Page 46 of Broken Daddy

“The table with him at it. The bodyguard.”

Silla turned and stared straight at Hayes. She had no clue how to be subtle.

This was it. The end.

Please let the world open up and just swallow me.

“You’re hoping that you’re going to be beamed up by aliens, aren’t you?” Silla said, rubbing her back. “I’d know those dejected shoulders anywhere. I’ve had those shoulders before. They never listen. Maybe one day we’ll get beamed up but not today.”

“Actually, I was hoping that the earth would open up and swallow me whole.” She turned her head toward Silla. “But I’d accept aliens. I don’t mind being probed.”

Silla threw her head back and laughed. “Well, that might depend on where you’re being probed, right?”

Oh God.

Please, earth. Please open up and put me out of my misery.

“Why are the two of you standing there and talking about probing when there’re customers to serve?” Mac demanded.

“I don’t want to serve him,” she said to Mac.

Mac sighed and studied her for a long moment. “Is this about last Friday night? You’re not holding a grudge about what he said, are you?”

“Umm. Well.”

“Jesus. What did you do, girl?” Mac grumbled.

She straightened. “What makes you think I did anything?”

“Because I know you. I know what you’re like when you think you’ve been wronged by someone. And I also know a guilty look when I see it.”

Crap.

“So what did you do?” Mac demanded.

“I put salt in his coffee,” she confessed.

There was silence and she could feel them staring at her, even though she couldn’t glance up.

Silla let out a hoot. “Is that all? Sheesh, the way you were acting I thought you’d killed his cat or something.”

Devi glared at her. “I’d never harm a cat.”

Mac shook his head. “I don’t know what you were thinking, Devi. That is not a man you play games with.”

“He was a jerk to you,” she said. “And he was mean and bossy to me. How can you defend him?”

“You know what? I’d have been angry with me too, if someone I cared about was attacked while working for me.”

“But he doesn’t care about me!” she protested.

Had Mac lost his mind? Or had he gotten into the whiskey? Care about her?

“You and he might want to pretend that he doesn’t care. But it was pretty easy to see that he got upset with you for putting yourself at risk. Now, I don’t know for sure, but that sounds like a man who cares.”

That couldn’t be right.

There was no way that Hayes cared for her. He barely knew her. And he hardly even talked to her. In fact, he seemed annoyed by her most of the time.