Page 65 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

DEX

“What the fuck is going on up there?” Theo asked. “Something about a tree in a house?”

I lay sideways on the couch, a decorative throw pillow propped behind my head. While I was holding the paperback, I hadn’t read more than three pages since Lindy and I got back from her house. That had been two hours ago. In fact, I hadn’t read any of it since running into Lindy the day before.

When Theo called, I was thrilled for the interruption into my insanity.

I was remaining on the couch solely because of Mallory’s advice.

To let Lindy go on the date and discover I was what she wanted.

I wasn’t sure how that was going to work, but Mallory was a woman and knew Lindy.

Two things I wasn’t: female and knowledgeable about my girl.

“Yeah, Lindy’s house got taken out with a tree by a crazy neighbor and a chainsaw. She’s staying with me until it’s fixed.” I stuck my arm out and dropped the neglected paperback on the coffee table.

“Jesus. Mav left a text and said everyone was okay, but something like that usually involves me patching up a few patients.”

He was a trauma surgeon, so he wasn’t joking.

Not that he did much of that. Joke. Ever.

Out of the four of us, he was the most serious.

That said a lot since Mav wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns.

Until he met Bridget, he was a workaholic.

Silas worked beside him and wasn’t far behind, but at least he had some work/life boundaries.

But in less than two weeks, Mav’s whole perspective changed.

He had a different focus now. Bridget and her problems.

He’d told me his focus–probably besides satisfying her with as many orgasms as possible–was to nail the MIT professor who had screwed her over.

Now, it was also to get their house back together.

Both redirected his time away from James Corp.

I had to wonder if Mav would ever go back to his corner office in Denver.

He’d probably stay in Hunter Valley and run the James Inn that was under construction if I had my guess.

Or retire and have lots of lumberjack-sized babies with nerdy glasses.

“No one was home,” I told him. The thought of Lindy being inside when that tree came down made me feel slightly panicky. That she chose to go to the grocery store then… “The house is in rough shape, but fixable.”

“Good. What’s this I hear about you and Bridget’s sister?”

“You don’t want to know about how they dismantled an entire tree from their house and shoved it all in a woodchipper? I think Mav took photos for the insurance company.”

“You won’t believe how dangerous those fuckers are,” he murmured. I could imagine him rubbing his brow and envisioning all the missing limbs.

“Do you analyze everything you see and hear based on some kind of life threat scale?” I wondered, getting up and heading into the kitchen for a drink.

“I mean, how do you even get in a car or get near the shallow end of a pool? What about a hair dryer in a bathroom? Do you freak every time you see me in a pair of skates because those things are fucking sharp.”

“Fuck off, Dex.”

For some reason, his voice was more growl than grump. I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water from the faucet. “Whoa, dude. You need to get laid. Maude too busy looking at other men’s bunions to be hot for yours?”

His girlfriend was a podiatrist who worked at the same hospital.

I’d met her once at a charity event he’d brought her to, but she hadn’t wowed me.

That was being generous. She was beautiful in a frosty, stick up the ass kind of way.

I had no idea what Theo saw in her besides a banging body and perhaps the ability for quickies in the doctor’s break room.

“Something like that.”

“Huh?” I asked, then took a big gulp.

“I found her foot fucking one of the colorectal residents.”

I almost spit the water out across the counter. “Foot fucking? I… I don’t even know what that means.”

“She had her feet on his dick. Like a hand job but with her feet.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“That’s a thing?” I wondered. I knew everyone had their kink and fantasies, and I had plenty of them, especially with Lindy in mind.

Not that though. Hell, no. I didn’t want Lindy’s feet on my dick.

Her hands, sure. Her mouth, definitely. Her pussy, abso-fucking-lutely.

If she was as naughty as I thought, maybe even her ass.

“For her it is,” he finally replied.

“I figured the guy’d be more into anal.”

That had Theo finally lightening up. I may have even heard a chuckle. “You’re right. Fuck.”

While he sounded more pissed off than sad about this situation, I was fucking thrilled. Bye bye Maude and her foot obsession. I had a feeling Silas and Mav wouldn’t be sad to see her go either.

“Look, take some time off,” I advised. “Get away from the footsie action at work. Come back to Hunter Valley.” I glanced out the window over the sink that overlooked the backyard.

Since this was the older section of town, the houses were close together, but the landscaping was old and well established.

A large shrub blocked out the back fence with its thick greenery and a shocking display of bright pink flowers.

“I–”

I cut him off before he gave me any of his usual excuses about saving lives.

“Don’t tell me you can’t.” I poured the rest of the water into the sink and opened the dishwasher to put the glass in the top rack.

I might be a bachelor, but I wasn’t a slob.

“You’re the attending or lead fellow trauma surgeon or whatever the hell your title is.

I don’t know how vacation time is accrued, if you earn it by the number of lives saved or what, but you must have like three months or something.

A punch card like at the smoothie shop. Ten lives saved, get a day off. ”

“You’re an idiot,” he said, although without any heat behind it. “I’ll think about it.”

Usually he said no and that was it. Any other answer, especially I’ll think about it, meant he’d already been considering the possibility himself.

“Now let’s circle back to you and Bridget’s sister.”

“Her name’s Lindy.” A lipstick of hers was on the counter and I picked it up and twisted it up so I could see the color. Imagined it smeared on her face and around my dick. “I’m going to marry her.”

There was a pause and I wondered if he got disconnected. “Say that again.”

“I’m going to marry her.”

I put the top back on and set it down.

“She know that?”

“Working on it.”

I wasn’t going to tell him that I went and bought a ring for her in Denver. Mallory and I had gone after I split from him and Silas after Mav’s fake wedding. Saying I was marrying a woman I just met was one thing. Getting a ring? He might send a psych resident or something up to evaluate me.

“Although not very well since she’s out on a date with some dentist right now,” I grumbled.

“Let me get this straight. Lindy, the woman you want to marry, is staying in your house since hers got destroyed by a fallen tree and is out on a date with another man.”

“Yes.”

“You let her go out with a dentist? Did they take your fucking man card away?”

It felt like it. I ran a hand over my face. “Mallory said I should.”

“Mallory. Bridget’s friend.” They’d met when we–me, Silas and Theo–flew up to Hunter Valley to check on Mav because he was being weird about a woman. Go figure.

“Yes.”

“Explain.”

So I did. I told him about Lindy and her need for consistency, for solving her own problems. That if I pushed her not to go on the date, she’d dig in those sexy-as-fuck heels, and I’d never get her.

“I guess that makes sense. The little teacher is pretty smart.”

“It sucks,” I admitted. “I want to go to that restaurant, toss her over my shoulder and drag her the hell out of there, growling mine as I go.”

“Ah, there’s your man card. Be sure to whip out your dick to ensure yours is bigger than the dentist’s, then pee on her. And do it without drawing anyone’s attention and going viral on social media.”

The fucker.

“Just wait. You find a woman who’s not into cheating and foot fetishes and you’ll turn into a fucking caveman like me and Mav.”

He mumbled about something in the water in Hunter Valley, then said, “You’re right. This I have to see. I’ll be there soon.”

He hung up and not thirty seconds later, Lindy stormed in the front door.