small it was hardly any effort. As he crossed the hall, the lounge door opened and Julian popped his head out. “You found her.”
Dani hid her face against his chest and pretended to be asleep.
“Everyone else has gone to bed,” Julian added.