Page 46 of Overtime

“I know we’re super late, but his charity event ran late. I’m sorry, Joss!”

“No worries.”

“You still have time for me, or you want to reschedule?”

“How fast can you strip?”

“Is Harper doing the stripping? Because then, pretty fucking fast.”

Harper punches his arm. “Don’t embarrass me in front of my co-director.”

“Ow! Fuck. Okay. She doesn’t strip me at all. Saint here’s practically a nun.” He laughs as she glowers at him. “You and Priest could start your own outpost.”

“Very funny, Xavier.” Colt flicks him a look.

“You strip down today too?”

“Nope.”

“All right, Xavier. Strip down and get over there. Westfield, go get geared up for the shoot Scarlett needs. And Scarlett, do you have a replica that’ll fit Xavier?”

She takes one look over his form. “Uh, no. Can promise I don’t.”

“Hear that, Saint? I’m too big for her.”

“Oh my god. Go get naked, will you?”

“Anytime you want.” Alex kisses her and then takes off behind the wall to get undressed.

Like Tobias,Alex has done plenty of photoshoots for magazines and he knows the ropes well enough that we can peel through a series of photos pretty fast. By the time we’re done, Scarlett’s close to having Tobias ready, and we’re on our way to being done with this whole day. And given that I’m exhausted and everyone else looks it as well, that’s probably a good thing.

“Wow. Does that line usually work for you?” I hear Scarlett snap at Tobias as she puts the finishing touches on his uniform. Colt has opted out of playing dress up today, and I can feel his mood souring as fast as Westfield’s the more the night wears on. I need to hurry and wrap this all up, or I feel like I’m going to have an actual war that breaks out.

I get the last few photos I need for the exhibit Scarlett’s working on and then rattle out instructions for everyone to wrap things as I start packing up. When we’re all done, Scarlett wanders up to Harper and me.

“Thank you so much for doing those photos for us. I’m super grateful.”

“Of course. Any time. I was gonna go grab dinner, do you want to come?”

“Oh um, I am hungry but I don’t want to impose.” Her eyes drift between me and the surly quarterback.

“No imposition. You can tell me more about the museum and we can see what else I might be able to help with. Harper’s filled me in on a lot but now that she’s not there day-to-day anymore it’s probably good if you keep us up to date. That way we can make sure we’re doing everything we can to support you.”

“Yeah, you should come, Scarlett.” Harper nods.

“Okay.” She smiles and nods. “Did you have somewhere in mind? There’s a fun little dive bar down the street that has good pizza.”

“That works for me.”

“We going to dinner?” Westfield asks as he appears out of nowhere and wraps an arm around my shoulder. I flash him a look, but whatever bad mood he’s in has moved to a sort of manic happiness.

“Are you sure you don’t want to head home? It’s been a long night.”

“Nah. I need some food and good company.” Westfield grins again.

Scarlett looks at him with disgust, but I don’t miss the way her eyes stutter over his chest and arms. And neither does he apparently because he raises a brow at her.

“You coming too, Spitfire?”