Page 81 of Protecting Peyton

Constance laughed again. “You have to admit, Ruppert has a certain ring to it.”

“Maybe we should discuss your tattoo,” March shot back.

Constance looked straight ahead. “No mention of Ruppert. Got it.” There was definitely a story behind the tattoo. “I’m getting it removed anyway.”

March wasn’t done yet. “Care to show us?”

“One more word out of you, and you’ll wake up one day with your balls in your mouth.”

Yeah, she was not happy. At least Constance had stopped poking into my past.

“We’ll do our dinner another night,” March said.

“Okay.” The further in the future the better. My feelings for him were dangerous.

When Constance pulled to a stop outside March’s quaint little house, there was a light on inside.

Opening the door, the reason soon became obvious.

“There you two are,” his mother, Karla, gushed as she overwhelmed us in the entryway. “I’m going to be staying another few nights, if that’s okay. They scheduled a bunch of meetings at the Marriott down by the airport, and that’s too far a drive from home.”

CHAPTER 19

Peyton

After dinner Thursday evening,I got to be taskmaster one last time. This was the end of March’s forty-eight hours of concussion checks, conducted by me. “One more check, March. Heel, toe, you know the drill.” Getting to boss the big SEAL around had been a kick.

March crossed his arms and sighed. “I’m just fine, and you know it.”

Karla had my back. “Stop dragging your feet, Ruppie, or are you going to ring the bell?”

I’d learned thatringing the bellreferred to the humiliation of washing out of SEAL training, and it was the worst possible insult to hurl at one of these warriors. She got away with it because she was his mother.

March stood and completed his walk, eyes closed this time, and with perfect balance.

Did I watch his ass more than his feet? Maybe.

Karla had been worried out of her mind when she heard about March’s concussion and had been nearly a constant presence for the past two days. I’m not sure she’d made many of her meetings at the airport.

But her presence had provided the buffer I’d needed to stick to my no-men rule and put off any thoughts of kissing March again.

The SEAL followed up his balance walk by reciting the entire alphabet backwards. “Do I pass?”

“Perfectly,” I responded.

“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Karla asked in probably the same way she had when she’d tried to get him to eat his peas as a toddler. “Ruppie?” she prodded when he didn’t answer.

“Annoying, not hard.”

“Now that we know you’re going to be okay, I’ll be heading home tomorrow,” Karla announced as she picked up her plate and glass. “But I’ll be back. In and out, because they keep changing the days on me.”

“You know you’re always welcome,” Zane said.

“You’re so sweet.” She kissed her son on the cheek.

“What’s the schedule on my condo door?” I asked. Without her here as a buffer, things between me and March would get sticky.

“I’ll have to check,” he mumbled and pulled out his phone.